I think the two biggest pit-falls in this industry right now are:

1) Whenever a game director/creator/writer sits down they imagine a bald white space marine shooting a bunch of dudes in the head and it looking cool. This is probably a direct result of the demographics of people *making* games. We need to get more minorities into the creative space (this goes for movies and TV as well).

Diversity isn’t just great for the sake of diversity. It’s that is brings in new viewpoints, worldviews and problem solving skills. It might also be the very thing that gets us out of the “shoot a million people” problem solving that most games have devolved into in recent years (and to some extent have always been about).

2) This ties directly into number 1. A lot of “strong” female or minority characters are written exactly like the bald space marine just with a model swap. Or saying “tough chick” lines. We need strong minority characters that don’t always boil down to character who is written like a man who happens to be a woman (Joss Whedon, I’m looking directly at you).

Most gamers bemoan the lack of originality in game design, and I think we need to start realizing that the lack of diversity goes hand in hand with that. Right now games are all being created by a bunch of people who grew up watching 80s and 90s action movies and cartoons.

It’s no shock that the content that is being produced is more or less that of an 80s action movie and even our best “narrative” games happen to be better thought out versions of the same premise (Bioshock).