Dana Steinhoff, executive producer at the Burlington, Vermont-based startup tech company Red Magpie, says the company’s mission is to bring more protagonists of color, more female characters, and more LGBT-identified characters into the realm of the video game.
What’s more, the company—led by its board directors, game industry leader Jen MacLean and Daphne Walker, assistant director of Network & Talent Development Career Collaborative at Champlain College—aims, through a mentor/mentee initiative, to bring a more diverse group of producers into the company to create these new roles.
“More diverse developers mean more diverse games,” Steinhoff told NECN News.
“A lot of people love video games and they don’t get a figurehead they connect with,” one Red Magpie mentee, Lee Gimbutas, a student at Champlain College, told NECN and NBC10 Boston. “For me, I love it when there’s a female protagonist. I love it when there’s a bisexual protagonist.”
“”Not only can we make better stories, we can make better communities, as well,” Gimbutas said.
Reports NECN:
The startup insists consumers have a hunger from the $135-billion video game world for protagonists of color, more female characters, and ones who are identified as LGBT. …
Video games are a big part of Sasha Baldasty’s life, but the Colchester High School student doesn’t always feel reflected in them.
“I would really enjoy seeing myself more in gaming characters,” Baldasty said.
Characters often appear too super-slim for Baldasty’s taste, and as a 14-year-old now questioning gender identity and sexuality, the gamer craves role models and representation from popular culture.
“Whether they care to admit it or not, everyone kind of feels alone,” Baldasty said. “It’s a hard time for kids.”
Mara Iverson, who works to support LGBT and questioning youth at Outright Vermont, said more diverse game heroes could mean a lot to anyone wondering just how they fit in.
“To see that this person can go on adventures, and this person can kick ass and win the day, that is super empowering,” Iverson said of diverse game heroes.
Iverson said she hopes, for kids like Baldasty, that Rad Magpie’s push to bring change to the game world is a winning play.
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