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WarpedLord

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I'm all for inclusiveness... but... unless there's a sex mini-game, how would we even know they were gay, or why should it be relevant in the least? I mean, do we know for sure Chun-Li isn't gay? That Scorpion doesn't like dudes? Would it even matter, in the least?
 

Lufia Erim

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Guilty gear. venom. Comon guys. Gay people have been in videogames a long time. This isn't news. I'm not say anymore about the subject because i know how quote happy people are.
 

JoJo

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WarpedLord said:
I'm all for inclusiveness... but... unless there's a sex mini-game, how would we even know they were gay, or why should it be relevant in the least? I mean, do we know for sure Chun-Li isn't gay? That Scorpion doesn't like dudes? Would it even matter, in the least?
Each character has a back-story that explains their background and motivation for fighting, to add some flavour to the game. One of those characters happens to be gay as part of their back-story, like another character has a wife and kid, that's it pretty much. It shouldn't be a big deal, unfortunately a lot of people on the Internet seem determined to make it otherwise >.>
 

Cecilo

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JoJo said:
WarpedLord said:
I'm all for inclusiveness... but... unless there's a sex mini-game, how would we even know they were gay, or why should it be relevant in the least? I mean, do we know for sure Chun-Li isn't gay? That Scorpion doesn't like dudes? Would it even matter, in the least?
Each character has a back-story that explains their background and motivation for fighting, to add some flavour to the game. One of those characters happens to be gay as part of their back-story, like another character has a wife and kid, that's it pretty much. It shouldn't be a big deal, unfortunately a lot of people on the Internet seem determined to make it otherwise >.>
It depends on how they go about it, if they mention he has a boyfriend, or a husband, okay. If they just toss in under the back story in a line "Is Gay" then yea, that just seems.. kind of.. tossed in? If you are gonna make something part of someones lore it should at least be fleshed out, or at least some effort put into it. Ofcourse, I have no interest in buying Mortal Kombat X because I hear it's broken and has this what was it paid fatalities, so I can't speak to what the game has or has not done.
 

Canadamus Prime

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I have to wonder though, isn't the fact that this character is gay entirely token since I don't imagine his sexuality is actually going to come up in the game. You know, considering it's a fighting game.
 

Silvanus

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Lufia Erim said:
Guilty gear. venom. Comon guys. Gay people have been in videogames a long time. This isn't news. I'm not say anymore about the subject because i know how quote happy people are.
For a long time, but in very small numbers, and playable ones are pretty rare. If it wasn't news people wouldn't complain about it so very much (not saying that's what you're doing).
 

Gorrath

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Eh, this falls into the same category as, "You can have rape in a game but it has to be handled properly." Then everyone spends a whole thread banging on about what is and isn't proper. I don't care if they chose to showcase that he's gay by kissing a man, or having a gay sex-scene, or mentioning it in the story, or having him explicitly state it over and over again like he's trying to pick me up. This whole, "They CAN do X, but only if X meets my arbitrary standard of making X palatable to ME." stuff is nonsense. That's not to say people shouldn't feel free to bash on games for things they don't like in them but it seems like controversial stuff, especially when it comes to sex, has this whole special level of exaggerated criticism that comes off as being absurd.
 

Silvanus

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canadamus_prime said:
I have to wonder though, isn't the fact that this character is gay entirely token since I don't imagine his sexuality is actually going to come up in the game. You know, considering it's a fighting game.
Mortal Kombat has always given some characterisation, backstory and personality traits to its characters via their stories and exchanges. That's how Jin is handled: just as other characters are.
 

Wuvlycuddles

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Briantb said:
I thought there was a transexual character in street fighter?
You mean Poison? She was from Final Fight aaand I **think** she was only transsexual as a response to a moral panic over beating up women in a beat em up, this was apparently worse and was ultimately cut (no pun intended).
 

Teoes

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lacktheknack said:
"I just don't want to expose children to that sort of behavior."
Some sort of familiar argument of it being "shoved down [our] throats", yes yes?
 

gigastar

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Briantb said:
I thought there was a transexual character in street fighter?
Thats Poison youre thinking about there.

And as far as i can work out, his gender was never mentioned in Final Fight, but only in the japanese manuals and guidebooks.
 

lacktheknack

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Teoes said:
lacktheknack said:
"I just don't want to expose children to that sort of behavior."
Some sort of familiar argument of it being "shoved down [our] throats", yes yes?
It has more to do with the absurdity of protecting children from a gay character in Mortal "You Didn't Need Those Organs Intact Anyways" Kombat.
 

Erttheking

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I've got mixed feelings on the whole tokenism debate. On the one hand, I would like to see more fleshing out of a character dealing with their sexuality. On the other hand...do they always need to? I mean there are black characters in fighting games and they don't exactly flesh out their race and any experiences related to their race. Why not just let them have a gay character who just happens to be gay, end of story? We have plenty of characters who just happen to be heterosexual, end of story, why not the other way around?
 

UberGott

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Hey now! Was that a subtle jab at Kotaku's audience I just saw?

The fact that some have finished the story mode and not realized what the implications were amuse me slightly. Sexuality isn't that important to most characters in this franchise, so it being a single conversation seems appropriate.

By comparison, The Last Of Us had to give us a male corpse and a stag magazine to confirm a major character was gay... does that mean that Mortal Kombat X is more subtle than TLOU? Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd have to type out.

Lufia Erim said:
Guilty gear. venom. Comon guys.
Do you even games journalism? It's only a big deal if a bloated AAA Western title does it!

Briantb said:
I thought there was a transexual character in street fighter?
I assume you mean Poison. Despite some potentially insensitive banter being cut in the English version and her pre/post-op status varying between the two, she is still considered a transwoman, canonically speaking, in both English and Japanese versions.