African-American Video Game Creators and Social Media: Joseph Saulter

Black Web 2.0 interviewed Joseph Saulter, the founder and CEO of EARI, a company that makes video games for communities that are often overlooked by mainstream gaming companies.  He shared interesting insights into how he uses social media as a minority in the multi-billion dollar video game industry.

What social media tools do you use?

MYSPACE, FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN to name a few Digg, Netscape and StumbleUpon, BlackPlanet.com, Source Magazine is developing a great online presence

How do you use social media in your daily activities as someone who
works in the video game industry?

In terms of business, I have over 500 people in my Linkedin network many of whom are industry leaders. I can connect the right people together for business using the network I have developed on Linkedin. I use Facebook more as a social gathering of friends and acquaintances.

How is the video game industry using social media?

When you look at many of the online games each of them are social networks of players. Where the developers have created an environment where players can virtually exist. The online virtual world is a place where developer’s publishers and producers find ways to build great games and monetize the game environment.

As a minority in the video game industry, how has social media helped you connect with other minorities in your field?

The video game industry is not as big as it looks to the outsider. There is a collective of video game developers who go to a conference called the Game Developers Conference to exchange new ideas and keep abreast of technology which is constantly changing. I am currently the chairman of the International Game Developers Association’s Diversity Advisory Board and I have been giving a roundtable for the past 6+ years, where minorities get together to see how we can collectively move our initiative forward in the industry. I also sit on the steering committee of the Bill Gates Group for Microsoft called Blacks in Gaming. Our major initiative is to build a strong community within the video game community where minorities can get information on how to make it in the video game industry.

Social network help to improve the online population where like minds can exchange ideas and information.

About the Author
Anjuan Simmons is an emerging technology consultant and freelance technology consultant currently working as a Director at Adverlyze, an online marketing strategy company. Anjuan has previously worked for Accenture and Deloitte. He has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Texas A&M University. He can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/anjuan and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/anjuan.
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