Exploring the perceptions of race on video game covers

Nguyen, Thomas; Khan, Noman; Berardi, Abigail; Corvite, Shanley; Norman, Carlos; Gardner, Daniel L.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/106597 Copy

Description

Title

Exploring the perceptions of race on video game covers

Author(s)

• Nguyen, Thomas
• Khan, Noman
• Berardi, Abigail
• Corvite, Shanley
• Norman, Carlos
• Gardner, Daniel L.

Issue Date

2020-03-23

Keyword(s)

• Representation in games
• Paratext
• Video games
• User perspective

Abstract

This study compiled the 20 best-selling games from 2010 to 2015 from Steam250 to build a survey to examine potential game players' perception of video game cover art. The survey was distributed to potential players through snowball sampling, yielding 298 submissions with various ethnicities for analysis. All participants felt non-White representation was inadequate. Non-White participants felt that self-representation of their ethnicity on video game covers to be significantly more important than White participants. Non-White participants did not feel demographically represented by many individuals in the compilation of video game covers, while White participants did feel represented. Our results give insight into the intersection of video game studies and paratextual representation.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

iConference 2020 Proceedings

Type of Resource

• text
• image

Language

eng

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106597

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2020 Thomas Nguyen, Noman Khan, Abigail Berardi, Shanley Corvite, Carlos Norman, and Daniel L. Gardner

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