Tülay McNally, director of inclusive design at Electronic Arts, chooses his words carefully when we talk about creating diverse characters for video games. Raised in Germany, McNally is no stranger to the international video game industry. He worked at Square Enix, Sega, and Bioware before joining EA. McNally’s team at EA helps develop characters from underrepresented groups and public communications.
Caution is required — Activision Blizzard changed a month before our interview for a reductionist approach to the diversity of video games, which gives a numerical score for marginalization, turning identity into a kind of scorecard that developers can use to determine who should be included. (or remove) from the character list. McNally remains happy to talk about EA’s inclusive design framework, though he’s quick to emphasize that the company isn’t taking a legalistic approach to diversity.
“It’s really a basic framework of guidance and design philosophy that we customize to engage with every game team,” McNally said. He points to Maxis Studios, the team behind The Sims 4 (which recently added the ability for players to customize their Sims pronouns), as part of a company that has seen success creating content with a diverse player base in mind and not necessarily very. help “Some other gaming teams may have more in the beginning. They may need more support, education, and hands-on,” he said.
Released in 2018, EA’s Battlefield V received criticism for putting women on the battlefield of World War II. Despite this, the foundation for the company’s approach to inclusive design at scale was implemented through collaboration between the Pacific expansion development team and the Asian and Pacific Islander employee resource group. This intensive review process for Battlefield V downloadable content includes everything from initial trailers and storyboards to small weapon charms and player skins. In addition to its employee resource group, EA reaches out to geopolitical consultants for contextual authenticity.
After helping with the volunteer initiative on Battlefield V, McNally created a business case for continued use of the inclusive design framework and presented it to EA’s chief operating officer, Laura Miele. The company created a new position for McNally as a result of the meeting: director of inclusive design. Talking about his current team of four at EA, he says, “Two of them are focused on game accessibility. The other two are more focused on cultural sensitivity and representation, and also work with the game team.
Volunteer employees and a new internal team complement the work of external, professional consultants. “We knew we needed that lead,” McNally said. This is a fight against hubris, not a trade-off.
While some conservative consumers may react negatively to the prospect of inclusive character design, the case for approaching video game stories from multiple perspectives isn’t just a concern for equity. Inclusivity is also good for business. One of the goals of the inclusive design framework at EA is to spark discussions with developers throughout game creation. It doesn’t make financial sense to wait until the next stage of development to start asking questions that require time and resource-intensive improvements.
