I used to be an active gamer. From 15 to 22, I spent several hours per day playing all kinds of online PC games. I was so passionate that I brought the topic to college where I wrote papers and made presentations about the positive impact of gaming. While doing so, I did not mention negative aspects such as racism or sexism although I experienced both as a black female gamer.
Video games are yet another space where black women cannot always feel safe. That completely defeats the initial purpose, which is to entertain and offer a joyful experience. As the creator of AfroGameuses (a community of French black girl gamers) and an ambassador of Women In Games, I want to put the spotlight on these 4 black female gamers from the US, Canada, Madagascar and the Netherlands. In this Queenterview, Luana, Rayvenne, Emi and Joëlla have accepted to share with us their realities of being a black woman in the gaming industry.
How did you start playing video games?
Joëlla: My mind got tainted by my big brother. He bought a Sega 16-bit with Sonic The Hedgehog game. I got hooked ever since. After school, BOOM playing games with my brother and his friends. My friends always thought I was weird for playing video games, because in my old times, girls would only play with barbie dolls.
Luana: I started before I was 5 years old with a small Atari console and the colourless pixel games, then the Playstation, Game Boy, etc. Until I moved to the PC side of the force in 2011. I like all types of games, but I’ve always had a special feeling for RPG, FPS and racing games. I especially love Pokemon.
Emi: My first video game was Spyro the Purple Dragon on the PlayStation. I prefer puzzle and strategy games alongside RPGs and Pokémon.
Rayvenne : At 4 years old or earlier, I had a Gameboy and an Atari. At the time, most games were adventure/basic strategy, pixelated 8-bit side-scrollers. I primarily played Tetris, Pong, Blaster and Pac-Man. As the only child of a university professor, when I started to REALLY get into PC games, it was mandatory for me to balance gameplay with boring educational PC games, otherwise I’d be playing the Power Ranger games, TombRaider and Hover for the most part.
What’s your current role in the gaming industry ?
Luana: I’m the co-founder of the association Women In Tech Madagascar which aims to promote technology especially to women. With that role I hope to offer activities related to video game. In 2017, we gave a free 4-months training in video game development. I guess I’m also a “content creator” on Twitch where I started streaming in 2019 and on YouTube with a gaming channel.
Joëlla: I cater to geeks and gamers who would love to find geek things to do in their neighborhood or when they travel. With my website Find Geek Spots I want to have the biggest database for adventurous geeks to meet online and connect even more offline.
Emi: I run a gaming organization for women and by women called The Athena Alliance CLT: Gaming Goddesses. We focus on public and digital events, community outreach, and charity drives. I also serve as an admin for the Black Gamer League.
Rayvenne : I’m a game UX (User experience) and UI (User Interface) Design Student.
Have you experienced racism and sexism as a black female gamer?
I have been called a bitch, a whore and what not during a game of Call of Duty MW2. I didn’t mind it because that’s how I knew I was kicking their asses.
Joëlla
Luana: I have received some very nice messages like “oh but you’re a girl! You don’t belong here, go back to the kitchen instead” in Dota 2.
Emi: I’ll go online and play Overwatch and a guy would say something like “you should send me some pee.” Or I would get called the N-word, or some other derogatory term. I’ve been getting better at unmuting myself and just calling out gameplay and most players appreciate that.
Rayvenne : I had issues related to using a picture of me as my avatar. Thus, I would receive unsolicited invitations to join game parties with strangers and messages from unknown guys trying to confirm that I was a real girl or compliment my photo. I would also occasionally receive snide quips about “not being good at or enjoying first-person shooter games because it’s just a girl thing to suck at them”. I ended up using abstract avatars and saw a marked decrease in all the above issues.
How well are black female characters represented in video games ?
Rayvenne: Fighting games are probably the worst in this case: in Mortal Kombat, Tekken and Dead or Alive there were no black female characters until the last 4 years or so, and they are usually the offspring of a black male character (usually American) to justify their presence instead of them having an independent narrative.
In Action, Adventure, Fantasy and Sci-fi genres, you can create your own characters. However, the narratives of black female characters are obviously initially written for a male lead with the necessary gender swaps for dialogue but no sense of a separate female identity. Only recently are there games that are written for a female lead character first let alone black females unless the game is built on a pre-existing movie franchise. Thus, there’s plenty of room to make necessary concerted growth. My favorite black female character is Nico from Devil May Cry 5.
Luana: I think we are starting to integrate a bit more of them with impactful roles like Marlene in The Last of Us. Lately I’ve been loving Reyna from Valorant, probably one of the most badass agents in the game!
Emi: I think the industry has a long way to go in terms of good representation of black women in games. We’ll often hear a Black voice actor voice a character that is not Black, like how Ashley Williams in Mass Effect is voiced by Kimberly Brooks. My favorite black female character is Clementine from The Walking Dead Telltale and Skybound series, just because we saw her grow and progress in that franchise.
Joëlla: In video games you can be who ever you want to be with the weirdest or craziest powers that you can imagine. Or in certain positions or a job. I always love to see how they connect it with female black characters like Storm from X-Men or Vanascha from Horizon Zero Dawn, Sheva Olomar from Resident Evil 5 or Jade From Mortal Kombat.
How can we make the industry more diverse and inclusive ?
Joëlla: The gaming scene is booming and being a gamer, geek or nerd is cool now. People want to work in the gaming scene. I think a lot of people would love to know where to find certain jobs. We need to make it more accessible for people who have the right skill set for the job. Instead of looking at their skin color, look at their resume. We have a lot of brilliant people in the black community. Give them a chance.
Emi: We need to teach children in our communities that this is a viable field that they can enter. And we have to sit down with recruiters and other leaders of the esports industry and involve them in these conversations of inclusivity so that they are mindful when they are hiring.
Luana: The Last of Us 2 is a good example of making a game accessible to anyone. It offers more than sixty options towards this goal: for blind or visually impaired players, deaf or hearing-impaired players, people with motor disabilities or reduced mobility. In the end, the best way to do better is by supporting each other.
Rayvenne: We need more diversity within the creators from game designers, writers to concept artists to create new stories instead of old franchise installments.
What would you tell black female gamers who want to work in the industry?
Joëlla: Know your shit!! Be knowledgeable, I always tell people…HIT THEM WITH THEM FACTS. Read game news. Know what is going on the scene of what you want to work in. People will always try to test you, so you need to make sure you always got an answer ready for them. Knowledge is everything. Plus be your authentic self! Showing off your passion is always a plus.
Emi: Do it! I’ll support you – I’ll show you the jobs out there and get the conversation started. We can take this journey and learn together.
Rayvenne: In gaming I’d say: Go for it, society needs you to do this. Learn about niche areas like coding, 3D modelling, VR/AR, UX and UI design, writing, level design vs traditional roles like concept art that are over-saturated and the work is disposable. The industry is evolving, so learn a bit the new emerging niches and leverage them to be heard. Know your worth and utilize your unique experiences. Make sure to know what your colleagues are paid and learn to negotiate your contracts (be it mentorship, remuneration or benefits). Also connect with people in the industry so you have plenty of mentors to help you when you get stuck or imposter syndrome hits.
Luana: Fight for your place! Not everyone is reluctant to see women in these fields, many people will treat you as equals. We are also here, girls and women in the industry, to support you in any way we can.
As you can see, black women keep facing gender and race challenges in the gaming industry. Although that will never stop us from succeeding, we need to keep pressuring the gaming industry to cast more dark skin characters. Yes, the dark chocolate type. Because a lot of characters are mistaken for being black when they are actually brown skin and not from African descent. Creating characters that only get as dark as POC does not help for the representation of really dark skin people like myself. For that reason, I couldn’t relate to gaming characters until Senna from League of Legends was created.
That said, “It’s the possibility of realizing a dream that makes life interesting” as Paul Coelho said. We have so many brilliant and passionate black female gamers who are fighting to get a seat at the table! As a French black female gamer, I rarely get to interact with another black girl gamer online. So I want to thank Luana, Emi, Rayvenne and Joëlla for this eye-opening Queenterview which is giving me hope for the future of the gaming industry.
Are you black female gamer? Send this article to a black girl gamer and join the Afrogameuses community to meet more of us!
The Author / L'Auteure
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