Abstract Kostas Karpouzis 

Digital games can be very illuminating when it comes to cultural values and structure: their narrative represents the form and function of prominent stereotypical characters and valid aims or incentives for them, while their mechanics talk about the necessary or allowed means to achieve one's goals. In this framework, representation of social and cultural groups is important, since it both affects and reflects what transpires in the society where designers live or in that where the narrative takes place. Researchers across many kinds of digital media have looked for standardized representation tests for a long time, aiming to provide a systematic “bird’s eye view” of their industry regarding inclusion and representation. However, this task has been elusive, especially for digital games; in this presentation, we discuss some of the facets that such a test would include and why we’ve failed to arrive at a consensus on testing.