Why is Activision Blizzard’s Diversity Space tool a completely wrong way to improve its reputation?
In a recent blog post, Activision Blizzard announced the Diversity Space tool for assessing the variety of characters created in the game. Since then, the tool and its intent have been publicly criticized, after which the publisher made a U-turn.
Regardless of criticism, the way the tool was created does not serve the very purpose for which the tool was created.
In a recent blog post, I introduced the Diversity Space tool, which was jointly developed by King and MIT GameLab. This tool is designed to help designers know how diverse a particular game and its characters are. Sounds promising, but fans also point out a big problem at the very heart. Since then, Activision Blizzard has made major updates, leaving the tool as an indicator only.
Activision Blizzard’s Diversity Space tool has a lot of potential, but it’s a flawed model.
The Diversity Space tool introduced by Activision Blizzard compares character characteristics based on specific parameters.These parameters help determine the variety of characters Video game.. It also helps to distinguish between truly diverse characters and default characters.
This tool is also set to reveal hidden biases when linking certain features to a particular race or gender. Therefore, this can be useful to developers when designing a character, and this is how Activision Blizzard first marketed the character. However, the discussion over Fanbyte mentioned a major flaw in this model.
It may sound noble, but the process is still limited and linked to certain parameters. If something like diversity is measured using separate parameters, it can always go wrong.
Points raised by many fan Model limitations were involved in why it didn’t work. As they suggested, hiring diverse creators can help solve the problem. It’s easy to secure a variety of video game characters by allowing different individuals to offer different things and be creative.
In addition, Activision Blizzard is not limited to ideas or parameters when a real individual is involved in the process. By comparison, software tools are much more limited and ultimately determine the nature of the character created based on the parameters set.
Since anger, Activision Blizzard has returned to their words and added new notes.
“The purpose of using this tool is to uncover unconscious bias by identifying existing norms of expression and recognizing opportunities for growth of inclusions. This is another important part of the team in this regard. It’s not a substitute for the effort, it’s not changing the diversity of the company. Employment goals. “
For the sake of fairness, new notes seem to be better for companies that have been exposed to a lot of heat lately.Last year, some Proceedings The company has been sued for handling gender-based crimes in the office.Anger opposes senior officials, including the CEO Bobby KotickThose who have been accused of not properly addressing the issue.
Using tools to judge as individualistic as diversity in these times can only increase the anger of the masses. Moreover, the whole idea is very dystopian, and things are much more likely to go wrong than any other way that real people are involved.
That’s a good thing Activision Blizzard Is trying to improve that image and wants to diversify the characters in video games. But using software tools may be completely wrong. When it comes to creating truly diverse characters, companies want to hire qualified people.