A Study of the Representation of Ethnic and Cultural Minorities in Video Games
Diverse Gaming Insights
Overview
What Did I do for Service?
For my service opportunity, I wanted to be able to connect my service to video games while also potentially doing some extra research.
As a result, my service project was able to achieve both of those goals. I hosted a free gaming event over the course of two days where people could come in, play video games for free, and then fill out an optional survey about representation in video games.
Specific Details
Want to help my research? Fill out this anonymous form about representation in video games!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGkej-K_raTBqnvibICFcZaA6BmAn7Ipa-XpGuoWUY_feFOQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
What Were the Specifics of my Project?
On September 7th and 8th, I hosted a free gaming event in the North County Regional Library. On the 7th, this event ran from 10 am to 2 pm, and on the 8th it ran from 1 pm to 4 pm (the rest of my service requirement was spent making flyers, creating the survey, organizing the event, etc.).
The library allowed me to use their children's section as the main area, and provided a large screen for me to use. From there, I brought my Nintendo Switch, four controllers, and multiple games which allowed for multiple people to play at once. The service project then mainly involved me playing video games with whomever wanted to.
Alongside playing video games, I also hosted a miniature research project. Participants could fill out a survey about representation in video games, citing things such as age, how often they play video games, ethnicity, if they feel represented, and what specific characters they feel represent them.