Manveer Heir: Negative game stereotypes perpetuate social injustices

BioWare gameplay designer Manveer Heir has called for a revolution in the way video games depict the world and tackle the issue of identity.

Polygon reports that in an impassioned speech greeted with applause at GDC, Heir argued that video games – like any other creative industry – are not tasked just with representation but also with engendering change for the better.

"Wherever we may stand today as an industry I am confident that we will stand somewhere far better tomorrow as long as you, right here, are willing to be an agent of change,” he said.

Going on to question the industry’s treatment of "misogyny, sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia and other types of social injustice" the developer argued that "these negative stereotypes effect the identity of individuals in these groups – they affect the way people think and treat others in the real world and [they] perpetuate the social injustices that occur in these different groups".

MCV has the full story.

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