PB: A CALL FOR INCLUSIVITY

As a Black South African gamer, there are a lot of things that make me want to burn the whole world down. This includes the deliberate exclusion of township kids, the MSSA’s INCOMPETENCE as the overseer of E-sports in the country, and the rejection of our notion to try and help assist those in need. This small essay is a rant, and all the views are not those of the publication but of Xolani Bongani Nkosingiphile Ntuli, a member of Project Blerd’s staff.

It is no secret that the township is not an ideal place for people with dreams and ambitions (which is everyone). People in the township are expected to move their families from that place into a better environment that allows them to dream, this also makes families want their children to study and be lawyers, engineers, medical doctors, and possibly teachers, but kids just want to play video games for a living. With that said, I have to link this with the exclusion of township kids from the whole South African gaming industry. In order to see growth (which everybody has been complaining and saying it is very slow) the scene needs every South African it can get, especially if they are willing to help it grow. Firstly, the big organisations NEED to expose the E-sports scene to these individuals, young or old. They have the resources, they have the network, and they have the magic. It doesn’t have to be something big. Just a little tour. This way, they can get new players with potential that they can train like popular sports organisations do. We are trying to make this a sport, right? Cool. There has to be a way to involve everyone in the country to make esports a thing, this involves the kids that are getting blocked out as they can possibly be the best to come out of South Africa, like South Africa’s favourite Street Fighter. Secondly, I do know that this is a big task because of limited budgets that our major organisations have, but what other choice does the scene have? If there’s no investment in this one aspect, then the borders will continue to be there, and all the progress expected will be nowhere to be seen. Come on. In summary, we won’t see any progress if we still have people that are not able to get into the scene, and 5 years from now, the song where we wish for a way forward will continue to be sung.

Now, for those that don’t know, incompetence is the inability to carry out a task successfully, and Mind Sports South Africa is the prime example of that. Cool, they have E-sports in schools, regions, and are said to be the umbrella of South African E-sports. I do not really know what the problem is, but the public has a problem with them. MSSA has been incompetent in giving township kids a chance and now, people from the township have to do it themselves, with very limited resources. I know a guy, Thando, who runs Grassroots E-sports academy, and they specialise on FIFA, because they cannot include other games (FIFA is also way more fun in multiplayer mode, by the way!). Well, the initiative is there, the motivation is there, and the aspiring athletes are there, so all they need is support. “Who has to support them?” is the question we would ask ourselves, but we already know the answer. MSSA. People aren’t getting that help, they’re just on their own.

To give credit where it’s due, MSSA introduced their mobile gaming titles, and this will probably bring more township people into the E-sports scene but there is also a downside to this. Which are these titles? Are these titles actually accessible? Are the titles Brawlstars, Clash Royale, Free Fire, which can be played on low end devices? Because not everyone can afford a R3000.00+ mobile device where I live. Does this mean that they are not part of the industry as a whole? Are they actually expected to have their own esports scene, where they play the first Mini Militia on their low-end devices? FIFA on their Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s? Borderlands 2 via LAN? Cool, they can do that but is the whole gaming scene actually closing the gates for these people? Okay. This is straight on excluding a large group of people and opening up for the minorities.

Independent Gaming organisations really cannot do anything about these people as they also have their own interests (understandable), but the scene may not notice this, but it is actually holding itself back from the big scene that it can actually be. Let me just stick to video game reviews from old video games.

Happy Gaming!