10 Progressive Characters Who Prove Video Games Aren't Bigoted

Gaming, it's sad to say, is not an industry renowned for it's progressive nature. With debates such as Gamer Gate still raging and fair representation an ongoing issue, it's easy to see how, from the outside, the gaming community might seem like a exclusive club. It's a history wrought with controversy, but one that is slowly doing it's best to be open and appealing to people from all walks of life and, though there are some outspoken, often hateful, individuals, millions of people in the gaming community are championing fair representation and inclusivity. Gaming has evolved to a point where the idea of one or two selectable characters is not always necessary. With more power behind our games, there is more of a push for players to create characters that best suit their own lifestyle and allow the game to cater the storyline to their needs, as well as a push to offer a more diverse selection of non playable characters to populate the in-game landscapes. But this is all still a fairly new and itself is still evolving, it would be ludicrous to say that gaming is wholly inclusive off the back of this leap in technology. Gaming stands on the shoulders of decades of traditional design that has, and will continue to, decide what characters are placed into games. It's a complicated topic that still requires much debate and even more action, but hopefully one that will ultimately see developers continuing to move forward making games that are not only fair, but, as a result, more enjoyable too. All being well, one day, the debates on equality will become obsolete and the characters that helped bring gaming into the 21st Century will become milestones in a long history.