I wanted to keep expanding on my look into game covers, but I think it’s important to search beyond the top-selling mainstream titles and most-hyped games across consoles proper, just to see if trends continue past the very middle of the mainstream, so this week I’m doing something a little different: looking to the top-selling titles of 2012 on Xbox Live’s Indie Games roster. These are the games produced by the community, vetted and “rated” by the community (not by a ratings board), and since they all have cover art, as it were, make for a fascinating addition to a project like this. Do these community-created games mirror trends we see in best-selling mainstream titles, or do they break the mold? One thing’s for certain out of the gate: 2012 was a huge year in Minecraft knock-offs on XBLIG.
Here’s the list of the top twenty best-selling XBLIG titles for 2012:
1. CastleMiner Z
2. CastleMiner
3. Total Miner: Forge
4. Avatar Deathmatch
5. FortressCraft Chapter 1
6. Murder Miners
7. The Impossible Game
8. Avatar Laser Wars 2
9. The $1 Zombie Game
10. Avatar Paintball
11. Avatar Legends
12. Fortress Wars
13. Miner Of Duty
14. Miner4Ever
15. Avatar Laser Wars
16. End Of Days: Infected vs Mercs
17. Toy Stunt Bike 2
18. Flight Adventure 2
19. Don’t Die Dateless, Dummy!
20. Block World
So many mining games, but only one had a Minecraft-style person on the cover; the others had XBL avatars, or no figures at all. Here’s the simple breakdown of figures observed:
Human figures:
23
Undead and humanoid monsters were not included in this count.
Female figures (total):
4
Scantily clad female figures:
1
Persons of color:
1
Games which featured XBL Avatar-style characters:
9
Ass shots:
1
Yes, posterior shots are going to become a permanent part of this count, because I’ve become fascinated with the popularity of this particular pose, and in fact, I will likely redo a count when I’ve collected all data, looking for the frequency of the ass shot.
But I digress. The real trend worth noticing here is that there is a shockingly small amount of diversity among the figures depicted on the XBLIG titles, even when avatars are being used. Only one person of color is represented, and of the four women present, one is in a bra and a thong. Granted, the other women are weapon-bearing, practically clad avatar-style characters, which is a nice step forward. But even when multiple characters are present on a “box,” meaning when there is a chance for diversity (since it seems rare in the industry to give up the main cover spot to a woman or person of color, unless we’re dealing with a sports title), the indie developers are opting for little diversity. Of the five games out of twenty that feature more than one character, only one has a person of color, one features all white males, and the other three have women, but the women are relegated to the back rank or to less physical roles (as for instance with The Avatar Legends, on which the male figure wields sword and shield while the female figure appears to be a magic-user).
While the top-selling indie games on XBL are no bedrocks of creativity (after all, most are Minecraft clones or multiplayer shooters), they are still operating within the same confines and trends as mainstream games, pushing women and people of color to the side in favor of white males. Is this simply indicative of the community breakdown — could it be as simple as that these are the people making the games, so they use their own or similar avatars? That may be the answer, but it’s still hard not to see this as further marginalization of gamer who aren’t members of the privileged class. Perhaps a wider range of indie games will turn this on its head, but XBLIG seems to be operating firmly in the mainstream, at least from this sampling.
