Video game industry seeking minorities

updated 9:05 a.m. ET Aug. 5, 2005

ATLANTA - In the popular video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," players assume the lead character of Carl Johnson, a down-on-his-luck criminal who roams city streets, stealing cars and helping gang members knock off rivals in drive-by shootings.

"CJ," as he's known by his pals, is black — and to some in the video game industry, that's a problem.

A growing number of people in the booming industry believe there should be more black and Hispanic heroes and heroines instead of hoods and hoodlums.

"Not everybody goes outside with bling-bling and listens to rap music all day," says Amil Tomlin, a black 15-year-old from Baltimore who plays hours of video games each day.

Among those trying to paint a different racial picture is Mario Armstrong, who hosts a weekly National Public Radio program on technology.  He and two fellow black colleagues have started the Urban Video Game Academy, a virtual programming boot camp for minorities.

"It's been said that a bunch of nerdy white guys are creating these games," Armstrong said.  "The problem with a bunch of white guys creating the games is that the story isn't being created with balance."

Roughly 80 percent of video game programmers are white, according to preliminary results of an International Game Developers Association survey of some 6,000 in the industry.  About four percent of designers are Hispanic, and less than three percent are black.

The institute, formed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May, is holding summer workshops in Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington D.C. to give minority students like Tomlin an opportunity to learn the basics of making video games.

Organizers hope this early exposure will inspire a new generation to make minority video game characters that go beyond typecast racial roles.

"I'd love to hear what other stories exist in the world besides the stereotypical ones.  There are good people in the ghetto.  There are role models," said academy co-founder John Saulter, who runs Entertainment Arts Research, one of the industry's few black-owned video gaming companies.

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