Abstract
The enormous and ever-expanding business of videogames is not racially neutral. While critical examination of videogames has focused on its depictions of violence, the way that Whiteness operates in videogames and the industry itself is often overlooked. This chapter uses a theoretical lens of racial capitalism to foremostly examine how Whiteness structures characterize race and ethnicity in videogames to generate revenue. Whiteness in the context of videogames constructs tropes of the White hero and non-White villain and victim. Structures of Whiteness also lead to videogame consumers to role-play race without confronting unjust past histories and contemporary issues for profitability. Whiteness in videogames leads to the profitable marketing of stereotypical, lacking, or inaccurate portrayals of diverse groups which shapes people’s negative perceptions or indifference toward them in real life. Racial capitalism is also used to consider overlooked aspects of Whiteness, such as gender and sexual diversity, in relation to revenue and consumerism in videogames. Therefore, public responses to diverse representation beyond race, such as sexually and gender diverse characters, can impact the popularity and sales of videogames. The lack of diverse game developers leads to the use of Whiteness scripts in videogames to generate revenue and the perpetuation of non-diverse characters and narratives. Recommendations for the future directions of videogames are provided. Such insight can be used to promote the videogame industry’s generation of revenue in ethical ways that are inclusive of diverse people.
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Pithavadian, R., Battin, J. (2024). The Profitable Use of Whiteness in the Videogaming Industry. In: Ravulo, J., Olcoń, K., Dune, T., Workman, A., Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Critical Whiteness. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-5085-6_35
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