Blizzard's Diversity Chart

About

Blizzard Diversity Chart, officially called Diversity Space Tool, refers to a tool developed by Activision-Blizzard's subsidiary King for the purpose of designing new video game characters. The tool, which allows rating a character on their representation of culture, ethnicity, age, ability, body type, gender identity and sexual orientation, has become a subject of viral discussions and parodies immediately after being made public. In memes using the format as an exploitable template, users typically add other characters or people from pop culture to the chart and assign them humorous attributes on the graph.

Origin

On May 12th, 2022, the Activision-Blizzard blog^[1] published an article "King's Diversity Space Tool: A Leap Forward for Inclusion in Gaming," presenting a Diversity Space Tool developed by Blizzard's subsidiary King that has been used for the purpose of appraising character design based on a number of characteristics, such as their representation of culture, ethnicity, age, ability, gender diversity, sexual orientation and socioeconomic background (showcase image shown below). The tool is visualized via a radar chart displaying a rank for each of the characteristics.

The took identifies what stereotypical characters in different genres look like, which are not always the most conducive or representative of diversity. It helps identify those stereotypes, while also helping creatives look closer at their designs, so they can dissect their own assumptions and presets. It also helps identify opportunities for more diverse character narratives, to ensure that we are not only creating diverse characters in appearance alone.

On May 13th, 2022, gaming and culture news website Fanbyte^[2] reported on the tool, describing it as "coming off as mildly dystopian." On the same day, Fanbyte's Twitter^[3] account shared the article, with the tweet describing the tool as "fucking weird." The tweet accumulated over 710 retweets, 2,300 quote tweets and 4,300 likes in three hours (shown below).

Spread

In the following hours on May 13th, 2022, multiple users replied and quote-tweeted the post, criticizing Blizzard for being "out of touch" and employing a corporative approach to the issue of diversity in gaming. For example, a quote tweet^[4] by user @mrfeelswildride describing the tool as "a deeply psychotic thing to produce" received over 220 retweets and 1,400 likes in three hours (shown below, left). A post by Twitter^[5] user @G0ffThew gained over 140 retweets and 850 likes (shown below, center). A joke about the tool tweeted^[6] by video game journalist Jim Stephanie Sterling gained over 260 retweets and 1,900 likes (shown below, right).

Apart from discussions, the showcase image for the tool depicting Overwatch characters Zarya, Lucio and Torbjörn and their respective placements on the diversity radar chart has been parodied. For example, on May 13th, Twitter^[7] user @ChrisHawkner posted a meme referencing JoJo Bizarre Adventure that gained over 740 views and 25 likes in two hours (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References