Student Journey: Edwine Pierre Louis
Edwine Pierre Louis lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and is a graduate student in the Emerging Media Design and Development low-res program. EMDD low-res students attend
Apex Legends is an online, multiplayer video game that launched on February 4th, 2019. It is set up as a first person shooter in a “Battle Royale” styled fight and is very similar to its main rival game, Fortnite. However, what makes this gaming experience stand out from the other competitors is it’s interesting and well-rounded character list. Apex Legends helps inspire the movement for equal representation amongst game development companies and gamers. Representation is important in any form of interactive media. It opens users up to new groups of people. Additionally, it allows for various users around the world to have a character to identify with, which grants a more personalized experience.
Apex Legends has done an excellent job of highlighting different heritages when developing their characters. It is a triumph for successful representation. Successful representation is made up of various ethnicities, cultures, and gender distribution. Furthermore, the depictions of these characters can only be successful when they are designed from accurate sources of cultural information. Apex Legends has a total roster of fourteen characters, six of which are female. This is an almost perfectly even gender distribution among characters. The characters come from different backgrounds, ranging from: Jamaican, French, Portuguese, Indian, Icelandic, and Pacific Islander (amongst others).
Rampart is the most recent character unleashed by Apex Legends. She is classed as a “tactical” legend and is described by the game developers as a “British-Indian Business owner.” While these little details may not seem like much, they’re very important to the realm of video game diversity, inclusion and equality. The pieces of information shown in the persona descriptions add another level of depth to the characters. It makes their portrayal all the more empathizable to the player of the game.
Apex Legends demonstrates the positive changes being made to diversify video games. This is a stride in the right direction, but there is still a lot more ground to cover throughout the gaming industry. Developers and designers should branch off of Apex Legend‘s example of diversity in gaming and incorporate similar efforts in the future. Diverse representation is beneficial to these companies and to the players they cater.
Chase Keller is a second-year EMDD graduate student. His research interests include usability testing and design.
Edwine Pierre Louis lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and is a graduate student in the Emerging Media Design and Development low-res program. EMDD low-res students attend
Dr. Tong Li’s EMDD 650 course, Interactive Media Design and Development, has spent the beginning of this semester working with Erica Oliver at Ball State’s
The Center for Emerging Media Design and Development includes a diverse group of designers and storytellers from around the world. We embrace the differences and
“There isn’t just knowledge but a visual and physical atmosphere of excitement to learn challenging technology and concepts.” About Gabe Gabe Eastridge graduated from the