In the present world, there are many ways of communication between people, organizations, and industries. One of the most rapidly developing parts of entertainment and time-consuming activities is games. There is no doubt that media and games, in particular, have a certain effect on a person and their mind. It gives an individual access to a world of fantasy, which very often is made to reflect the real world and so the connection between the two worlds becomes more transparent. Just as TV, games are said to influence the cognitive schemas of an individual in relation to the real, everyday world. But there is a problematic trend of underrepresentation of certain kinds of people in the gaming industry. A study where characters used in games were analyzed showed that a bias towards certain races indeed took place. Some characters are used less often than others. These are females, children, and elderly people. Also, the characters are mostly “white” favoring one race more than others. While a user plays a game he spends more time as a primary character-whichever character he plays with, while the other characters in the game, which he or she randomly interacts with, spend very little time on the screen. Because of this, a player gets used to a certain kind of people mostly represented in the game. And here a line is drawn to the real world where that person will be less inclined to communicate or relate to people of other races or backgrounds, different from those she or he have experienced in the game. This creates a barrier in the communication between a generation that is game-centered and people who do not spend as much time in front of the screen.
Another problem is that a person who is a part of a minority group will notice that their own presence in the game is not given much consideration and this could possibly create thoughts that their race is inferior or not as good as the one that is mostly represented in the game. This is a sensitive matter where an individual will make conclusions based on this representation and communicate to their peers or particularly friends and family from the same background, reinforcing the already prejudiced view that the majority of people have towards minorities. This is a problem that was unnoticed previously but became an issue in the present.
It was not someone’s particular goal to purposefully deny the presence of a certain race or nationality in the game industry. This can be evident in a closer look at the professional sports games, like baseball, basketball, football, and soccer, where the players from every background are present. Nonetheless, the game industry has indirectly influenced the views of gamers. It is a known fact that it is the younger generation that mostly plays games, even though today this trend seems to be changing and the older population is starting to take part in gaming as well.
Younger people are more susceptible to the influence of media and stereotypes present in it. The gaming industry inadvertently communicates to the customer that some people are more favored than others or that a certain group can be more appealing in a setting than others. In the 21st century, the society has taken many steps in fighting discrimination and unequal treatment and it is only a matter of time until fair representation reaches all mediums of communication, without biases and stereotypes.