Gaming and Diversity

 A new addition to the Far Cry series, Far Cry 5, which released on March 27, 2018, takes place, for the first time, in America. When this title was announced back in 2017 it was met with backlash because far-right American's took it as an attack against them because the main antagonist was a religious cult leader in a southern state. The details of the antagonist also beg the question, will they bring race into play. The Far Cry series mainly took place in other countries, usually where law and order weren't the most important things. Now that we see a game take place in America, we will have to see how the game deals with the lack of law and order and to see if lingering racism in America affects the characters in the game. Unlike most other Far Cry games which take place in foreign parts of the world this game will only have Americans so the cast of NPCs, non-player characters, will have to vary in race and ethnicity if they want to keep up the varied race and diversity that...

A recent development in the gaming world is the resurgence of Battlefront 2's microtransactions. Battlefront 2, Electronic Arts' Star Wars game that came out in late 2017, received major pushback after it was discovered that there were pay-to-win aspects in the game. EA took out the pay-to-win aspects of the video game before launch and released a half completed game with much to be desired, with the promise that microtransactions would return. Recently EA said that they will soon be returning to having microtransactions in-game but said that they would only be coming out with cosmetic items that won't affect gameplay. Microtransactions have been criticized for being a form of gambling that is accessible to children but it is still a hotly debated topic. With gambling able to entrance anyone of any age we have to wonder if this decision is the right one. Although Battlefront 2 isn't targeted directly at children it is common knowledge of all gamers that regardless or a ...

As the tragedy of Parkland, Florida is still ever present in our minds the president continues he tirade against gaming. The lack of diverse thinking in the White House could lead to negative ramifications for gamers in the United States. The thought process that video games cause violence is confusing when factoring in the amount of Americans who play games. Polygon states that roughly 42% of Americans play video games, and due to the fact that most games are violent in some manner the number of school shootings, or even shooting, in general, are disproportionate around the US. With these facts in mind, we really need to consider how the White House, with their bare minimum knowledge of video games, can affect millions of people just because of a misconception based on previous stereotypes. We need more diverse thinking when it comes to this side of entertainment and without this needed diversity we can surely find negative consequences looming around the corner. Sources: ...

An everliving topic in America is the debate about violence in video games. This time around though the topic isn't mainly about how video games are causing violence but how they are also an avenue for training in being able to use guns. An article was written for CNN by Jeremy Bailenson talking about how virtual reality games, commonly known as VR games, could be and have been used to train a potential mass shooter on the inner workings of a gun. These methods are absurd when considered how much it would cost to purchase VR equipment that could properly simulate a real gun. If a potential shooter truly wanted to practice, or have anything related to guns, they could easily buy paintball or airsoft rifles online that simulate a real gun much more effectively. It is an obvious fact that many children play violent video games, even rated M games can be easily found and obtained by kids who do not meet the rated age requirements. These children are not just white as well and are not l...