I’ve been a gamer for almost three decades, but I’ve been black my entire life. When I started gaming on my first Atari 2600 in 1982, the thought of having characters who looked like me — in stories relevant to my background or culture — was the furthest thing from my mind.
In ‘82, I was obsessed with roping pixelated cattle on Stampede and dodging crocodiles with Pitfall Harry in Pitfall. In 2019, I find myself confused as to why there hasn’t been a huge amount of progress in black representation in video games. From the lack of black protagonists in triple A titles to the uneasy fact that black avatars always play second fiddle to white ones — I have to pay almost $10 just to have a black avatar represent me in a free-to-play game like Guns of Glory — the slow progress is puzzling.
Source: IGN.com Opinion: Video Games Still Have a Way to Go with Black Avatars