Sports Interactive, the creators of the renowned Football Manager computer game, have made changes to their player database to reinforce equality after accusations of racial stereotyping.
In June 2019, an article published by Quartz accused the manufacturers of the world’s most popular football management game of racial stereotypes after it claimed that there was a correlation between the darkness of a player’s skin and perceived negative personality attributes.
The article’s author claimed that newgens (young, fictional players created by the game engine) with a higher skin tone figure (where one is the lightest and 20 the darkest) were more likely to rank poorly for professionalism, loyalty and sportsmanship.
Miles Jacobson, Sports Interactive’s studio director, refuted those claims in a Twitter thread last month, pointing out that newgens of darker skin tone were also likely to rate better for attributes such as ambition, temperament and controversy. In a subsequent tweet, he accused the author of the Quartz article of concluding their argument and then selecting data intended to prove it.
But i has learned that Sports Interactive have made changes to the game’s database to eradicate any suggestion of profiling or negative stereotyping, having been made aware of the accusations.
While the company was confident that the existing system was not biased in any way, they have altered the process by which personality attributes of newgen players are created to reinforce a message of equality.
Rather than using a template based on the averages of existing players of a certain nationality, all personality attributes of newgen players are now generated randomly for every nationality. So where before a Nigerian newgen would have personality attributes calculated according to every active Nigerian player in the game, that process no longer occurs.
Football Manager relies upon a global network of head researchers and assistants, who scout thousands of players across hundreds of leagues in order to replicate accurate statistics and, famously, make predictions about which young players may become superstars in real life. Cesc Fabregas, Kylian Mbappé and Sergio Aguero are three high-profile players who were tipped by the game to become international stars.
That vast group of researchers might include data analysts at professional clubs, Uefa-qualified coaches or enthusiastic amateurs who have consistently impressed SI with their scouting and assessment. It is the job of the head researchers to analyse and criticise the profiles created, which include personality attributes.
So detailed has Football Manager’s scouting network become that it has been used by professional clubs as a scouting tool for their real-life transfer activity, including those participating in the Premier League and Champions League.
Information about Sports Interactive’s decision to alter the engine for newgen creation comes at a time when the language surrounding black players and their potential profiling is under scrutiny. A study published on Monday by Danish company RunRepeat – in association with the Professional Footballers’ Association – concluded that the football media is more likely to praise white players for their intelligence and hard work. Black players were less likely to receive commendation for those attributes, with the media instead focusing on their pace, power and athleticism.
The PFA urged commentators, pundits and journalists to address their unconscious bias, detailing that as well as black players being described in physical terms, they were also more likely to be treated negatively than white players.
Football Manager began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager and released its first title under the new name in November 2004. Since then it has gained further popularity worldwide, with the current edition allowing managers to control clubs in 53 countries. Football Manager 2019 sold more than two million copies across all formats.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2CWtADN
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