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Game Developers A Diverse Crew?

by Erin on October 21st, 2005

White Male

Not in the least according to the Game Developers Demographics Report put out by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).  They polled game developers and collected nearly 6500 responses relating to diversity in their field.  This study was undertaken because in the IGDA’s opinion, while much is known about the gamers and the products, very little information exists about the people who actually create the games.
 
In order to get as comprehensive a picture as possible, the study was conducted using two different surveys, one sent directly to the human resources department at game studios, and the other directed more generally at the employees of these studios.
 
Want to make a model of the typical game developer?  Here are the stats that you’re going to need:  it better be male (88.5% of developers are); he better be white (83.3% are, followed by 7.5% asian, 2.5% Latino, and 2.0% black); and he better like women (92% are straight).  They also found the average age to be 31 years old, 5.4 of those years having been spent working in the game development industry.  If you’re interested in getting involved yourself, you better stay in school!  The report showed that 80% of employees had had university level training or higher.

This data upholds the long-standing stereotype that games are made by young white guys, a fact that companies are quick to point out is the result of the difficulty in finding qualified diverse applicants for the jobs.

Some other interesting points from the survey:

  • Non-whites seem to believe the industry is more diverse than do whites, meaning that whites perceive less diversity.
  • Women had the strongest presence in operations/information technology/human resources, writing, and marketing/PR/sales positions, and the weakest (5%) in programming.
  • Women make, on average, $9,000 less per year than their male counterparts, despite being in the industry for similar lengths of time and having comparable pay scales.
  • Straight white males do not like answering questions about their sexuality, responding with offensive and inflammatory remarks.  Macho macho men that they are.

Survey studies come with several kinds of inherent bias, making the data less representative of the industry as a whole.  The IGDA was quick to point out these shortcomings, and it’s important to keep in mind that this is a preliminary study aiming to get a general view of the industry. 

Making the survey voluntary for employees and companies to complete opens the results up to self-selection bias, where people who have strong opinions on the subject or are particularly concerned with diversity will be more likely to respond.  In this case, self-selection would probably elevate numbers in favour of diversity, with minorities more likely to respond.  If that is indeed the case, the industry is even more white male dominated than suggested.  The online setup made it possible to attain duplicate results from a single member of the gaming industry, potentially skewing data in the direction of that person’s views.  A cookie system was employed to try and prevent this, but the IGDA does allow that some duplicate surveys could have snuck through.  Also, the IGDA warns of a North American bias. Although the survey was available internationally, there may be a bias towards North American companies, who may be more affected by the variables listed.

 

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