Part one of a study designed and carried out with the assistance of Dr. Adrienne Decker. This study seeks to explore the palpable effects of representation in video games as a form of media, as well as investigate design methods for well rounded and impactful representation. I used a mixed methodology with a convergent design approach for this study. The data was collected using a survey and one-on-one interviews.

Read this paper

Roles: Experimental Designer, Researcher, Data Analyst, Writer, Interviewer, Survey Designer

Methodology

In this study, we used a mixed methodology that followed a convergent design approach to investigate the impact of Queer People of Color (QPOC) representation in video games had on members of the QPOC group. The entire study is comprised of an online survey and sets of one-on-one interviews. For this paper, we will be discussing the online survey only.

We created the QPOC Representation in Video Games Survey. We asked participants for demographic information about their age, sex, gender, sexual orientation. We gathered information about race/ethnicity using the US Census Bureau’s questions about race/ethnicity. This information was gathe

In addition to this demographic data, the survey required respondents to respond to questions indicating their level of agreement (using a 5-point Likert-type scale) with statements about representation of QPOC and aspects of that identity in video games. Following these Likert-type questions, two open-ended questions were asked about identity and representation.