The gaming industry is trying to fix its Black hair representation. Dubbed “Killmonger locs” after Michael B. Jordan’s Black Panther character, the stiff, short loc style has become a familiar default for Black male characters in games like Apex Legends, Horizon Zero, Spider-Man 2 (sorry, Miles), and more. It’s due partly to the fact that the style is simpler to build and animate, but brands and creators alike are working to change that. The Sims 4 expanded its selection of natural hairstyles over the years, while Dove and the Open Source Afro Hair Library launched Code My Crown in 2023, a free guide for coding textured and protective hairstyles in games. Custom-content creator Danielle Udogaranya (a.k.a. Ebonix) created a plug-in that lets creators generate loc and kinky hairstyles in under an hour instead of potentially weeks. And users are clearly looking for this kind of representation: Ebonix’s Patreon, which provides access to her multiple custom in-game hair packs, has more than 115K members. (WIRED)
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