25 1 / 2010
"Video games–particularly RPGs–easily fall into the trap of treating straight white men as the default person because they are full of filler characters. RPGs need throwaway characters that provide functions to player characters such as selling equipment or asking them to clear out the giant rats in their cellar. When an NPC doesn’t warrant a lot of thought behind them, many developers fall back on using the “default human”, because making a “non-default” person takes more work and thought. But what if someone approached making a game by consciously making the decision to assume, say, Latinas as the “default” person? What if every NPC was Latina until decided otherwise? Does that sound a little weird? But how is it really any more weird than white straight men being the default person?"
