DEI in Gaming
Scratching the surface
I write about the salacious interminglings between business, culture, and gaming. Every now and then, the pillow talk gets political, but not really political. I say ‘not really’ because if you dig deep enough you'll see most of gaming's political issues are on loan from either greedy businessmen or control freaks who want gamers on their side of a culture war. For them politics is a smoke screen, and it’s hard to air out.
Why is it difficult? Frankly, it’s boring and there’s too much of it. It’s not enough to open a window to air it out. You have to take out a wall and put on a show otherwise you’ll be left abandoned looking like a Well Actually Wally pointing at a Powerpoint about American History. Nobody cares. That’s the problem. You have to make them care.
Word on the street is DEI is ruining video games.
That’s five words with enough baggage to wear out the TSA.
I’ve got questions, and here’s the big three:
-What is DEI?
-What does it do?
-How does it ruin video games?
DEI stands for Doritos, Enchiladas, and Igloos. No it doesn’t, but you won’t be able to help yourself now.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is the real phrase.
What is it?
Diversity is easy to explain. It’s “One Love” by Bob Marley. It’s “Imagine” by John Lennon. It’s you, me, and all the people together regardless of race, creed, home planet, whatever. Background doesn’t matter.
Oh, but it does matter. The point isn’t for me to be more like you and you to be more like me. Your life experience and your culture makes you different. This makes you special, and it’s worth preserving. We don’t want to go from 2 human experiences to 1. We want to go to 3: your experience, my experience, and whatever we cook up when we interact at the crossroads. That’s inclusion.
You’ll notice I left out equity, and that’s because it’s a little harder to explain and makes people feel uneasy when they’re reminded that America was founded on a lot of…“discrimination,” we’ll say. —Or is it just Americans who get upset when you remind them about the slavery, the genocide, the racism, sexism, ageism, classism, etc.ism? It’s not like they’re the only country with a bloody inception, but Americans seem a lot more sensitive about the topic. Probably because it didn’t happen all that long ago relative to the nation’s total lifespan, so some of them feel like you’re attacking their PawPaw and MeMaw.
In summary, giving everyone a fair chance isn’t enough because the playing field in America was in part designed to put minorities at a disadvantage. Equity is when you try to give disadvantaged people a boost to even out the playing field. This doesn’t just help out minorities. This helps out white American men as well. Otherwise, billionaires undercut them and exploit minorities for cheaper labor.
In America, it has historically been a chore to stop the wealthy from taking advantage of minorities and the majority. Equity is the enemy of the 1% and they fight it by using the media to manipulate the working class into voting against their best interests or outright interfere in elections. None of this is new. What's new is the scale. The internet has made this a global problem.
But DEI itself is far from perfect, and that’s why it’s so easy to blame. It’s the type of program I loathe because I feel the idea is sound but executed so poorly, like No Child Left Behind, that it probably would’ve been better for the country if it didn’t exist in the first place. Social programs need a delicate hand and America likes to fix its problems with a hammer and a paintbrush. Many corporations have reduced DEI to a number to manipulate for funding. It’s not just billionaires and bigots who have an issue with DEI, specifically American DEI, and to label a detractor as such makes the program look even worse. It’s a great idea on paper, lacking in its execution, and has an awful reputation because when it works you can’t tell that it’s there and when it doesn’t work it looks like government mandated discrimination.
How does this crossover into the realm of gaming? It doesn’t really, but it does. I’ve spent the past few months researching, speaking with developers and investors, and here’s what I’ve dug up so far.
-According to them, DEI doesn’t seem to be a noteworthy concern in the video game industry. No one I interviewed brought it up. I had to be the one to initiate that conversation.
-The American developers felt the scene is naturally diverse and progressive, so DEI is at best redundant.
-The non-American developers didn’t know what I meant when I asked them about DEI and each explained to me that their respective countries (especially the French) have more robust social programs to ensure fair hiring practices and treatment. American DEI came off as virtue signaling to them.
-When I asked developers how DEI translates to gameplay I was told it was mostly there to prevent accidental racism or sexism.
-The only negative remark I’ve received so far is that working with a third-party DEI consultant slowed down one studio’s operation, so they parted ways and set up an in-house consultant instead.
-Reckless spending and bad management were by far the two biggest complaints from developers. Neither of which stemmed from DEI.
-The investors I spoke with also believe reckless spending has been a problem since the esports days circa 2015 and the pandemic made it worse. Investors used to be loose with their money and hoped that gaming would eventually pay off in a couple of years. Inexperienced dudebros made poor investments or ran off with investor money. Now, the investors that are left give less and micromanage more in a 3 to 6 month time frame.
I see more evidence that the gaming industry overspent and over-promised for years and years and is now paying the consequences for it. It has a problem with out-of-touch executives, terrible middle management, 3rd party vultures, and none of them are very keen on the idea of losing money or control during a market correction so they look for something else to blame. DEI, in gaming specifically, is for the most part a scapegoat. I am as wary of any business advertising that they have DEI as I am of a business that publicly denounces it. Usually, they’re doing it for the same reason: signaling to investors.
DEI is a smaller part of a bigger program called ESG. Think of Environmental, Social, and Governance as a sort of rating system for investors. There’s a popular theory that a business that does more to take care of the environment, take on more social responsibility, and have better internal governance practices will make more money in the long term. It’s not a very good system as it lacks consistency, transparency, and a way to safeguard from manipulation. Some businesses take it seriously, others merely make their numbers look like they’re making an effort to be more green, socially aware, and better managed than they really are to receive more funding or tax credits.
If DEI in gaming is a farce then what are gamers upset about?
For some, the advancements and innovation in gaming, predominantly Triple-A, is what gaming is all about. The industry went through a hot streak of new IP, sequels, and vast improvements in hardware and software. Some people can’t cope with the fact that that’s slowed down. We were on borrowed time and things will be relatively colder while the scene works to stabilize itself. The inevitable market correction feels like a crash to them. Some don’t want to or can’t put in the effort to stay informed and rely on others to condense information for them. Oftentimes, these sources are flat out wrong or make mountains out of molehills. Yes, there are bigots clinging to their worst biases and grifters taking advantage of the situation for money or clout, but I believe the vast majority are simply trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Not only that. Attacking DEI is proactive. It gives people a sense of agency. The alternative makes people feel futile. If what I say is true, bad bosses and bad money are ruining video games, then there’s really not much gamers can do to help.
Blaming DEI is sexy. It’s hard to describe, so it’s easy to hate. You can say it's government overstep. It’s discrimination. It’s a grift. It’s virtue signaling. You wouldn’t be completely wrong, but DEI’s presence is largely overstated as far as the video game industry is concerned. Near irrelevant.
The real problem is there are people in the video game industry who have no business calling the shots, and when projects fail they find someone else to take the blame. DEI was 2024’s fall guy of choice and its presumed death will do nothing just like how its presence seemingly did nothing.
Gamers were dragged in yet again to make noise for the rich man’s culture war. The people who benefit the most from the death of DEI will be the billionaires who fought off more checks and balances by controlling the media and manipulating the common man. And the cutthroat plague of mediocrity in middle management, the real group ruining video games, will continue to live to degrade the industry another day.
I intend to investigate further, but I didn’t want what I already had to go cold on me. I will continue to update on my findings as I come across them, and will compile them all together once I feel I can close the door on this case.