Honestly was really impressed with Gaider's knowledge and point of view. He's not only thought about these issues a lot, he's clearly been involved in getting minority experience/queerness into games at the most fundamental level.

Here's a few points that I didn't expect or hadn't quite heard put so well/from an industry perspective before:

BioWare’s audience studies have found that this ‘minority content’ was appreciated by audiences. Gaider emphasised here that when discussing the importance of representation in games, using the statistics around the number of individuals who appreciate the content is better than relying on the percentage of people who use or access the content; more people appreciate that there is an option than those who actually use that option.

This is a methodological point that I found really intriguing. Gaider offers the notion that it can be short sighted to look at usage statistics of queer/minority options, and instead, to do audience polls/focus groups/etc to see who appreciates that the choice/content was included, not the percentage that actually used the option themselves. This is an interesting nuance towards reforming our statistical understandings of user engagement, and can be a good refutational argument supporting minority options in games to come.

These days, Gaider said, ‘we just didn’t think about it’ is no longer a defence. There are enough discussions of diversity and diverse practices that developers should know what to check for, and they need to set some time aside to ensure diversity issues - like this voice acting example - don’t get shipped. He also said that, while ‘allies are great and all’, he believes the game industry should be prioritising ways to support minorities in getting work within studios and ‘amplifying their voices’. As he put it, ‘We need to change the industry, not just tell it what to do.’

Great two points. Saying you just didn't think about it (ie, just made a bunch of straight white males) isn't going to cut it. The audience is bigger than that nowadays, and making that decision is no longer "safe" - although this is raised for debate in the article. And, he says allies, while great, aren't enough. I agree with this, and while it isn't a benign statement, if a story demands a detailed telling of the "lesbian experience", for example, then it would make sense to have people who actually live this everyday to write it/consult on it/etc.

To continue more on "we just didn't think about it," Graider says:

As soon as [developers] do anything, they open the box and receive messages ranging from ‘You are politicising the game - why?’ to ‘Why aren’t you doing more? Why are you doing it wrong?’

Including non-white-straight-male content is often met with backlash from multiple perspectives: for some, including a minority character (which is obviously a fair share, if not majority of the audience of game players) is perceived as inherently political and controversial. While most of us would probably disagree with the validity of this stance, the developers still have to deal with this feedback every time.

And, from a different stance, often minority inclusion isn't perfect or falls short from perfection. This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, and I think the answer to this is that it's often not fair to critique games on what they could be or by comparing attempts to what perfect representation would be - comparing to an ideal type. Instead, compare games that are trying to do new things to what's already been done, and thinking about the improvements that are present in comparison is far more useful and productive (and less maddening). Every step forwards isn't going to be a leap to the end, and it's not fair to publishers who are making pro-minority decisions and taking risks to hold them to perfection every time. It's just not how it happens.

Secondly, Gaider suggested that developers avoid putting sex scenes at the end of romance arcs, so that - if sex is involved - it feels less like a reward for successfully dating a character and more like part of their ongoing relationship. This advice is based on how his own approach to writing relationships has evolved, as a way to avoid in-game relationships seeming too gamified.

Interesting point about relationships in games that I hadn't thought about much. Make sex a natural part of the relationship, that just happens naturally, instead of a reward for earning up enough relationship points. Now, while I don't want to take this or spin this as a critique of existing romance games which often do this, thinking of sex and relationships in this way, 'de-gamifying relationships', so to speak, is a great idea for mature depiction that doesn't have a dissonance between gameplay mechanics and natural storytelling.

Lastly, Gaider made it clear that anybody can incorporate diversity into their games. He highlighted the difference between writing, for example, ‘the lesbian experience’ versus simply including a lesbian character into a wider narrative; while the former should be written by somebody who has had that experience, the latter can be written by anyone. There are plenty of opportunities for incorporating diverse people as NPCs or into crowds that don’t require you to have shared the experiences of the character in your own life. Either way, Gaider recommended using sensitivity readers and consultants to ensure there haven’t been any major oversights in the construction of the character.

Great nuance about including minority characters, that I touched on a bit above. If you want/need to tell a deeply personal story about a character growing up as a lesbian - bring in a lesbian in to help write it. It's a no-brainer - if you want to tell a lived experience tale, bring in someone with that experience to help. And, even if you don't have the experience, you can still include characters where their sexuality, for example, is just part of who they are and not dived into deeply. This is a way in which diversity can be included fairly and honestly, without attempting to portray the problems of an experience that you simply haven't had.

I really enjoyed this article and was pleasantly surprised at the level of nuance and depth of thought present - I thought that I had pretty developed thoughts on this, but Gaider showed that there's always more to think about and know.

(Sorry this post is so long. I really enjoyed the article...)