You can't quantify DEI, Activision Blizzard | Opinion
Jeffrey Rousseau
Staff Writer
Wednesday 18th May 2022
Activision Blizzard
Blizzard Entertainment
DEI efforts in the games industry can probably best be described as just that: efforts. People are trying. It's understandable that there'll be mistakes here and there.
So, enter King of Activision Blizzard. Last week the outfit introduced its Diversity Space Tool in a blog post.
What was supposed to be good PR for how the company creates more inclusive characters didn't stick the landing.
The original company post explained how it was "developing a method for guarding against unconscious bias and exclusion." We were then introduced to software that creates guidelines for developers during the character creation process.
"The Diversity Space Tool is a measurement device, to help identify how diverse a set of character traits are and in turn how diverse that character and casts are when compared to the 'norm,'" said King globalization project manager Jacqueline Chomatas.
"Once it establishes a baseline for typical character traits (which is done by the creative team working closely with DE&I experts), it can then weigh new character designs against it to measure their diversity."
Chomatas continued, "In this effort, the Diversity Space Tool can clearly delineate between token characters and true representation."
Activision Blizzard wants to min-max its DEI stats
The article went on to mention that the tool has been beta tested and used by some of the Call of Duty Vanguard teams as well. Chomatas also expressed the hope that the tool would eventually be used by the games industry at large and other industries as well.
Good intentions aside, the article raised a few concerns about the Diversity Space Tool.
Firstly, it implied that dev teams
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