Last week’s EA Full Spectrum conference — co-sponsored by the Entertainment Software Association and the Human Rights Council — was as much a celebration of what EA has done to champion GLBTI rights in the gaming industry as it was an admission that so much more needs to be done.
Speaking with Kotaku, EA’s Craig Hagen calls the company a tolerant workplace, but one that’s still learning as well. “Ten years ago, it was very easy for me to move into the EA Sports studio, to identify as a gay man, and to bring my partner to studio and company events without any experience whatsoever of homophobia. I saw the same sex relationship benefits that EA offered when I was hired.”
“I was involved with the development of the transgender policy that EA adopted,” Hagen continued. “I was around when Sims [introduced in-game] same gender content. I saw all of that. Then when something like Mass Effect or the latest episode of Star Wars occurs, I just stand back and go, even as progressive as EA is, we still make mistakes and we still have a long way to go.”
Those mistakes include waiting to introduce same-sex options until the final game of the Mass Effect trilogy, and creating the same-sex friendly planet of Makeb in The Old Republic in such a way that those relationships had to happen on a segregated planet locked behind a paywall.
“It’s not about defending ourselves, it’s about defining ourselves,” Hagan concluded. “We recognise we’re not perfect. No one is perfect. We’re going to make mistakes. When we make a mistake let’s learn from it and let’s get better.”
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