Jay-Ann Lopez
Black Girl Gamers

Having faced sexism and racism while gaming, Lopez sought out like-minded online comrades on social networks to develop a new community that she could feel part of. Black Girl Gamers has evolved into a multi-platform, female and LGBTQIA+ inclusive online gaming community of over 8,000 Black women that share a passion for gaming. The platform aims to heighten its community’s voices.

Establishing community

Black Girl Gamers started off as a passion project. I was lonely when it came to gaming online. I didn’t have many Black woman friends who played games. When you play games and you’re a woman and Black, you will experience racism, sexism, or a mixture of both. To avoid that, I created a Facebook group and invited some women that I had met on social media to join. As the community grew, the business also grew, becoming a community-powered business that works on consulting, events, talent brokering, content and community workshops. As well as being able to show gaming content and the latest news, we’re also challenging the industry to do better and be better when it comes to representation, diversity and equity and inclusion for women, underrepresented people and marginalised sexualities and orientations.

With the community, we have rules and codes of conduct because you can have bad actors in any community, regardless of race or gender, sexuality, or orientation. Our community values became our brand values and our brand ethos, and that’s how our brand grew. When you’re creating worlds, it is important to build a system so that the world revolves around the essence that you built it on. If you don’t maintain that essence, then it’s not the world you’re creating, it’s the world it’s become. And that’s completely different.

Brand connections

I think brands need to pay attention to the fact that there’s going to be a lot of TV, film, gaming and IP crossover in the next two years. It’s already happening with The Last of Us, The Witcher, Cuphead, Sonic and Super Mario. TV and film is an unexpected area for a business like ours but it actually makes perfect sense.

Recently we worked with Paramount around the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. We sent members of the BGG community to free screenings across the US and all we asked for was a video or photo in return. It created a sense of excitement – some members met up to go together, others were able to take their kids, everyone had a good time.

It’s really important to understand that gamers don’t just want to be in the house by themselves. If you look at E3, the Game Awards, Pax East and Twitch Con, there are loads of events where gamers want to come together, because ultimately, even though there are lots of single-player games, there are lots of community games and gamers like to share their love of gaming with other gamers. Ultimately, gamers like to feel close to publishers, they like to feel special, and they like to feel like they have the in on something. So, you can work with communities and influencers as part of IRL activations that will propel your brand.