Gay community - "Why you will not see a gay lead character in a triple-A title".

I love that developers tackle many different facets of society. We are still at the infancy of the industry, but we've gone from people flipping out because of San Andreas being about gang culture and featuring a black protagonist, to side characters and main characters exploring their sexuality.

I think that we are at a great time of the industry, and saying "you will not see x" is extremely short sighted.

The following years of gaming will bring a lot of good things for everyone, can't wait to see it.
 
Gumball said:
Why does it matter what sexual orientation a video game character is?
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I'm gay and I literally could not care less. It's dumb as caring that most of the movies I watch feature straight people. Most people in society are straight. My sexuality doesn't define me and everything I do, nor is it even the most important part of my identity.

I also love guacamole and to me caring whether or not there are more gay characters matters about as much as whether or not guacamole is featured in more videogames.

In fact what irritates me FAR MORE than "heteronormativity" is some obnoxious activist that tries to speak for me and say what "gay people care about" or how gay people should feel about some issue. I read that story that Polygon wrote calling Nintendo a bigot on behalf of all gay people and I wanted to tell her to fuck off. And I don't even like Nintendo anymore and haven't for some time. I'm certainly no apologist for them but I can't stand people who push bulshit identity politics in my face. I dislike them more than I dislike biggots. At least I can ignore the biggots. It's hard to ignore someone who is obnoxious enough to claim to speak on your behalf.

I wouldn't mind seeing more gay characters, sure. If the designers feel like they could do something interesting with characters who happen to be gay and they have a good story to tell that's fine by me. I'd be interested in what they'd do with it. But fuck off to anyone who wants to force them to design more gay characters in order to promote inclusiveness. That shit is condescending.
 
What about characters like Don Flamingo or Vega from street fighter? Their sexuality isn't really a part of their respective games narratives, but they weren't designed in the 'obviously hereo' machismo mold of a Nathan Drake.
 
BPoole said:
Because when I play games I play it as if I am the character and I am not gay. If anything in the game is explicitly done to identify the character as gay, I'm going to find it hard to relate to that person.

Just curious if any straight males opted for a gay relationship in Mass Effect.
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Ok, now imagine for a second that you were gay and felt the same way about not being able to relate to straight protagonists. Wouldn't be much for you to play then, would there?

And I am a straight male and played a gay Shepard in one of my playthroughs.
 
GoaThief said:
How do you know that you haven't already?

There are many big games out there where sexuality of a lead isn't touched upon at all. There is nothing bad about that if it fits, aren't you just making assumptions about those characters as they don't apply to a flamboyantly gay stereotype or similar?
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Okay, so in this context I would not care. If someone said my character on Demon's Souls was gay, that would not change my perception of the game. But if the game featured a section where my character is making out with Old King Doran on a bed, that would be a bit unsettling.
 
Why does something like the sexual orientation of a character even matter in the first place? Unless it's some how involved with a playable mechanic or the game has some sort of romantic plot, who cares? It makes no difference in the end if Nintendo decided to make, say, goddamn Kirby, officially gay...or straight... or bi.

People's preference shouldn't be an issue, but for some reason, people have dumbass misgivings towards them. However I don't see how arbitrarily claiming someone or something is X, some how moves things forward. It's just as silly as deciding that Sonic is Republican or Mario is a Jew. Like, what the fuck would the point of that even be? What does that accomplish?
 
mrklaw said:
But how often does a character do anything in a game to suggest their sexual orientation? Why would a character suddenly talk to their same-sex partner back home, when currently they don't usually do that at all in the first place?

The reality is that most games don't address it directly one way or another. Which is a decent reflection on society at large. Is that Army Guy straight or gay? How about that janitor? Or that male nurse? We usually don't know, so isn't 'not addressing it in video games' actually addressing it?

And why does there need to be a fixed answer anyway? Why can't Gordon freeman be straight to player 1, and gay to player 2?
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I obviously don't speak on behalf of the queer community, but I can tell you in my experiences that I absolutely do think "I wonder if that guy is straight or not" pretty often, and I did it even moreso when I was younger and first realizing that I wasn't straight. When I was 16, I was the only bisexual kid that I knew, and I didn't meet any openly queer people until I was like 18-19. (The internet was my saviour in this regard).

You say that not addressing it is a decent reflection of society, but I would argue that it's a reflection of a heterosexual society. You don't have to think twice about whether or not another dude is straight because it doesn't affect you, but I might have to be conscious of how I act or what I say around him because who knows what this guy thinks about queer people. Can I talk about an ex boyfriend? Can I talk about a queer event I went to last weekend? Can I talk about this guy I met at a gay club last night? I'm pretty thankful that I haven't encountered too much hate, and never had anything physical arise out of a situation like that. I'm almost 23, I've been out to myself since I was 14, and out to everyone else since I was 18-19, and I still get nervous when bringing up an ex-boyfriend to new people.

There doesn't 'need' to be a fixed answer. There are a bajillion games that come out every year. It would be nice to see a couple that feature queer main characters once in awhile, because it's nice to really see yourself represented in a game.

DeviantBoi said:
Prince Oberyn Martell as a main character in a game?

That would be awesome.
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Oh my god I want this game. I NEED it.

BPoole said:
I would not play a game with a gay protagonist. Some may find that offensive but it's the truth.
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Sorry about your homophobia.

Gxgear said:
Go develop a game that features one yourself then.

I don't get why people's creative collaboration has to champion the cause of others and tackle social issues.
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This is one of the shittiest defenses for lack of representation in any kind of media. Seriously, you're naive.
 
I just hope in future, any developer who makes a gay character the lead in a video game, doesn't do it for playing to a demographic, but actually makes them an interesting character first; much like with Bill from TLOU.
 
tghm1801 said:
No it wouldn't be. You're basically saying that lesbians only exist as male sex toys. Some would see it that way, but many others would be proud of and take heart in it.
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It was a joke; it followed the argument about pandering to homosexuals with flamboyant gay men.
 
tghm1801 said:
Then what don't you want to see?

It's not. Check any gaming comments site (or even this thread) and you'll see a lot of white, straight male gamers completely opposed to any forms of diversity in videogames.
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You're not coming off any better than these white straight male gamers.
 
BPoole said:
Because when I play games I play it as if I am the character and I am not gay. If anything in the game is explicitly done to identify the character as gay, I'm going to find it hard to relate to that person.

Just curious if any straight males opted for a gay relationship in Mass Effect.
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Haha yeah! I agree!

I mean, it's not like LGBT gamers are forced to play as straight characters who often make comments about how attracted they are to females am I right?? Or even forced to take part in sex QTEs? It's not like they often have to deal with playing as straight, white characters in the majority of videogames!

...............
 
I think if there's some human relationship aspect to the game then sure why not, otherwise I don't care either way. Maybe I just associate less both with my sexuality and video game characters than people here, but there are more to characters than that, especially in AAAAAA murdersims.

E.g. "700 Enemies Destroyed Mission Accomplished - PS I'm Straight / Gay" means nothing to me. If it's relationship focussed though (or at least a more important part of the game rather than a passing comment) that makes a bit more sense.
 
kazebyaka said:
Some people don't like gays or blacks or other minorities. What's so wtf about that? I, personally, don't play games with furry creatures. Everyone has a right to skip a game for their personal reasons.
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...You are seriously comparing animals to blacks, gays, etc aren't you.
 
godelsmetric said:
Chris is very popular among 'gaymers', but I think that not writing romances between him and female characters and putting in stuff like his fruity DLC costumes is probably as close as Capcom will ever get to 'outing' him.
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Chris turns down a lot of women and seems to treat Jill as a best friend or sister. I'm not writing the character but they do point him in that direction. Could just be he has a girlfriend, is uninterested in those women, is a total professional or any number of reasons, no one knows for sure. It's an obvious direction they could go in though.
 
-PXG- said:
Why does something like the sexual orientation of a character even matter in the first place? Unless it's some how involved with a playable mechanic or the game has some sort of romantic, who cares? It makes no difference in the end if Nintendo decided to make, say, Kirby, officially gay...or straight... or bi.

People's preference shouldn't be an issue, but for some reason, people have dumbass misgivings towards them. However I don't see how arbitrarily claiming someone or something is X, some how moves things forward. It's just as silly as deciding that Sonic is Republican or Mario is a Jew? Like, what the fuck would the point of that even be? What does that accomplish?
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I assume you are a straight, western male and as such can't understand how cool it is to have something else than a straight, western male as the protagonist..
 
kazebyaka said:
Some people don't like gays or blacks or other minorities. What's so wtf about that? I, personally, don't play games with furry creatures. Everyone has a right to skip a game for their personal reasons.
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in what world are gay people and people of color comparable to fucking anthropomorphic animals

edit: what the fuck is wrong with you lmao
 
I feel like the only successful way to pull off a gay or lesbian character is what should have been happening with most games already: The BioWare model.

It's tricky because not all games are RPG style, but I think it's the best way to represent people of different orientation (including straight).

The real problem is that you can't just start making a bunch of gay main characters. For one, it's basically reverse homophobia and it would seem like pandering to the gay community. The other thing is that we shouldn't be forcing one demographic to experience the other if they don't want to.

As a straight guy, I really would prefer not to see an endless onslaught of gay characters. By reverse, I don't think a gay person should have to sit through a bunch of straight relationships either.

Therefore: player choice.
 
Roto13 said:
That's funny, for some some reason, it doesn't feel like Mario represents me.

Wonder why that could be.
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I'm not surprised. He's like Mickey Mouse, and I never felt represented by Mickey Mouse, either. He's just a pretty much flawless avatar, and flawless avatars are inherently boring.
 
People tend to prefer game characters they can relate to. If only a little. Be it age, race, looks, and so on.

This is why custom character creation is such a popular option.
 
tghm1801 said:
But there are some writers who do have the chops and want to. For example, the lead writer of the TR reboot was completely open to the idea that Lara was a lesbian and even said that she wrote some of it in that mindset, or something along those lines.
Hence the incredibly close, affectionate relationship with Sam.
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Oh definitely, there are a few who know what they're doing and are pushing it forward, little by little.
 
kazebyaka said:
Some people don't like gays or blacks or other minorities. What's so wtf about that? I, personally, don't play games with furry creatures. Everyone has a right to skip a game for their personal reasons.
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wonT6q5.png
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Holy shit
 
tghm1801 said:
No it wouldn't be. You're basically saying that lesbians only exist as male sex toys. Some would see it that way, but many others would be proud of and take heart in it.
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I think that a straight male demographic has a higher tolerance level for lesbians than for male gay characters. Especially teenage boys, for the reasons you stated.
So yeah, that could definitely garner some sales instead of taking them away.
Like, say, some Atelier games with their yuri undertones.
 
vasametropolis said:
I feel like the only successful way to pull off a gay or lesbian character is what should have been happening with most games already: The BioWare model.

It's tricky because not all games are RPG style, but I think it's the best way to represent people of different orientation (including straight).

The real problem is that you can't just start making a bunch of gay main characters. For one, it's basically reverse homophobia and it would seem like pandering to the gay community. The other thing is that we shouldn't be forcing one demographic to experience the other if they don't want to.

As a straight guy, I really would prefer not to see an endless onslaught of gay characters. By reverse, I don't think a gay person should have to sit through a bunch of straight relationships either.

Therefore: player choice.
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..They already do

by the way, reverse homophobia is not a thing.
 
Famassu said:
I assume you are a straight, western male and as such can't understand how cool it is to have something else than a straight, western male as the protagonist..
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I'm not white though. It would be nice to see more men and women of color in games, but I'm not losing sleep over their absence.
 
tghm1801 said:
Neither do straight people by this logic. So stop alluding in any way to having any romantic/sexual relationships, I guess?

Why don't we just have devs stop sharing any of their preferences? Let's just have them all make the same game.
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Most games don't. But realize that if they do it's for the sake of telling a narrative, and not trying to oppress the LGBT community.

Sai-kun said:
This is one of the shittiest defenses for lack of representation in any kind of media. Seriously, you're naive.
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Right back at ya with the generic condemnation. At least I've explained myself.
 
vasametropolis said:
I feel like the only successful way to pull off a gay or lesbian character is what should have been happening with most games already: The BioWare model.

It's tricky because not all games are RPG style, but I think it's the best way to represent people of different orientation (including straight).

The real problem is that you can't just start making a bunch of gay main characters. For one, it's basically reverse homophobia and it would seem like pandering to the gay community. The other thing is that we shouldn't be forcing one demographic to experience the other if they don't want to.

As a straight guy, I really would prefer not to see an endless onslaught of gay characters. By reverse, I don't think a gay person should have to sit through a bunch of straight relationships either.

Therefore: player choice.
Click to expand...

But Bioware relationships are insulting to all sexes and creeds!
 
nbthedude said:
I'm gay and I literally could not care less. It's dumb as caring that most of the movies I watch feature straight people. Most people in society are straight. My sexuality doesn't define me and everything I do, nor is it even the most important part of my identity.

I also love guacamole and to me caring whether or not there are more gay characters matters about as much as whether or not guacamole is featured in more videogames.

In fact what irritates me FAR MORE than "heteronormativity" is some obnoxious activist that tries to speak for me and say what "gay people care about" or how gay people should feel about some issue. I read that story that Polygon wrote calling Nintendo a bigot on behalf of all gay people and I wanted to tell her to fuck off. And I don't even like Nintendo anymore and haven't for some time. I'm certainly no apologist for them but I can't stand people who push bulshit identity politics in my face. I dislike them more than I dislike biggots. At least I can ignore the biggots. It's hard to ignore someone who is obnoxious enough to claim to speak on your behalf.
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It's frankly ridiculous to dislike people who push identity politics less than bigots. Only one of those two groups of people have, for instance, conspired to deprive groups of people of their rights, abducted and physically abused, and even murdered members of groups they disagree with.

I find people who push identity politics annoying too, but to claim to dislike them more than bigoted people around the world is just silly.
 
kazebyaka said:
Some people don't like gays or blacks or other minorities. What's so wtf about that? I, personally, don't play games with furry creatures. Everyone has a right to skip a game for their personal reasons.
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At best, this is an innocent mistake of poor phrasing. At worst, the fuck's wrong with you?

But it's good to keep an open mind in general rather than refuse to play anything that isn't an exact match for you.
 
BPoole said:
Because when I play games I play it as if I am the character and I am not gay. If anything in the game is explicitly done to identify the character as gay, I'm going to find it hard to relate to that person.
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So what about games where the player character is black or a woman? Did you skip San Andreas and Tomb Raider?

Just curious if any straight males opted for a gay relationship in Mass Effect.
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I didn't, but mainly because I wasn't interested in the characters offered up. If Garrus had been down for MaleShep I would have gone for it.
 
Gxgear said:
Most games don't. But realize that if they do it's for the sake of telling a narrative, and not trying to oppress the LGBT community.
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Every time you do that, you're reinforcing the idea that straight characters have stories worth telling and gay characters don't.
 
I'm really not bothered what gender, sexuality, race characters are. As long as the game is good, it won't affect my decision to buy a game.
 
BPoole said:
Because when I play games I play it as if I am the character and I am not gay. If anything in the game is explicitly done to identify the character as gay, I'm going to find it hard to relate to that person.

Just curious if any straight males opted for a gay relationship in Mass Effect.
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Do you have any trouble identifying with with a spaceship captain in Mass Effect?
 
Can someone provide review or cover of AAA-game with "main protagonist is straight" listed as a promotional/good stuff? Or even listed at all?

How the fuck should it affect sales as long as it's not what the game is about?
 
nbthedude said:
I'm gay and I literally could not care less. It's dumb as caring that most of the movies I watch feature straight people. Most people in society are straight. My sexuality doesn't define me and everything I do, nor is it even the most important part of my identity.

I also love guacamole and to me caring whether or not there are more gay characters matters about as much as whether or not guacamole is featured in more videogames.

In fact what irritates me FAR MORE than "heteronormativity" is some obnoxious activist that tries to speak for me and say what "gay people care about" or how gay people should feel about some issue. I read that story that Polygon wrote calling Nintendo a bigot on behalf of all gay people and I wanted to tell her to fuck off. And I don't even like Nintendo anymore and haven't for some time. I'm certainly no apologist for them but I can't stand people who push bulshit identity politics in my face. I dislike them more than I dislike biggots. At least I can ignore the biggots. It's hard to ignore someone who is obnoxious enough to claim to speak on your behalf.

I wouldn't mind seeing more gay characters, sure. If the designers feel like they could do something interesting with characters who happen to be gay and they have a good story to tell that's fine by me. I'd be interested in what they'd do with it. But fuck off to anyone who wants to force them to design more gay characters in order to promote inclusiveness. That shit is condescending.
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You, sir, are my hero.
 
I believe someday soon it will be possible and not impact sales. Bill from The Last of Us was gay but that didn't define him. Bill was defined by his survivalist nature and not taking shit from anyone and several other things.

That is what I believe a truly successful character to be, someone who is not defined by the sexual orientation.
 
im sick of games pandering to other people, how about a game that panders to me, JENGA?

im a pretty big demographic
 
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