Alter Conf Los Angeles 2015 - Being Young, Gifted, Black, and Other Adjectives...
Channel: Alter Conf
Date: 2015-11-30

by Charles Babb
Being Young, Gifted, Black, and Other Adjectives in the Gaming Industry critically analyzes the simple to complex issues that Blacks must address when transforming from game players to game developers. It is a candid talk about defying the Black community's ignorant opinions about technology development. More importantly, the talk vividly paints a picture on how Black game developers maneuver through the widely accepted stereotypes about the Black community to excel within the technology development community. The talk examines how the lack of diversity on development teams reinforces and perpetuates the stereotypes of Black and other minority communities. I discuss methods to diversify development teams to drastically improve the production value of a game product or service. Homogeneous development teams usually have limited perspectives about the world; therefore, a team member from a different ethnicity and/or culture can contribute to team with an unique perspective for evolving the gameplay or user experience. Most importantly, this talk lays out a solid blueprint for minorities and developers to actively work together to release strong, unique, and socially mature products and services. Trigger/Content Warnings: Race and Race Relations