Are Video Games Anti-LGBT?

I just don't like sexual references in games to begin with. But why would those have to be in my everyday platforming or racing experience?

 

Wait, why did he claim male characters are unable to be bisexual in Saints Row 4? I saw a video of Jim Sterling romancing everybody on the ship as a male character so that seems like a straight out lie unless I am missing something

 

a lot of the video games he referenced are older but I see the problem,

but things are changing I've defiantly seen a change in newer games the last of us and gone home does a wonderful job of representing gay characters (bill form the last of us worked well because it wasn't his only defining trait, it wasn't obvious he was just a really well written character with lots of others layers to his personally but its still important because how he acts about his partner and how its affected him and adds to his personality ) and there are many others and there will be more,

the games industry is so male focused because for a long time there have mostly only been straight white males making games but its changing and becoming more diverse and so are the people playing those games. as a woman who is lesbian and studying game design to work in the games industry im proof that things will change.

but I understand the challenges that developers face when creating a character that is part of the LGBT comity its very hard to when you have no personal experience and research can only take you so far.

as a game designer I have no experience with transgender people and if I was working on a big project that has a lot of money sunk into it would be a terrifying thing for me to do.

its terrifying because developers need to please a publisher and also an audience that will buy the product.
and if a bad job is done representing that character or its displeasing to a publisher or fans that means money is lost and that could mean no profit, game design is a business and it makes it difficult (mainly in mainstream gaming) to make any drastic change (even just a creative change unrelated to LGBT is difficult)

but we need change to normalise different kinds of characters' and make its less of a challenge for developers to create those characters and it will change just like tv and film have because people are interested in these topics and like to see diverse interesting well written characters.


im sorry for any bad spelling ^_^ and if anyone wants to talk to me about games send me a message

 

Nope. It depends on the views of the game developer.
We can't expect people to stop generalizing if we generalize them!

 

Am I a major brat if I give Sims props for letting my lesbian Sims get married before my home state would even let same-sex couples get married? I know Sims isn't to the caliber of the games your guys are talking about, but...I just thought it deserved a shout out.

 

Yes, I love how in the Sims 3 gay relationships are treated EXACTLY the same as heterosexual relationships (except for having to adopt children, of course). And even in 2000, when it first came out, sims could have gay relationships, although they could only "Move In" and not marry.

 

Second life has strong LGBT community and support, however it is online game - maybe rather kind of 3D chat.

 

No

because this

Sexuality is pretty much irrelevant in alot of games in the first place.

 

Aside from a plot device that is absolutely true.

 

The video wasn't exactly about this kind of game (it was more about games with complex plots and mentioned The Sims a few times.)

But even there... Why does, say, Mario jump all those platforms? Yeah. Our favourite plumber on a quest to free a princess isn't a "sexual reference," it's just a clichéd plot. Were it the same plot with a prince however, I'm pretty sure every possible effort would've been taken to either make a sexual interpretation of the whole thing impossible or as in-your-face campily obvious as it can be.


And that's the root of the problem right there I think. There are very subtle, coded way to evoke heterosexual love (and even lust) that are both uncontroversially E rated and at the same time leave no doubt in anyone's mind what's going on. But with any kind of non-cis, non-hetero character, you have to be either very explicit, or extremely stereotypical, or so subtle a player would need shipping goggles. With two former ways reinforcing "otherness" and the latter being easily dismissed and marginalized.

I think this is slowly changing now, but we're far away from a place where "dude on a quest to rescue a prince" is just as uncontroversially accepted plot premise as its counterpart.

 

The video game industry needs more straight, bi and lesbian woman working for it as well as gay and bi men. If these people have input into the creative process then we may see more equality in video games.
Two of my favourite video game franchises (Mass Effect and Sims) are friendly to gays at least. (Except for no gay male romance in ME1 & 2 :bang: ugh I love my gay characters!)

 

I'm torn on this issue. First off i'd love more options to play as a female character and romance females, like Mass Effect. But on the other hand, I'd rather them not shoehorn it in as a check box. If they take time and make it fun and stuff, sure.

So i think some do it cause they genuinely want to cater to certain crowds, in a we don't understand it, but here's what we think we know, kinda way. Others i think do it on a more...erm "porn" concept brofest kinda way? Where its more showy i guess? So I guess as a whole gaming is still learning crowds who want to play, its just certain voices aren't heard over the masses. So we tend to get "their" concept instead of what others want.

I hope some of that made sense. It did in my head, but getting it out, i'm not so sure. lol

 

Just married a man in Skyrim. As a man.

I think it's important to include LGBT players in role-playing games, where you are playing with an avatar. In a genre that's largely about escapism and immersion, it'd be sad if the LGBT were to face the same problems as they did in real life.

If I get in, I'll be studying video game design so in like 10 years there'll be more pro-gay video games