“Last year, we operated a big game career festival in Downham, at the border of Lewisham and Bromley in London, in an entertainment center in the center of a community that was very deprived without seeing anything like this in that space,” Games CEO CEO Cassidy told me about a call. A non -profit -based non -profit organization focused on enhancing social mobility in the field of the United Kingdom’s game, into games reported last year that, in terms of socio -economic approach, game development has one of the worst records “of any creative or technical field.”
The UKIE census in 2022 showed that only 13% of the game experts in the UK came from the platform of the working class, a number of Cassidy said it would be more than 37% if it reflected the whole society. It was a complex issue, but Cassidy’s work began in a simple place: allowing young people to understand that there is a place for them in the game to start.
“That famous thing: You can’t be it until you see it,” Cassidy said, “If you can’t see these roles, then you will not longing for [to them]”
“People from these platforms are the center of the type of work we are doing in the future,” Cassidy said. “You can run this type of tool in a shiny, flashy place in the heart of a city, or a large university. But there are often some people who do not leave their area, you know, because they feel comfortable there, because they feel safe there, because they will be able to.
Even when you come from the United Kingdom, you may still be aware of the famous British standards, crunchy and somewhat authoritarian around the ‘class’. The 13% figure from the UKIE report uses the term “Sell routing / regular” – things like craft labor, different from the management work. One caregivers. A maid. A factory worker.
“The working class is really what your parents did,” Cassidy said. “It does not necessarily do anything with income. It is low income just by eliminating the position. But in essence, it can be a bit clumsy in wider use.” They often use the term “lower resources” as a more accurate reflection of the location between low income and working class. “The working class does not necessarily mean low income.”
The types of social issues into games to solve events, research, courses and training to train, connect to networks and equipment are not necessarily unique to games. Cassidy said: “It is small for all creative areas. Not only creative areas, it is also small for any major professional field,” Cassidy said. But the UK game industry presents a unique situation: pipes into many other roles are not filled with people from the working class or low -income background to start. “While the pipeline roles for the game, that’s the type. We have no problem with attracting people into the game role.”
“People from the working class and low income platform are not only financially poor but also poor time.”
The problem, Cassidy says, are the challenges that people with resources face in the last miles. The place between graduation and actually landing. “People with working class and low income platform are not only financially poor people, but often poor time,” Cassidy said. He estimates that about 6,000 annual graduates are competing for “can be 500 as an annual entry role”. “There is no mathematical genius to solve that there is a serious competitive issue that occurs at that time.”
“You can see a situation whereby you have a group of people from the working class and low income platform, who have overcome many challenges on the way,” whether it is to keep a job along with studying, or having to return home to take care of the family. For “colleagues with their better resources” – people who do not have time to study, those who have good access to PCs and time to work in their portfolio – “naturally, those jobs will be better. Those people have more time to connect the network, have more time to meet people and create their own opportunities.”
It is also not due to lack of talent or ready, Cassidy said. “It’s just that, in the end, it is about finding the best talent for a role. It should be like that, right? But I think hand in hand is the importance of creating fairness to find the best people.
And it is not that the industry does not want to create these opportunities from the beginning. Only 4% of people in the industry were explored for Games 2024 reports that were enough to be made to resolve imbalance. Cassidy said: “No less brutal as possible when it comes to career and work – we have certainly seen that happening with the dismissal over the past few years – I think that once you eliminate the ‘company’ since then, you have people,” Cassidy said. “And the people in it are often very kind, very open, very willing to want to change and do the best possible.”
But in addition, there are still 25,000 elephants in the room. The background is side by side, it is useful – or even morality – to encourage anyone who receives an entry job in an industry that is quickly establishing talent? Does Cassidy ever feel like “how do I join the game” with “No”?
Recently, Cassidy has received a message from a “long -term creation at a game studio” – a long -term career in games. “Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t say this in a bad way. But you are called in the game. You do all this job. Have you ever considered doing something called out of the game. Tell people about other places they can go?”
“It hits a chord to me,” Cassidy said. “We talked about it within. You look at all of these statistics, about how a job in this field can be certain. You look at the level of difficulty to enter – a high bar to get into quality, level of competition. Should you encourage people?”
“And the place I have is: There are some great positive aspects here, right. We know that going to college is the biggest factor in creating a more social mobile society. That’s the biggest thing you can do, take effect, they will have another job.
Game skills, Cassidy says, is also being used more in other fields. “That will not disappear, it is only becoming enhanced. If one of the last game job is the definition of success here, then you know, probably not.
Cassidy acknowledged that their 2024 report, “quite heartbreaking. It said we could not help everyone. The other side”.
Next Wednesday, on April 9, in the game is taking place a day a day as part of the London game festival, to help people from 16 to 21 years old discovered the creative career in games. Among the speakers, there are employees from Gears Tactics Studio Splash Damage and Riot Games, besides things like the category answers.
What Cassidy liked most about these types of events, he said they did not “just come and the type of order from above”. For the Downham Career Festival, “That’s what we worked with the local Council and then the grassroots professional and professional organizations on the ground to help create. What is really run by young people volunteering on the ground.”
“If you do not draw from an experience that you know most of your players are experiencing, then you are missing as a game developer.”
But as Cassidy said: At the end of the day, talent is still important. Whatever industry can do to help people with subordinate resources, which is what they can provide to the industry. Of course, there are talent groups not used properly. But it only means better stories.
“There are a large number of people in society from the working class and low income, right?
I mentioned its new feeling, playing Heaven’s treasury, to hear the main character Aliya speak in a voice similar to my and my people growing up in a town on the coast of an inexperienced beach – a voice that I just heard in games from Orc and bandits. He mentioned thank you here!. “A modern title originates from a very regional experience, working class, which is about that kind of story in a truly authentic way is also very interesting and interesting.”
There is a whole wealth of these things, Cassidy said, which can be applied to the games we are missing. He mentioned an anecdote from their 2024 report. “Someone is really high in the industry as an artist”, from a very poor family, talking about how they only do what they are doing now because Goldeneeeeeeye Rare has taken time to answer a letter. “They sent them a little about their career in this field, a little document about rare. And just say ‘continue’. That person is like, that’s just what I need at that time. I won’t do this if not for that letter.”
The best way to support the work of the game, Cassidy said is through Game Club is slow – A monthly book club based on registration for games with a discord community for discussing them later. They are currently running a Noir & Mystery theme.
