Black Girl Gamers Hosted a Twitch Summit and It was EVERYTHING
Black Girl Gamers partnered with Twitch to host an online summit to discuss and address issues affecting Black women content creators. Hosted by BGG founder Jay-Ann Lopez, the summit was broken down into four segments: Black Women Content Creators Panel, Black Women Voice Actors Panel, and Black Women in Games Industry Panel.
Navigating the Streaming World as a Black Girl Gamer
The discussion on Black women content creators was moderated by Storymodebae. Storymodebae was joined by Twitch Partners and Black Girl Gamers:
CuddleCore, a professional Tekken 7 player for Equinox Gaming.
Xmiramira aka The Black Simmer, creates diverse mods for The Sims 4.
CupAhNoodle, podcast host and commentator.
Being a content creator poses many challenges. And a woman content creator, especially a Black or PoC woman, many of those challenges are unique and feel like an uphill battle. Facing racism and sexism in the gaming community is not new, but it also should not be normalized. One of the main reasons the BGG Online Summit was important is that we seek to normalize Black women being in these spaces.
Too many non-Black, male gamers think that equality and representation is political and it’s not. It’s about being allowed to exist without the racism and sexism. Too often Black women content creators will hear their White male counterparts say, “They don’t want politics in their spaces” yet think it’s perfectly fine to tell racist and sexist jokes.
“My very existence is political and I’m gonna discuss it until it’s not.”
The content creator panel also discussed the importance of branding, how they built their communities, and not being afraid to put yourself out there in an environment that is often hostile to Black girl gamers and creators. The women stressed the importance of setting the tone in their communities, creating a domino effect of the normalization of Black women gamers and content creators.
The women also expressed a frustration in finding sponsorships with brands after becoming Twitch partner. Xmiramira, who has a community of over 240,000 across several platforms, reached out of several brands, would meet them in person, but was given the runaround, consistently told to “Keep applying” even though she checked off all the boxes that those specific companies were looking for. CuddleCore said that, though being on an eSports team made it easier to represent brands, as an individual, even with her skills and sizable community, it’s difficult. It’s important for content creators to do their research on the brands they want to partner with and ensure that the partnership will be mutually beneficial where both parties are happy and the brand isn’t trying to tokenize you or change YOUR brand to be more palatable to a majority audience.
“We set the tone for what we stand for and what we allow.”
The World of Voice Acting
The next panel was an intriguing and inspiring conversation with Natalia Hinds, the voice director for BAFTA Games, actress/voice actress Danielle McRae (World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Sword Art Online, Skullgirls, Final Fantasy VII), and actress/voice actress Cara Ricketts (Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Far Cry Primal, Far Cry 5). The panel was moderated by actress, director and podcast host Cheyenne Ewulu /Cheyenne the Geek.
Accurate and non-stereotypical representation in games is something that Black people and PoC have been advocating for for decades. For a long time, Natalia Hinds was the only Black female voice director that specialized in video games and audiobooks in the UK. She felt as if she "had to do every game even more justice" especially working on projects with 30 plus White men and being the only Black woman in the room. While many games companies have tried to push her aside, both Cara and Natalia said Ubisoft has and continues to push for more diversity in their development processes, accuracy in representation, and gives developers, writers, and actors the support they need and more.
The actors also talked about fangirling over the characters they voice. Who wouldn’t?! Being able to be a part of the creation of a character who will be played by millions of people, breathing life into the words of the writers seems magical.
“I am in love with Xenia from Assassin’s Creed. Like when I worked on Xenia for that part, I only did VO for it. So I didn’t know what she looked like. Like, I had no idea who she was. And I was directed that she was a pirate, and I think they might have said sexy—or maybe I assumed it. And so I voiced it thinking she was like Naomi Campbell and like dripping with jewels. And it turns out she looks like a line backer. She’s huge! Like the lead! I love it! I am in love with that character!”
When we play video games or watch cartoons or an anime, we often fall in love with the voices. The voices elicit emotions, but getting to that point isn’t always easy, especially with the portrayal of Black and PoC characters. Natalia expressed frustration working with some companies who will, for example, ask for an actor to do a "general African accent" undermining the fact that Africa is a continent, not a country. Though most of the companies she's worked with have listened to her feedback and worked with her, it's still a common problem in the games industry.
Conversation with Riot Games Dynamic Angela Roseboro and Shaela Lawson
Angela Roseboro and Shaela Lawson sat down with Jay-Ann Lopez to talk about how they and Riot Games are working to make the company and their games more diverse and inclusive. Angela, the Chief Diversity Officer and Talent Acquisition Lead talked about turning Riot Games down and ultimately being urged by Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent to “ask for what you want.”
There are so few Black women at the C-suite level, so being able to have a seat at the table, have direct contact with company leaders presents a challenge. Being told to ask for what she wanted allowed Angela to be a voice for change in a company that was, at the time, embroiled in a discrimination lawsuit. Angela eventually took the job to represent for little Black girls all over the world so that they could know that it is possible to a Black woman at the C-Suite level and affect change.
Shaela Lawson, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Community said that, even though seeing Black women at the C-suite level is a rarity, it’s even more rare to see Black women in positions of power in the gaming industry. This makes it incredibly difficult for meaningful representation in video games and that can be reflected in the communities that they foster. When I think about the racist tweet of former Riot Games global head of consumer products, Ron Johnson, it makes sense that, when we don’t interact with people outside of our bubble while being in positions of power, that ignorance is allowed to flourish, no matter how minute a gesture or comment we make think it is.
“I was a company once and I always felt I could do more. And I was never picked for those roles. And I remember, uhh, the president of the company said—I said, ‘I feel like you have me in a box.’ And he said, ‘I do.’ He only thought I could this one thing. He couldn’t see me doing anything past. And that’s because I’m the only one—We’re out of context. So when you think about the base of power and how they see us—If I’m a White male running a company, I probably know another white male so I can connect. So they’re in context. ‘I probably have a White woman in my life.’ So they’re in context. Maybe men of color would be in context. But Black women, specifically? They don’t know what to do with us or where to put us because they have never seen us in roles. And so we’re always out of context.”
Riot Games has shown commitment to attracting more diverse peoples. Shaela’s job is to find qualified talent to represent the diverse community comprises Riot Games. Lawson knows that they have to “build before [they] grow” and says they are taking steps to make that happen.“We’re being very intentional to recognize and trying to broaden the industry.” Lawson and her team have put together strategies to work with organizations and groups to find partners and talent, ask what can they do and more.
Making it in the Industry
The Black Girl Gamers Online Summit ended with a conversation with Andrien Gbinigie, International Project Manager for Ubisoft and Latoya Peterson, co-Founder of CXO, Glow Up Games. Andrien is well known for his work on Assassin’s Creed and talked about how he got into the games industry. He explains that he tried to take the route most who want to enter into the games industry, which is through quality control, but that didn’t exactly pan out. So, he got into games journalism by writing for a friend’s website, which hit so close to home for me. As a gamer and Youtuber, he was also a part of the Assassin’s Creed community gaining a pretty large following and one day Ubisoft reached out to him to be a Community Manager.
Latoya started out in games journalism, basically switching over from traditional journalism. When she first started games journalism wasn't a thing. She'd write articles for Jezebel that would be cross-posted on Kotaku. Latoya was one of the only journalists talking about race and representation in gaming for a long time. Her path took her into working in television and then virtual reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence and eventually coming full circle back to gaming as a games developer.
“When I talk to people about just being in the industry—when I talk to companies about diversity, they say the pools of Black people and people of color are lower than their White counterparts and they can’t really find the people work in gaming. And I’m like “Hire the people with transferable skills. Hire someone who can just jump into the industry and work there. You don’t need to hire someone that’s had 500 years of game experience…”
If you want to get into the games industry, Andrien advises you use "ruthless prioritization" …Understand what it is you want to do and laser-focus on that. His mentor, Gabe Graziani once told him, “Find something you're good at and do it on the internet.” Latoya agreed with him but also added that networking in this industry is very important. “Your network is your net worth.” This doesn’t mean you stop honing your craft. Networking is just an additional step to making sure you are good at what you do and building your brand and getting your brand out there. Networking is more than just going to mixers and events and exchanging information. It’s about fostering relationships. “Build your network and be intentional.”
The Black Girl Gamers Online Summit touched on so many issues that affect Black people, specifically, Black women in the gaming and content creation industry. We look forward to more summits and BGG events that uplift Black women and help more find the confidence and help to put themselves out there, shoot their shot and be successful while navigating these waters.
