iSchool Capstone

The Digital Protagonist Research Toolkit - Team Datavores

Project tags:

data curation

data science & visualization

information architecture

Project poster

Video games are widely consumed as interactive media by a diverse population. 49% of US adults reportedly play video games and the US industry alone is estimated to be worth over $23 billion. However, who gets represented in video games is poorly understood and public discussions on the topic are divisive and heavily anecdotal. Controversies like Gamergate demonstrate a lack of depth, rigor, and scope in discourse on diversity in gaming across stakeholders including academics, consumers, developers, and publishers. Our team identified and built solutions to address the two largest barriers to the study of representation in gaming: a standard way to describe video game protagonists and a representative sample of video games. Released in a public-friendly format in collaboration with key stakeholders (e.g., the GAMER group, Anita Sarkeesian), these materials enable the systematic study of representation we need to advance crucial dialogues about our fastest growing media.

Project participants:

Kameron So

MSIM

Kate Sousa

MSIM

Brian Waismeyer

MSIM

Samantha Coulter

MSIM