Mental Health, Diversity, and Games Webinar 2020

“One of the things that has to change profoundly in the gaming industry is the fundamental misapprehension of the size of your audience, the diversity of your audience, and the importance of your own perspective,” says Eve Crevoshay, executive director of Take This, a mental health advocacy and training non-profit that serves the game industry and the game community.

“What you love is important, but it’s not the most important thing about making games, because your audience is not just you and people who look like you,” says Crevoshay. “That’s the switch that has to happen.”

In some ways, especially at giant publishers and console manufacturers, companies already know about the diversity of their audiences. They’re already doing the analytics. But is that bleeding down fast enough into the creative decisions that are made about games and portfolios?

As part of an ongoing VR series presented in partnership with Oculus, lead writer for GamesBeat Dean Takahashi and others will be talking about that question and more. Mental Health, Diversity, and Games, December 9 at 10 a.m., will explore how the ongoing lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the gaming industry is having an outsized impact on both those who work in the industry and on gamers.