The publisher Activision Blizzard has released a tool intended to measure the diversity of the characters in their game. They received a lot of negative reactions for this and even their own employees distanced themselves from the tool. In the new episode of the MeinMMO podcast, we discuss the reasons.
On May 12, Activision Blizzard published a blog post presenting a tool to calculate the diversity of characters in video games. It is based on a system that awards characters more or fewer points depending on how diverse they are.
The sniper Ana received 7 points in the “race” category for her Egyptian heritage and another 4 points in “physical flaws” for her missing eye. However, she received 0 diversity points for her sexuality, as she is heterosexual.
What was designed as a potentially useful and helpful tool received much criticism and confusion. Users asked, “What does it even mean for a character to have a higher race than others?”
Employees from Blizzard distanced themselves from the tool, and Overwatch developers emphasized that it was not used during the development of the shooter. The whole situation turned into another PR disaster for the publisher.
Schuhmann, Leya, and Marko, who is currently writing a dissertation on diversity in video games, are addressing the topic.
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