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Diversity in the game industry: Is outreach the solution?

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Over the last decade, the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has considered the lack of diversity in the game industry workforce a quality of life issue. Using the results of our recent study on demographics of undergraduate students in game degree programs, we compare our data against data reported in the 2005 IGDA Quality of Life survey. The most significant result of this study is that gender diversity in the current group of undergraduate students studying games is statistically the same as that reported within the industry seven years ago, with an approximate 8 to 1 ratio of males to females. The number of black and Asian students was higher than in the industry survey, and the number of Hispanic and other ethnic and racial groups was only slightly lower. Our data shows that there is a greater diversity in sexual orientation and of reported disabilities than in the industry survey results. We describe effective initiatives for recruiting and retaining women in related fields and suggest that similar efforts might address the imbalance in the game industry.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSIGITE 2013 - Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGITE Annual Conference on Information Technology Education
Pages171-176
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event2013 13th ACM SIGITE Annual Conference on Information Technology Education, SIGITE 2013 - Orlando, FL, United States
Duration: Oct 10 2013Oct 12 2013

Publication series

NameSIGITE 2013 - Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGITE Annual Conference on Information Technology Education

Conference

Conference2013 13th ACM SIGITE Annual Conference on Information Technology Education, SIGITE 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityOrlando, FL
Period10/10/1310/12/13

Keywords

  • curriculum
  • demographics
  • diversity
  • games
  • gender
  • undergraduate students

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