The Future Class program honors video games’ “bright, bold, and inclusive future.”
Dozens of members of The Game Awards’ Future Class, a program that honours the video game industry’s “bright, bold, and inclusive future,” according to The Game Awards website, have signed an open letter to host Geoff Keighley and TGA Future Class director Emily Bouchoc requesting that the Gaza humanitarian crisis be recognized during December’s live event.
“In the past years, you’ve selected us to represent the future of the game industry,” In the open letter, to the group, which at the time of writing included 59 members of Future Class, wrote. (There are currently 150 Future Class members, 50 for each year since the program began in 2020.)
“You didn’t choose us as symbols of what the game industry currently is, but of what it could be: a diverse, inclusive, and caring workplace. A positive force in the world that can influence billions of people. We want to sincerely thank you for the trust you extended when nominating us. Today, we’d like to honour that trust. You gave us the role of ambassadors of a better future — as such, our duty towards you and all the players worldwide compels us to speak up.”
The organization is urging Game Awards staff to use the award show platform to support Palestinian human rights, call for a cease-fire, and ask the industry to invest resources to end the “systemic dehumanization of people from South-West Asia and Northern Africa.” The open letter claims that the video game industry is complacent in dehumanizing and vilifying people “Muslims, Arabs, and the many brown and black people living in the regions of South-West Asia and Northern Africa”, Arabs, or people dressed in traditional Arab attire, are frequently portrayed as villains or terrorists in military shooters and other genres.
“The video game industry, as the most influential and lucrative creative industry of our times, is especially guilty of this,” Younès Rabii, a game developer who organized the open letter reportedly told Polygon. “I’d like to challenge anyone reading this to count the number of times they pressed a button to take the life of an Arab character and compare it to the number of times a game invited you to sit down and eat with one instead. That ratio should scare you.”
More than 2,000 other people, mostly game developers, have also signed the letter in support of the Future Class members. The letter comes shortly after Thirsty Suitors narrative designer Meghna Jayanth resigned from presenting the Best Storytelling award at the Golden Joystick Awards event, hosted by PC Gamer owner Future on Nov. 10, after the organizers asked her to do so, “would not permit political statements,” Jayanth posted on X. Jayanth had intended to call for a cease-fire and to show solidarity with Palestinians. Troy Baker, a video game performer, took Jayanth’s place on the Golden Joysticks.
On October 7, Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, launched a coordinated and devastating attack in Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. In response to the deaths and the reported kidnapping of 240 hostages by the group, Israel declared war on Hamas. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed at least 14,800 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, while also destroying hospitals and entire neighbourhoods.
Since the beginning of the crisis, several award shows in other industries have come and gone, including a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) ceremony in Scotland and the National Book Awards in New York. According to Al Jazeera, the BBC was accused last week of editing out several mentions of a Gaza cease-fire in its coverage of the BAFTA Scotland Awards, while several National Book Awards nominees issued a statement, read by Temple Folk author Aaliyah Bilal, calling for a cease-fire and for the world to unite. “address the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians.”
The Future Class members who wrote the open letter expect The Game Awards to use its platform similarly. According to Rabii, The Game Awards’ massive viewership is powerful, and the show “plays a role in which games the audience will buy, and how it will engage with them.”
“With the current state of the game industry, silence is a message,” the group stated. “Silence is tacit support. Silence is dehumanization of Palestinian lives.” Other efforts outside of mainstream gaming companies share this sentiment: A group of indie developers launched the Games for Gaza bundle in October, raising $365,520 over two weeks for the UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.
“So I’m left with this question: will The Game Awards be the voice of the ones that are running the industry, or are they just using us for show?” Rabii said. “Letting us speak at The Game Awards would not only be the most moral thing to do, but it would also send a strong, empowering message to all the game workers out there.”
The Game Awards will be held live in Los Angeles on December 7 at 7:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. PST and will be broadcast online.