I've gamed for my entire life. I remember having an original Nintendo Entertainment System and I've kept with it since today, playing video games to varying extents throughout my life, mostly enjoying to play single-player adventures that I can really sink my teeth into. Multi-player games have never been my forte for the most part, mostly because of the sort of behavior that happens in the community. The language and bullying is reprehensible at worst and at best, you still have to face the lack of diversity in games.

A recent article a friend shared took a keen eye to the bias non-white, non-male, queer identified gamers face daily. It has a long list of incidents they face whether or not they are jumping online to enjoy some friendly competition. There is a lack of heroes for them to look up, voices in the community to echo their concerns, and multiple incidents of bias every day when all one wants to do is relax with a favorite video game. A major point the article makes is that a big first step for us here is awareness of the issue, which I highly agree with. We need to not tolerate or support the types of behavior from each other that makes fellow gamers feel less than. We should be having conversations about acceptance and respect for diversity, and just focus on having fun with our favorite video games.

This was an eye opening article for me and I hope that it can positively influence others, since even though I have enjoyed the benefits of privilege in this space, doesn't mean I can't do all that I can now to help remedy its effects.

Thanks for stopping by.