Greetings from San Francisco and the Game Developers Conference. It's rainy and cold here, so staying indoors talking to and learning from some of the best and brightest in our industry is exactly the right thing to be doing.
The past two days have been dedicated to, among other things, the Serious Games Summit. Each day has been filled with presentations about the work being done around the world. Did you know that in Japan there are some 300 (!) commercial serious games on the market? Canadian national, regional and provincial governments are investing heavily in serious games. The West Midlands region of England has recently launched the Serious Games Institute, which includes an incubator of sorts for small SG development houses at the University of Coventry. The French Minister of Culture recently announced the French government's intention to promote certain regions of France as game development centers for the European Community.
And yet, with all this activity, I'm face-to-face with the stark truth that this industry is fueled by young(ish), white men. From my non-scientific observation, women represent less than 15% of conference attendees. Other than a sizable representation from the Asian community, many of whom are here from their homelands, there are very few people of color here. And, as you might expect, the over-50 crowd is quite poorly represented.
This troubles me. Until the designer/developer community reflects the audience/consumer community, serious games will have a hard time hitting their mark. Why? Because a closed system RARELY provides opportunities for true innovation.
More importantly, the effectiveness of a serious game rests in large measure on the development team's ability to penetrate the psyche of the target audience on an individual and collective basis. When the team's demographics do not correspond to those of the audience, a deep understanding of who the audience is and what motivates them becomes far harder to access. This potential disconnect can lead to disenfranchisement of the audience - the kiss of death for learner/player engagement and serious learning.
While this may be a "chicken and egg" problem, the fact is that this situation must change. Employers and team leaders must pay close attention to team demographics even while focusing on team skills. As development teams better reflect the characteristics of the audiences they are trying to touch, buyers will have greater confidence in the team's ability to touch the minds - and hearts - of the learners.
I'm serious,
Anne
