ADE for Games: Approaches to Anti-Racism, Decolonization, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Games Research and Creation
The last decade has witnessed the emergence of critical game studies and critical games user experience research, coinciding with the proliferation of initiatives advancing EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) in institutions of higher education. But the critical tools, ways of thinking, and best practices for incorporating anti-racist, decolonial, and EDI frameworks are not being promoted and circulated in parallel to the discourses valorizing these approaches.
How do we make anti-racism, decolonization, equity, diversity, and inclusion vital elements of the research and development of games and playable media? What can we do to ensure that our methods and approaches are respectful and responsive to the needs of equity-deserving groups? How might we better recognize, address, and intervene on the systemic challenges of colonialism, racism, sexism, ableism, and other marginalizing factors that affect games research, education, development, and cultures?
Bringing together leading voices from equity-deserving groups working in games research and/or creation, this book offers starting points for answering these questions. Lectures and essays by notable scholars and developers are framed with clear take-aways for application to games user experience research and game studies, and complemented by short essays about novel ideas from emerging voices in the field and vital perspectives from other disciplines. All of these readings are supplemented with targeted reflection questions, key words, suggestions for further reading, and ready-made takeaways for readers to use to inform their own research and teaching practice.