Gay Characters in Gaming
 

A really good read

Basically brings up the issue that we rarely see homosexuality depicted in gaming in the United States, and that when we do it's more done for zany humor than any other reason. Thoughts?

I think too often 'gay' is the entire concept for such characters. It's "gay [blank]" instead of "[blank] who happens to be gay". They focus on it and it ends up being stereotypical or exaggerated, when not an outright joke.


Most interesting for me:
Why is violence so accepted in the media? You probably see this discussed most about movies, but it applies to games, too. Also, is it just in the Western world?

I'd expect it to remain for the sake of humor for the foreseeable future. Homosexuality doesn't seem to lend itself to the sorts of roles people want to play, such as badass warrior and so forth. Of course, it is entirely possible to do this, but if the characterization of them as a homosexual ends at "they are sexually attracted to men" and maybe the love interest in the story is male, I'm not even sure there is much point to it other than a shout-out "just because".

In a way games plots have to be revolutionized somewhat so that there is an emphasis on characters interacting in ways that are simply beyond killing each other, though. Unless there is a movement towards meaningful dialogue (which lets face it in a game format can be boring), I don't think we'll see many gay characters who are gay for any other reason than to have a gay person represented in the game. This could be a worthy goal in and of itself, I guess.

I dunno, why aren't there normal gay characters in games already? I guess it's a homophobic thing. Developers can put some in there as side characters and people will probably call it "revolutionary" or "daring" for a few games and then it'll be normal. Then would come a game with a gay main character, which would go through the same process. But unless something about the character's homosexuality had a major bearing on the plot I don't think it would have much of a message about homosexuality or bearing on real-life events, controversy, and discussion. It would have to be a game with a homosexual character and a plot that has at least one of its topics or plot points having a major message or theme about homosexuality or tolerance or something.

I really loved that it brought up the example of Kanji Tatsumi, because there's actually some ambiguity about his sexuality. It is perfectly plausible that he's not gay, but both he as a character and you as a player are unsure about this fact, and him struggling with his sexual identity is part of the plot. You also have Yosuke Hanamura who is always making fun of Kanji and generally being a dick about Kanji's unclear homosexuality, and the fact that it showed an otherwise likable character behaving differently when it involved something like that was interesting. Plus, Kanji's a badass.

I really do hope that some games in the near future feature more homosexual characters who are characters beyond being homosexual, and that perhaps we can get a protagonist in a game who is gay. Crazy, I know, but I can dream.

I'm reminded of the line "Have you ever tried... not being a mutant?" I mean, pick your poison here. We use furries as a "safe" means of expressing racial tensions in games, but there's really no "safe" alternative to having a gay character. You either have one or you don't, or you go the Wall Market route and put an assumedly straight character in awkward situations for the laughs. Although I guess since you can date Barret, Cloud's sexuality really is up to the player.

Jesus H Christ.


You could try to deconstruct that gay characters in gaming is mostly a problem due to homophobia and a desire to avoid offending anyone (And thus crippling the all-important sales) but when you get right down to it, it's still a problem with homophobic Americans and will continue to be for quite a while. Though he did bring up a really good point that if it is ever used it's more for a "Oh that would never happen!" than any sort of plot element.

Though I do at least like the fact that homosexuality seems to have been completely ignored in literary fiction - seriously, half of Anne Rice's vampires are gay or at least bi, many central characters in Mercedes Lackey's books are similar, and overall I get the feeling it isn't as taboo as it used to be. I'd like to think that one day gaming might be similarly crowned.

It's probably cause that reading and shit's for fags, amirite?

I'd care about it more if you guys could mention ten gay characters in popular american movies and television that weren't put there for that same zany humor.

Lesbians excluded.

Because lesbians are there for sex appeal, not zany humor.

Also:

She's just post-op now, and Nintendo finally realized that it's not right to call transgendered people by their biological 'gender'. Something the author of the article doesn't realize, even though he's writing on the subject like that.

Poison may have a penis, but it's rude to call her a he, man.


As for gay video game characters--Have you SEEN the way Link dresses, and let's face it, he spends a lot more time with Tingle than he does with any of his 'love interests'.

I can't say I am surprised at all. I would probably be more surprised, though maybe not offended. In my case it doesn't have much to do with homophobia. Homosexuality has been, and continues to be, censored in most avenues of western hegemony, with emphasis on the media, the church, and schools if they're persuaded by the church (many are, here anyway).

On the flip side, since the age of about 6 I have been allowed to watch violent movies, which have steadily increased in violence without censorship from neither parent nor too much from the media. I have played games where, if I fire a shotgun at someone/something, their limbs simply explode off their bodies in every direction. I have been conditioned from an early age to take violence on a screen with a severe grain of salt.

I imagine if this survey were "Watch in person, a man get decapitated, close enough that the blood from his carotid arteries splash your ankles" or "Watch two guys kiss" the results would have been different.

Once you combine censorship with misinformation (homosexuality is a sin, the only "right" relationship is a man and a woman), you have homophobia. But there's only minor censorship of cartoon violence, for the majority of people or outlets.

I think the inclusion of non-craaaaaaazy homosexual characters in North American gaming will be a slow, arduous battle and we'll probably have this discussion a dozen more times and we'll still be in a similar scenario. I actually went to Zombieland again last night and there were not one, but three entire rows of teens proclaiming the gayness and fagocity of half of the cast.

We have a long, long way to go and honestly, it is everyone's responsibility to get there. Not just the homophobes to stop being homophobes, but the non-homophobes to help the transition, either by making them seem ridiculous or by reasoning with them or what not.

The effect on gaming will be a non-significant shift in what is 'safe' for designers to publish or not. We could publish a "yaoi" or "bara" game today right now, and perhaps even if it did get through ESRB, would it sell? I don't know. I have my doubts. You can't really deny the business approach to gaming, sadly, unless you work with really low budget games. The onus is almost on an already well developed designer to push these ideals. I have my fingers crossed for Bioware, Valve, or Blizzard.

I've noticed this a lot, so it's no coincidence that my favorite gay characters are the ones where their sexuality is a footnote in their overall personality--I was going through some of the Fans! archives and it's one of the things I like about the character of Guth (it's never outright stated that he's gay, and he's not that sexual either way, it's just occasionally hinted at). The lesbian character... not so much.

I'm kinda struggling with this personally, though the guy I want to write isn't gay, he just happens to be very, very effeminate. (I toyed with the idea of him being bisexual at one point, but I decided that it wouldn't exactly be subverting gender/sexuality expectations.) The thing is: I don't want to make it a punchline, and I don't want to make it some kind of moral object lesson, I just want him to be a regular person... but I don't expect it to be automatically accepted by anyone viewing it, and if I just gloss over it I feel like they're going to wonder why no one seems to notice that the guy is wearing a bright pink shirt and nail polish. (And there's no reason the other characters would react--they've known him long enough to get used to the idea, so they see it and are just sorta like "whatever.")

So I guess the question here is, how do you present this kind of character to the public at large? Is this something that'll change if developers just grow some balls and start putting different characters out there, or will the audience have to change first?

Honestly, I'm not really inclined to care about the sexual tendencies of characters in video games, just as I am not inclined to care about the sexual tendencies about the people I interact with in daily life.

Unless the wildest nightmares of the homophobes comes true and humanity somehow faces extinction because everyone caught 'teh ghey', who cares? Will seeing more homosexual relationships in media reduce homophobia? It might, but I suspect what you'd see is a reduced homophobia before you see more homosexuality (or, more accurately, less concern about the sexuality of characters in general). Or perhaps it's recursive - less homophobia in the culture means more homosexual characters which results in less homophobia, etc.

It's too bad you folks can't kick out all extreme right wing religious fanatic nuts like they did from Europe. Unfortunately there's no place for them to go.

Authors really have no say in how their stories and characters get interpreted, so I'd say just write in the manner you want, or in the manner the story requires, and let the reader get in a huff if it offends their sensibilities - or if they see the character as a messiah for their own difficulties. Situations also matter, of course: the other characters probably aren't going to notice the guy's attire if they're running from a zombie mob, but the stereotypical white trash might confront the guy about it when they're 'safe' holed up behind the battlements.