Race on Screen, a further investigation

After an interesting discussion in both the tutorial and lectures last week, I posted a blog, a note about colour on screen - blogger,  about the issues of race in videogames. Following these conversations I decided to do a bit of digging myself around the vast labyrinth that is the Internet. Interestingly I came across a couple of interesting points and readings. 

In the United States the FBI release information every year about the statistics associated with crime. Linked are the findings from 2010,USA Crime 2010, and 2011, USA Crime 2011. One interesting extrapolation is the potential link between youth crime, videogame play, economic stability, and the representations that are being played out in game play. Further research is definatly required.

MoniqueWeijermars also posted in the blog earlier about how a young Norwegian Boy used tactics learned in WOW gameplay to save him and his sisters life, Moose evade. What I find interesting about this is case and point for games teaching the youth habits and ways of being through simulated gameplay and virtual role playing. Thus to next point about the effects of representation.

In a study named "The virtual census: representations of gender, race and age in video games" Dimitri Williams, Nicole Martins, Mia Consalvo, and James D. Ivory consolidate that theory around race representation, and suggest that:

"Theoretically, a media environment in which a particular type of person is highly represented will result in a viewer or player who is more likely to recall that type of person rather than a different type of person...[and] that a medium’s general depiction of a group does have an impact on its users’ perceptions of that group, albeit moderated by their real-world experiences." (Williams, et al. 818) 

Concluding we note that how a race is represented, or subsequently not represented, plays a huge part in the reception that that race has by the viewer. Therefore the onus is on game designers to accept responsibility for the environments that they portray in their virtual world.

Lets us pursure these measures into the future.
Dane, out.