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[Drizzlehell]

Before you jump to conclusions - no, I don't object to having gay romances in games at all. I did my fair share of playthroughs of Bioware games where I clapped cheeks with Iron Bull, Cortez, or Zevran, and it was always fun to explore these options thanks to great writing and tasteful, natural execution. However, what I find a bit frustrating is the pattern I've noticed in many mainstream video games featuring female protagonists. It seems that in a lot of games that star a woman as a main character, a gay romance in almost inevitably incorporated into the story in one way or another. But my question is: why aren't there more games starring female protagonists that explore heterosexual love interests? And I'm specifically referring to games with established characters like Lara Croft or Aloy, because RPGs with character creators and multiple romance options are a bit of a different ballpark from games that have already established characters and you're just playing out their story.

Doesn't it strike you as odd that almost every game where you play as a male character offers numerous romance options with female characters, while games featuring female protagonists often downplay or exclude heterosexual romance altogether? Case in point - Horizon games. At the beginning of Forbidden West, you receive a polite and restrained invitation to a date from a male character, which you can either decline or respond to with uncertainty, but ultimately decline without much concern on Aloy's part. However, in the DLC, the relationship with the female sidekick is presented with drastically different tone, where Aloy is clearly infatuated and awkwardly shy at mere thought of romancing that girl, and there's not even an option to express disinterest in any romance with her. I think it would be great if they could simply remain close friends instead, because it feels like, nowadays, every game that features two female characters has to imply a sexual attraction between them, which is just odd.

Compare this final scene from Burning Shores with a very similar scene at the end of The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, where you share a drink and reminisce with your friend Regis. But now imagine that instead of just chatting for a while and then saying your goodbyes, you'd suddenly be locked into an awkward conversation where Regis made romantic advances on Geralt and you can either smooch with his old ass, or make your excuses and leave on a really awkward note. That seems to be the default approach many developers take when creating female characters in video games these days, and it's really off-putting.

The only mainstream game from recent memory that comes to my mind right now, which did have a hetero female protag who ended up kissing a guy at the end was Battlefront II. And even though to me the whole situation is merely an oddity to point out in a conversation, I reckon that female hetero gamers must be feeling really left out by not having an option to end a game with a handsome guy at heroine's side, lol.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

I disagree, there are plenty of games that allow you as a female to romance dudes. But they’re mostly games without an iconic female character, they are games where you are a generic female you created in character creation.

But that’s fine, it makes more sense to have iconic or focus point characters to have their own identity. Aloy is gay, that’s part of her identity, I don’t look at it as a negative that I don’t have the option to romance king dude or sledgehammer guy. In Cyberpunk there was that important side character that you couldn’t romance unless you were also a female, I didn’t think that was wrong. In fact I think it’s great when devs take a hard stance on something like that. Again, it gives them more of an identity.

 

[Umbasaborne]

I do find it odd that female protagonists can’t seem to romance men in games. Nothing against the character in burning shores, she’s rad, but i always shipped aloy and erren. But hey representation is a good thing, and frankly I’m not losing sleep over who my polygonal characters are bumping uglies with. Its odd to me as well that we don’t see more gay male protagonists, like the gay female protag is well represented in this industry now, why aren’t their more gay men or straight women?

 

[StueyDuck]

Saying lesbian gets easy kotaku points when us normies don't really care because I don't think I'm an actual future woman fighting giant robots.

So it's a win win for developers to make all women lesbian (same goes for tv shows and movies, literally ted lasso did this with season 3 and it was completely out of character, basically no straight women anymore in anything and when there is it's rank disgusting women like phoebe waller bridge)

 

[Drizzlehell]

I disagree, there are plenty of games that allow you as a female to romance dudes. But they’re mostly games without an iconic female character, they are games where you are a generic female you created in character creation.

That was the entire point of what I wrote in the OP. There are barely any "iconic" female characters with male romantic interests, while pretty much most of male heroes in video games "get the girl at the end", and the only times female characters are allowed to have a romance in a video game, typically it's a gay romance. It's not about an identity of a character but how odd it is that we don't get more female protags with male romantic counterparts. There's a clear slant towards gay female romances (or no romances for female heroines at all) in video games.

And again, customizable characters are an easy excuse in this argument because you as a player have an agency to mold the character into anything you want and it doesn't help to balance things out for non-customisable video game characters.

 

[Whitecrow]

Gay people have been oppressed for centuries.

What kind of person you must be to not make your romance gay to help the oppressed.

It's the moral superiority badge every insecure writer wants.

 

[YCoCg]

Playing as a guy and having your actions lead to a relationship and sex with a woman character is easy to imagine, playing as a woman and also romancing women is a good thing, do you think most gamers would be ok playing as Lara Croft and making choices that lead to her sucking dick?

 

[DeepEnigma]

Playing as a guy and having your actions lead to a relationship and sex with a woman character is easy to imagine, playing as a woman and also romancing women is a good thing, do you think most gamers would be ok playing as Lara Croft and making choices that lead to her sucking dick?

 

[StueyDuck]

Playing as a guy and having your actions lead to a relationship and sex with a woman character is easy to imagine, playing as a woman and also romancing women is a good thing, do you think most gamers would be ok playing as Lara Croft and making choices that lead to her sucking dick?

We all understand and agree with what your saying, getting an adolescent man to understand that women > sex object is difficult.

However we all know that is not the reason these devs are doing it. It's more to shut a certain crowd up that somehow have the power to destroy you and everything around you even though they are a minority in gaming

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Promoting heterosexuality doesn’t fit within the aim of diversified pluralism.

The hetero mindset is so 20th century.

 

[deriks]

I care at max for friendships, not relationships in gaming

If you take Arthur Morgan, was married, loved her, but the girl barely is in the game. The focus on the character life still is one of the best stories ever

 

[Drizzlehell]

Playing as a guy and having your actions lead to a relationship and sex with a woman character is easy to imagine, playing as a woman and also romancing women is a good thing, do you think most gamers would be ok playing as Lara Croft and making choices that lead to her sucking dick?

That's a bit of a juvenile take, and to me it's just as easy to imagine a woman having a romance with a guy in her own adventure story, but honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's going on here. Video game companies don't want to put straight male gamers in a position where they would have to romance a guy, because straight males still make half of the target audience for video games and no one wants to take a risk to potentially alienate that part of the community.

 

[TheRedRiders]

I love the Horizon games, but man that relationship with Aloy just felt so poorly written and rushed.

 

[Yoboman]

Cause then those games would probably need a positive heterosexual male depiction

 

[Gaiff]

Playing as a guy and having your actions lead to a relationship and sex with a woman character is easy to imagine, playing as a woman and also romancing women is a good thing, do you think most gamers would be ok playing as Lara Croft and making choices that lead to her sucking dick?

I never got my dick sucked in a video game. Why exactly would a female character suck dick?

That sounds like the take of a 10-year old boy. Awful.

 

[Azurro]

Because it's not inclusive to have a normal female character that falls in love with a man in a game anymore. The idealized feminist woman is a lesbian stronger than all men that all men want but none can have, that's Alloy.

It's standard California western design sensibilities, one of the reasons I'm stepping away from western designed games.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

It's simple.

Heterosexual relationships are considered stock. Most traditional Hero's journey narratives employ an opposite sex matching. Why?

Because, without bringing any opinion into it, the world is primarily composed of straight people. This means straight people writing straight stories for straight people through lived straight experience.

Now, you have counter culture youths entering industry. Experimental, leftist, free spirited types. They want to see representation. Where do they start? By essentially mimicking the straight relationship in narratives but with homogeneous genders. Take a dashing, bearded hardcore axe man who would typically scoop up the hoes like no one's business, and thrust him into a relationship with another gruff dude. This is bold enough to make tumblristas wet, and absurd enough that dude bros will kek their asses off watching their viking war lord hide the sausage with another dude.

Never one to push a boundary and be satisfied, this naturally extends into WOKE GAMING OF THE YEAR 2023. Now it's become basically accepted that you are literally Hitler if your game includes any (or God help us, all) of the following:

- A white guy who isn't a brutish asshole, an uneducated drunkard, or a sniveling villain.
- A straight man.
- A man.
- A Woman who looks like a woman.
- A Woman who desires an equal relationship with a man. Note that women who are conniving, ruthless or manipulative are always touted as "incredible characters," not because of the writing done to make them seem vile, but because of "slay queen," energy.

Taking all of the above into account, it probably seems like Wokey's first Deceptive Marketing scheme. Chicks (apparently) like ugly bitchy lesbians for empowerment, and 14 year old dudes like lesbians because lesbians. EVERYONE WIN, YES?

Ironically enough, people would probably take the whole "LGBT is normal for normal people," thing more seriously if they didn't have a multimedia rollout every time they make two chicks fuck.

 

[YCoCg]

I never got my dick sucked in a video game. Why exactly would a female character suck dick?

That sounds like the take of a 10-year old boy. Awful.

Yeah it's childish but it's true, deep down you know it, same reason why Lesbian characters are all over Netflix shows but Gay men are still hardly seen.

 

[Bloobs]

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

over the last few decades it has become increasingly uncommon for any female character to pine over a male character in any kind of dramatic story. It happens sometimes, but with less frequency as time goes on. Probably because a woman pining over a man is disempowering, or something like that.

 

[Spaceman292]

It's because these female characters are all created by men who self insert and they don't want their precious waifus to kiss nasty boys. That would be way gay.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Ah, relationships in computer games. How very exciting.

 

[ConcealedBlaze]

It’s almost always about the money. My ongoing theory is that having a female protagonist who is into women helps straight males better identify with the protagonist since they also find women attractive.

I’m super down for more representation in games because I get tired of the same old stories. And some games do women who are into women really well (The Last of Us and Signalis spring to mind). But the trend is becoming really noticeable and is beginning to seem exploitative and kinda gross especially when male protagonists are never gay. Lesbians are frequently fetishized in pop culture and this seems like an extension of that under the guise of inclusivity.

 

[Azurro]

It's because these female characters are all created by men who self insert and they don't want their precious waifus to kiss nasty boys. That would be way gay.

No actually, it's the opposite, it's the new female woke employees that want "empowered" women on screen. If anything, normal relationships on screen are missing nowadays.

 

[SlimySnake]

Horizon’s lesbian romance was a fucking joke. They have lost all credibility as far as i am concerned. She was presented with two male love interests in the first game who are then cast aside in the sequel where she treats them both like dog shit all of a sudden. Then she conveniently finds the love of her life in the sequel's DLC.

They think they are so clever. In Forbidden West, they revealed that her original clone was a lesbian. I was like oh wow, here we go and then of course, they made DLC to turn her gay too. If you want to retcon a straight character into a lesbian, this is the playbook to follow.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Horizon’s lesbian romance was a fucking joke. They have lost all credibility as far as i am concerned. She was presented with two male love interests in the first game who are then cast aside in the sequel where she treats them both like dog shit all of a sudden. Then she conveniently finds the love of her life in the sequel's DLC.

They think they are so clever. In Forbidden West, they revealed that her original clone was a lesbian. I was like oh wow, here we go and then of course, they made DLC to turn her gay too. If you want to retcon a straight character into a lesbian, this is the playbook to follow.

While I agree, this does feel like current year ham-fisted, down to the laughable trans war paint. She never really showed much interest in the males in the first game. They were thirsty for her, but I don't recall ever a moment where she was conflicted or entertained them back. She brushed them off for the most part.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Horizon’s lesbian romance was a fucking joke. They have lost all credibility as far as i am concerned. She was presented with two male love interests in the first game who are then cast aside in the sequel where she treats them both like dog shit all of a sudden. Then she conveniently finds the love of her life in the sequel's DLC.

They think they are so clever. In Forbidden West, they revealed that her original clone was a lesbian. I was like oh wow, here we go and then of course, they made DLC to turn her gay too. If you want to retcon a straight character into a lesbian, this is the playbook to follow.

Pendulum is starting to swing the other way again. Normies are getting fed up with the sermons. Will it ever go away completely? Do bad stories ever end?

But I'm beyond certain that a reluctant equilibrium will be found between titties out attitude era, and "I am Thomas, the lesbian!"

 

[Drizzlehell]

It's simple.

Heterosexual relationships are considered stock. Most traditional Hero's journey narratives employ an opposite sex matching. Why?

Because, without bringing any opinion into it, the world is primarily composed of straight people. This means straight people writing straight stories for straight people through lived straight experience.

Now, you have counter culture youths entering industry. Experimental, leftist, free spirited types. They want to see representation. Where do they start? By essentially mimicking the straight relationship in narratives but with homogeneous genders. Take a dashing, bearded hardcore axe man who would typically scoop up the hoes like no one's business, and thrust him into a relationship with another gruff dude. This is bold enough to make tumblristas wet, and absurd enough that dude bros will kek their asses off watching their viking war lord hide the sausage with another dude.

Never one to push a boundary and be satisfied, this naturally extends into WOKE GAMING OF THE YEAR 2023. Now it's become basically accepted that you are literally Hitler if your game includes any (or God help us, all) of the following:

- A white guy who isn't a brutish asshole, an uneducated drunkard, or a sniveling villain.
- A straight man.
- A man.
- A Woman who looks like a woman.
- A Woman who desires an equal relationship with a man. Note that women who are conniving, ruthless or manipulative are always touted as "incredible characters," not because of the writing done to make them seem vile, but because of "slay queen," energy.

Taking all of the above into account, it probably seems like Wokey's first Deceptive Marketing scheme. Chicks (apparently) like ugly bitchy lesbians for empowerment, and 14 year old dudes like lesbians because lesbians. EVERYONE WIN, YES?

Ironically enough, people would probably take the whole "LGBT is normal for normal people," thing more seriously if they didn't have a multimedia rollout every time they make two chicks fuck.

Yeah, I mean, in some cases this is true but not always.

Although in case of Horizon games I think this is absolutely true. I even noticed while playing this game how every sympathetic character is either a person of color or a woman, with very, VERY few examples of a sympathetic straight white guy present in the game. And, at the same time, almost every villain or even slightly obnoxious character is basically a white supremacist. I mean the main villains of the game are basically rich white people from Space-X with South African sounding names (i.e. Elon Musk stand-ins), and the bad guy in Burning Shores is also a cult leader and pedophile groomer to boot. You seriously can't get any more on-the-nose than that, lol.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

there is a related spect that just killed my interest to be invested in the first game and subsequently this entire franchise.

the writing and characterization are ass.

in the first game you keep doing all these side quests for people that treat Aloy with disdain.

But when the dude with the funny mustache (the only one who has been helping Aloy) asks for help, Aloy rejects giving it.

and to make things worse, this mission is necessary to finish the game.

bad design all around.

 

[krumble]

I think at this point we need to be grateful that our main characters (both male and female) aren't either forced to transition or date/romance one of these men in dresses with blue bags of hair that masquerade as trans these days, no doubt I will be banned for hate speech for saying such a thing as last time I stood against the "trans" issue I was called a nazi trans phobic who wanted a genocide and banned for life from era... which as a 49 year old gay man with disabilities who has many real transexual friendships that I first met DECADES ago is ironic and the furthest from the truth imaginable as I know personally the fights and struggles they have been through in the 1990's and 2000's, i don't know a single gay man that supports all these extra letters and colours or pride MONTH, everyone I know HATES how the whole "movement/community" has been hijacked to destroy children and destroy the idea of family, I certainly don't count myself as part of that community
I'll expect my ban, but at least I'll have been true to what I think.

 

[Embearded]

I would much rather like the option to not have romance at all.
It is rarely important for the story or the character.

 

[ConcealedBlaze]

No actually, it's the opposite, it's the new female woke employees that want "empowered" women on screen. If anything, normal relationships on screen are missing nowadays.

I disagree that it’s strictly that. I think you’d see more gay male protagonists if it was driven solely by attempts at diversity. Simple truth is that lesbians help straight guys identify with the protagonist, are fetishized, and get you inclusivity points (both from a female protagonist and a non-hetero protagonist). From a marketing perspective it’s an easy sell and it’s always about the money.

 

[GermanZepp]

Romances in games are a waste of time even if it is two lines of code. Fix that horrible ugly menu items images and UI first Guerrilla.

 

[AlphaDump]

I thought it was handled very poorly in the horizon dlc in particular. Her internal monolog about feelings was grade school level, and can conflict with your choice at the end. It was all so poorly executed that I just hope they move on for the next title and never touch on it again. Loved the DLC though.

 

[SlimySnake]

While I agree, this does feel like current year ham-fisted, down to the laughable trans war paint. She never really showed much interest in the males in the first game. They were thirsty for her, but I don't recall ever a moment where she was conflicted or entertained them back. She brushed them off for the most part.

I remember Aloy turning down some of the more thirsty priests, the king and some NPCs but she was always partial to Errand and Varl. She goes out of her way to help them. They were clearly presented as her love interests in the first game, and it was very jarring to see her treat them like dogshit in the sequel. especially after they helped her defeat hades.

 

[Phase]

People are brainwashed into virtue signaling at every turn. This is no exception in the video game industry. Hetero isn't the agenda that's been and being pushed, and so most of these devs can't help themselves but to make everything "gay and empowering." Also, you don't get any ESG money promoting straight romances.

 

[Drizzlehell]

I would much rather like the option to not have romance at all.
It is rarely important for the story or the character.

I get your point but in case of lengthy role-playing games with heavy focus on characters and story, I think that romantic subplots help to elevate the story and make the journey more engaging. And this applies to pretty much any medium of storytelling, and it works for a particular type of story. I would just like it to be engaging, and I don't even mind if it's a gay relationship as long as it's done well and not just crowbared in for the sake of representation.

But regardless, in this case I'm mostly talking about how heterosexual relationships from female protagonist's perspective are very much under-represented in video games.

 

[Fake]

What I find funny? Saying you don't like relationship with 'character X' is controverse those days.

When I played Witcher 3 I remember hating Yennifer at the point of ignoring her until I finish my playtrought. While posting on that shitplace resetera, people are like agreeing with me somehow. Maybe they hate heterosexual relationship?
Now, I hate this char personality over Aloy, but we can't hate at the same way relationships are hated in Witcher 3 with I find funny.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I thought it was handled very poorly in the horizon dlc in particular. Her internal monolog about feelings was grade school level, and can conflict with your choice at the end. It was all so poorly executed that I just hope they move on for the next title and never touch on it again.

This is usually common in hollow gestures rooted in sexuality and immutable characteristics. It's only skin deep, after all.

I remember Aloy turning down some of the more thirsty priests, the king and some NPCs but she was always partial to Errand and Varl. She goes out of her way to help them. They were clearly presented as her love interests in the first game, and it was very jarring to see her treat them like dogshit in the sequel. especially after they helped her defeat hades.

I never once thought of Varl as a love interest at all. More so a "best friend zoned" person that she felt was the most honest and humble with her out of anyone. Erand was the typical gruff drunken male which I think she felt more of brotherly bond with, "I can help him" momma figure. He also shown to put things off to help her, so naturally she would return favor. She would roll her eyes at his suggestive comments more often than not.

I still saw no inclination that she had any romantic interests in any of figures in the game. Which makes the DLC feel juvenile and shallow.

 

[Azurro]

I disagree that it’s strictly that. I think you’d see more gay male protagonists if it was driven solely by attempts at diversity. Simple truth is that lesbians help straight guys identify with the protagonist, are fetishized, and get you inclusivity points (both from a female protagonist and a non-hetero protagonist). From a marketing perspective it’s an easy sell and it’s always about the money.

No, you are wrong. LGBTQ has never given a marketing boost to anything, if anything it's a net loss as it's a divisive topic. Gay male protagonists are difficult because the normal male demographic doesn't want to play a game where a man engages in gay relationships (why would a normal man be interested in that?).

Female main characters have always been normal heterosexual women, they have only began to turn them lesbian after companies have let into their companies female progressive activists. Your very first assertion is wrong because they'd have to make Alloy incredibly sexy and bisexual in order to try to get that market you talk about. Alloy might not be ugly, but she's not beautiful either.

 

[dDoc]

it's rank disgusting women like phoebe waller bridge

 

[UnNamed]

I remember Aloy turning down some of the more thirsty priests, the king and some NPCs but she was always partial to Errand and Varl. She goes out of her way to help them. They were clearly presented as her love interests in the first game, and it was very jarring to see her treat them like dogshit in the sequel. especially after they helped her defeat hades.

I didn't play HFW, but in ZD Varl was the only guy Aloy respects, and the only man that don't flirt with her.

But in the end:
-Man flirt with woman: enpowered
-Man flirt with man: brave
-women flirt with woman: even more enpowered
-woman flirt with man: patriarchy, misogyny, boy's club rethoric

 

[Gojiira]

Nah a more interesting question would be why so many female protagonists have to be so goddamn ugly…
In all seriousness though I really dont have a issue with this particular i stance since even in Horizon 1 there were a few hints towards Aloy’s sexuality.
BUT I do hate how you cant romance Talanah, or better yet play as her because she actually is hot smh

 

[Gaiff]

Horizon’s lesbian romance was a fucking joke. They have lost all credibility as far as i am concerned. She was presented with two male love interests in the first game who are then cast aside in the sequel where she treats them both like dog shit all of a sudden. Then she conveniently finds the love of her life in the sequel's DLC.

They think they are so clever. In Forbidden West, they revealed that her original clone was a lesbian. I was like oh wow, here we go and then of course, they made DLC to turn her gay too. If you want to retcon a straight character into a lesbian, this is the playbook to follow.

I recall thinking Varl was the obvious love interest. They were from the same tribe, they had a bond over his deceased sister, were quite close in age, and Aloy even mentions him to Rost's grave which she doesn't do for anyone else. There was also this whole angle of her introducing him to the old world and helping him grow beyond the superstitions of the Nora tribe.

Then in the second game, they pair him off with a random girl before unceremoniously getting rid of him. It's like they completely changed the direction they wanted to take between the two games.

 

[ConcealedBlaze]

No, you are wrong. LGBTQ has never given a marketing boost to anything, if anything it's a net loss as it's a divisive topic. Gay male protagonists are difficult because the normal male demographic doesn't want to play a game where a man engages in gay relationships (why would a normal man be interested in that?).

Female main characters have always been normal heterosexual women, they have only began to turn them lesbian after companies have let into their companies female progressive activists. Your very first assertion is wrong because they'd have to make Alloy incredibly sexy and bisexual in order to try to get that market you talk about. Alloy might not be ugly, but she's not beautiful either.

I don’t even know where to begin to unpack this comment. There’s some serious layers there, so I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree

 

[Hugare]

Romantic relationships in games are tough to get right

I loved TLOU Part II, but I couldnt give 2 fucks about Dina and Ellie's relationship.

We were thrown into the story when they were already in love, and the players didnt know shit about Dina. How was I supposed to care? I dont even know this girl or their relationship. It wasnt organic.

Max and Chloe in Life is Strange was good in a way that they took their time to bond them, for players to get to know them and their relationship, but for 95% of the game you felt like they were just friends, and then BAM, "I'm in love with you" out of fucking nowhere at the end of the game. Awkward af.

Bioware games are good at this. They slowly build the characters relationships. It's not something that they introduce in a 6 hours DLC, at the end of the game like a plot twist or when its already developed like "you're supposed to like her, okay?"

That's why friendships>romantic relationships in games

RE4 Remake made me care about Luis and Leon's friendship in a few hours MUCH more than I care about Jill and Clive after 26h in FF XVI

 

[Drizzlehell]

Max and Chloe in Life is Strange was good in a way that they took their time to bond them, for players to get to know them and their relationship, but for 95% of the game you felt like they were just friends, and then BAM, "I'm in love with you" out of fucking nowhere at the end of the game. Awkward af.

I think you can play it straight in Life Is Strange if you want, and it'll be just about their friendship. The actual unambiguous gay relationship in the game was between Chloe and Rachel and it's explored in Before The Storm.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I think you can play it straight in Life Is Strange if you want, and it'll be just about their friendship. The actual unambiguous gay relationship in the game was between Chloe and Rachel and it's explored in Before The Storm.

I've had the first game in my backlog for years. Might start it soon, I'm going all in a tribbing the shit out of the other girl.

 

[Interfectum]

AAA gaming is dominated by straight male gamers. They are okay with lesbian relationships because the alternative is the character they are playing is getting fucked hard by a dude.

Last of Us 2 is one of the only games I can think of where your character gets rammed deep by a man and the internet went ballistic.

 

[TGO]

AAA gaming is dominated by straight male gamers. They are okay with lesbian relationships because the alternative is the character they are playing is getting fucked hard by a dude.

Last of Us 2 is one of the only games I can think of where your character gets rammed deep by a man and the internet went ballistic.

Because it looked like a dude dry plowing another dude in the ass?

As for HFW, if that was the original intention for the character it would have been in the main game.
But just like TLOU, GG did it in a DLC with a kinda throwaway story, granted ND did it better.
But both seem to have been made just to announce their sexualities.