With the death of E3 approaching, Summer Game Fest has become gamers’ favorite summer event. But this year’s Summer Games Festival, though it featured games that included a wide range of genres and a wide variety of characters, didn’t feature a single woman on stage.
Throughout the show’s nearly two-hour run, host Jeff Kelly brought in a number of characters to be interviewed on stage. He had industry veteran Ed Boone to talk about Mortal Kombat 1. Nic Cage appeared to talk more about his character Died in broad daylight a personality. Brian Inthar took to the stage to reveal the release date Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. But not once was a woman given this opportunity.
The lack of inclusion is particularly annoying because a large number of the games included in the show itself feature main female characters. I’m particularly upset Lysfangha is a time-shifting warrioran RPG featuring a woman of color who can make duplicates of herself to aid her in combat.
To be clear, this isn’t just on Mr. Keighley. While he has a responsibility to make sure his show reflects the diversity of his audience, so do they also Developers featured in these presentations should bring their marginalized employees forward to opportunities like this.
Representation matters. It’s that simple. We know that games are made by people making a fortune, and we need to see it because it signals to the people watching that they also have the power to do what they love.
Mr. Keighley, you can feature women on your shows. I’ve done it before, and even I would claim it’s easy too. Right after the Summer Game Festival ended, the Developer Day Show kicked off, and I didn’t have to wait long at all to see someone who looked like me.
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