Il nuovo strumento di diversità di Activision per i personaggi di Overwatch & COD non è la risposta

Activision Blizzard King has unveiled a new tool to rank characters across the network based on diversity, from Overwatch to Call of Duty, but its reveal sparks more questions than answers.

• Come funziona
• Activision’s new diversity tool sparks debate

Eric Alt, Director of Editorial Content at Activision, published an explainer for the feature on May 12 using Activision Blizzard’s official blog page.

In the statement, the organization confirmed they had collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create software that tackles unconscious bias. King Globalization Project Manager Jacqueline Chomatas said: “The Diversity Space Tool is a measurement device, to help identify how diverse a set of character traits are and in turn how diverse that character and casts are when compared to the ‘norm’.”

This is the first public step taken by the publisher since the company’s board promised to be more transparent about diversity in their video games back in December 2021. In that report, data showed women make up just 24% of the Activision workforce, with 36% of employees based in the United States identifying as a member of an underrepresented ethnic group.

The statistics on diversity were branded unacceptable in the press release, agreeing to increase diversity in the workforce and also across its video game universes. That’s where the new ranking system comes in – a Diversity Space tool.

Come funziona

With a mission to combat unconscious bias and exclusion in video game rosters, Activision Blizzard King has introduced a ranking method. The Diversity Space tool scores character designs with points for various things, from gender to race and body type.

Annuncio

As seen in the diagram below, which illustrates the model’s use, metrics include facial features, beauty, culture, race, sexual orientation, and more.

However, if more points are given based on these elements, what is the starting point? Is it a white heterosexual male character? Who decided the starting point, too? These are crucial pieces of information regardless of whether the results lead to further diversity in the creative universes of Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and other series.

Surely the parameters that are being set need to have been generated by long discussions from a diverse group of workers, though that is not stated. All we have is annual statistics that state King’s diversity level in the workforce is “wholly inadequate.” Their words, not mine.

Further explanation of how these metrics are affecting rosters right now would provide better insight, and whether or not the model has been endorsed by the majority of employees belonging to underrepresented ethnic groups. Again, not stated, outside of a comment from Alayna Cole, DE&I manager at Sledgehammer Games – who supported the results, yet didn’t really touch on much else.

The announcement says: “The Diversity Space Tool can clearly delineate between token characters and true representation,” which addresses a concern for players of all backgrounds. It’s a common criticism for video game developers that ‘token characters’ are added for no reason, yet this tool appears to focus more so on authentic storylines. That is a positive, and will likely produce good insights for the next update on transparency.

Annuncio

Notwithstanding that, from the outside looking in, it would appear that more diversity in the development studios would work better than any tool of this kind. Models are great for analysis but in practice, it’s my belief that the process of producing characters of color or representing the LGBTQ+ community would be infinitely better if crafted by people who share those experiences.

Diversity in a game should reflect an inclusive approach to development. A box-ticking exercise – not so much.

Activision’s new diversity tool sparks debate

On social media, the reaction to the tool has been mixed.

Features Editor at Fanbyte, Elise Favis, said: “Activision Blizzard reducing diversity to extremely weird and degrading metrics, AND announcing it on their blog on their own terms – as if it’s something to be proud of – is both extremely weird and appalling.”

Annuncio

Austin Walker said: “You might ask ‘why would the often marginalized people who work in DEI actually ever consider using this tool?’ My (well-informed) guess is: Because their advice is often dismissed by decision-makers who claim that without Hard Data, they’re wrong.”

Walker also says that the methodology doesn’t exactly align with the company’s goals.

Others believe that the publisher is actually cornered into a ‘no win’ situation.

Sophia Nartwitz, a YouTuber and Twitch streamer, tweeted: “The recently revealed Overwatch diversity rating graph is uber cringe but I can’t blame Blizzard for doing it. The first Overwatch is one of the most diverse AAA games of all time & yet the media still attacked it for not being diverse enough.”

Anche Sophia fa un buon punto. Non è facile mantenere tutti felici quando si lavora per la diversità in nessun settore, tuttavia, nello spirito della trasparenza - potrebbe essere stato meglio rivelare lo strumento di diversità a un pubblico dal vivo sullo streaming per le domande. In questo modo, le persone di tutti i diversi background potrebbero dire che i capi di Activision potrebbero rispondere. Sarebbe una forma di comunicazione molto più aperta, piuttosto che un comunicato stampa per i siti Web per coprire i "progressi" che hanno fatto.

Cerchiamo di essere chiari, le intenzioni alla base della creazione dello strumento sono assolutamente giuste. L'intero settore deve essere più diversificato, dai media ai giochi che copriamo ogni giorno. Non per soddisfare le quote, ma perché una vasta gamma di idee e diverse prospettive è sempre migliore di una camera di eco.

Questo non è un caso contro gli obiettivi dello strumento di diversità di Activision, sebbene siano necessari maggiori dettagli sulla sua esecuzione.

Non dovrebbe essere promosso come una soluzione per migliorare la diversità in "Verticali di intrattenimento più ampi tra cui TV, film e letteratura" fino a quando non è stato rivisto per un lungo periodo di tempo da una squadra diversificata di pers1. Dev Studios più inclusivi saranno migliori di qualsiasi modello, questo è certo.