Black Girl Gamers: "There's more work to be done" on representation in games
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After eight years of diversity, equity, and inclusion work for Black women and gender non-conforming individuals, Black Girl Gamers (BGG) continues to stay the course.
Sitting down with GamesIndustry.biz, CEO Jay-Ann Lopez reflects on the organization's work and the games industry's stubborn stance when it comes to better reflecting the real world.
BGG recently announced that last month, it consulted on Square Enix's Forspoken, the first AAA game credit that the organization received. It's fitting, considering the game is on the short list of games that star Black women.
Lopez is candid when asked if this marked a good direction for diversity in the larger gaming space.
The CEO said, "It's a step in the right direction. I think games like Forspoken and Deathloop are definitely [a mark of] progression. I won't sit here and deny the industry those, you know, that they've done some of this."
Lopez quickly notes that despite these few relatively recent AAA titles starring Black protagonists, there's room for improvement.
"I don't think on a larger scale, [that] diversity, equity and inclusion is considered like as much as it should be, [such as] when it comes to representing not just Black characters but like other locales such as Africa and the Caribbean," she adds.
"It's important to congratulate the industry on its progress but not [to] say we're here now; we're not. When you look at who is consuming the games, and the disparity between that and who's making the games? The industry is still in a similar position."
She notes that those disparities are why the organization continues to give voice to the need for more representation and
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