222: Straight and Narrow

[helloeveryone]

I hate it when idiots say things like this. How is there not being any gays in any way shape or form homophobic? How do you know there's no gays in it? There's only three ways to know for sure if someone is gay 1)You see them have sex with their own gender. Doesn't happen either way in games. 2) They say theyre gay. In nearly every game I've played it's not the time or place to say really. If you're going to tell someone you're gay you'll tell them in a normal situation not in a warzone. 3) They're incredibly camp e.g. wear tight leather clothes. The person in this article complains about that himself.

How the fuck could you call this homophobic?

 

[Yukichin]

Not every gay guy is insanely camp and flamboyant. Honestly, the more visible ones are, sure, but the majority aren't, from what I've heard.

I can think of a lot of things that you or I probably do on a regular basis that we once thought were weird. I'm pretty sure a gay video game character wouldn't be that big a stretch.

This. How would it be weird to play as a gay character, anyway? I honestly don't understand. You're gay yourself... so why would it be weird? You'd just happen to like guys.

I hate it when idiots say things like this. How is there not being any gays in any way shape or form homophobic? How do you know there's no gays in it? There's only three ways to know for sure if someone is gay 1)You see them have sex with their own gender. Doesn't happen either way in games. 2) They say theyre gay. In nearly every game I've played it's not the time or place to say really. If you're going to tell someone you're gay you'll tell them in a normal situation not in a warzone. 3) They're incredibly camp e.g. wear tight leather clothes. The person in this article complains about that himself.

How the fuck could you call this homophobic?

Well, you're polite.

Anyway. It's not homophobic, people just want a bit more representation. The majority of straight people in games are obviously straight: they have romantic tension with women, and in cases like GTA4, you're forced to pick up female hookers as a male character to gain energy. It could be subtly included (a romantic plot that is only part of the overarching plot, or backstory) without being forced in.

Pardon my rudeness, but what is it that you play? Only Halo? Go figure.

 

[Trenchant Informant]

I hate it when idiots say things like this. How is there not being any gays in any way shape or form homophobic? How do you know there's no gays in it? There's only three ways to know for sure if someone is gay 1)You see them have sex with their own gender. Doesn't happen either way in games. 2) They say theyre gay. In nearly every game I've played it's not the time or place to say really. If you're going to tell someone you're gay you'll tell them in a normal situation not in a warzone. 3) They're incredibly camp e.g. wear tight leather clothes. The person in this article complains about that himself.

How the fuck could you call this homophobic?

I think the point is that there are not enough gay people identified in games and done well. Sure there are identified gay people in games, but they tend to be flamboyant and stereotypical. To see one done well i.e. Simply fitting in to the plot like everyone else, while still making a point that they are gay.

Some companies may think of their characters as gay, but you don't see them as gay because sexuality is not elaborate on.

Representation is what is really being looked for, that, and more acceptance within the gamer community.

 

[tiger_cub684]

It's a shame that in a society which considers itself to be progressive, that this kind of censorship still occurs. It's just not fair that gays, women, virtually anyone who isn't a straight white male, is underrepresented in a media which is so widespread.
I think we'll look back on these times oneday and shake our heads in disappointment that people were so close-minded.
If only America would take the lead in this battle for equality, rather than be a barrier.

 

[Aetra]

Perhaps this is just me, but would it be possible to just leave sex and sexuality out of a game that isn't about sex, sexuality, and/or the interactions between them?

The main character of a single-player game isn't openly gay.
Oh well.
I'm not playing the game to hear about his or her personal life, I'm playing to get from Point A to Point B in the most violent and spectacular way possible.

If the main character IS openly gay, it won't take away from my gaming experience except when its rather blatant and not worked into the game or storyline very well.
Again, I really don't care if you're gay or not, just let me play my game and get my sense of achievement.

 

[iriemage]

Many games feature their character's sexuality as part of the story. How many games have a romantic plot/subplot. Almost all JRPGs do and JRPGs made up quite a big percentage of games last generation. Also it doesn't even have to be an actual subplot for a character's sexuality to be mentioned. Issun in Okami is obviously straight, just because he mentions how attractive he finds some of the female NPCs.

A good first step for "gayming" would be a supporting character having a homosexual subplot, or mentioning his homosexuality not through a "i'm gay" line but a more natural conversation or remark, perhaps about the character's romantic past with an antagonist, who just happens to be of the same gender.

 

[Xanadeas]

I know I'd be a lot happier if I could play as a gay character. Most of the games I've played have stuck me with a female romantic interest... and I just wasn't interested. It was just boring. Then again, I do end up attatched to them anyways... I always go into a killing rage whenever they go and get themselves killed.

 

[Orekoya]

Many games feature their character's sexuality as part of the story. How many games have a romantic plot/subplot. Almost all JRPGs do and JRPGs made up quite a big percentage of games last generation. Also it doesn't even have to be an actual subplot for a character's sexuality to be mentioned. Issun in Okami is obviously straight, just because he mentions how attractive he finds some of the female NPCs.

A good first step for "gayming" would be a supporting character having a homosexual subplot, or mentioning his homosexuality not through a "i'm gay" line but a more natural conversation or remark, perhaps about the character's romantic past with an antagonist, who just happens to be of the same gender.

Heh, in most games something as simple as just adding another check of many game types in the list of questions: Are you a male or female? What kind of love interest you want? What is your class? What is your name?

 

[iriemage]

Many games feature their character's sexuality as part of the story. How many games have a romantic plot/subplot. Almost all JRPGs do and JRPGs made up quite a big percentage of games last generation. Also it doesn't even have to be an actual subplot for a character's sexuality to be mentioned. Issun in Okami is obviously straight, just because he mentions how attractive he finds some of the female NPCs.

A good first step for "gayming" would be a supporting character having a homosexual subplot, or mentioning his homosexuality not through a "i'm gay" line but a more natural conversation or remark, perhaps about the character's romantic past with an antagonist, who just happens to be of the same gender.

Heh, in most games something as simple as just adding another check of many game types in the list of questions: Are you a male or female? What kind of love interest you want? What is your class? What is your name?

Yes, this works in free roaming games but I was talking more about how homosexuality could be implemented in games with a fixed main character, plot, and supporting cast .

 

[PlasticTree]

Who cares whether gaygamers want to play as a gay person? It's the same with all those other etnical minorities who don't get their 'own' games, sad as it is: those games won't sell enough, and so developers don't make them. And it's not as if this industry is an exception; that simple rule of the market works everywhere. Definitely not a subject The Escapist should have picked.

 

[Talo_AML]

As long as Homosexuality is statistically abnormal, the games industry will stay largely the same.

 

[Deadman Walkin]

Personally I don't think that they are being homophobic. Seriously it is used as an insult, not calling someone "gay." at least where I am from it is just a common insult like idiot or fool as horrible as that sounds >.<

 

[WolfThomas]

What about Army of Two? They were gay weren't they?

I still believe to this day, that that game was an intentional parody of American and videogame macho-ness. The two main characters shared a parachute, liked wearing those masks, loved shopping and decorating their guns, touched each other a lot and never once hit on the only female (who was hot) in game.

Go into the game with this attitude and it's a hoot.

 

[Lovesfool]

I am not so sure that I would call this homophobia. The video game industry, just like most of the entertainment industry as a whole, is pretty much based on iconographic characters. We simply recycle the same standards that have been recreated for ages upon ages. If you think about it, Achilles is not that different from Kratos, Odysseus is not that different from Gordon Freeman, however, I find it hard to remember an epic poem about an ancient "Tingle".

I am using Greek mythology on purpose, since their view on male homosexuality was quite different than what we think about it today. Still...

It's only natural that we don't have a AAA, multimillion dollar game about a gay main character, just like we don't have a AAA, multimillion movie about it (Horseback Mountain is the exception that proves the theory).

 

[Vegetarian Barbarian]

Who cares if their gay or not, its a video game, get over it

 

[Jaebird]

I think the real question is, "Are characters straight until extreme fans make fanart/fanfic about them being gay, but not outright saying so?"

I have no problems with homosexuality. I mostly have a problem with the small niche of fans that turn compelling characters I never found remotely gay and making them depressed lovers on Deviant Art. It just makes my fandom cry a little on the inside.

 

[Vierran]

I think that perhaps it could even help move Society along a bit showing that a mainstream media is able to address it in some way.

 

[Credge]

Final Fantasy is filled to the brim with closet homosexual characters, especially in FF10 and FF7. It's not that they aren't represented, it's just that peoples sexual orientation isn't generally a major playing point in a game.

Even Final Fantasies which typically revolve around the main character being in love with another (or pretending to be in the case of Tidus) down play that a whole hell of a lot.

 

[Woodsey]

Same reason most leading characters aren't female or black; most gamers are male and white. The majority are also straight. They've got to target the widest audience possible, which is peeps like me.

It's not necessarily right, but I find it hard to blame the publishers/developers. We'd all do the same, it's business.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

Wow this is an issue that doesn't deserve to exist. I don't care about my protagonist, it's the entertainment value of the game that I care about. If that means making him as flamboyant as Freddie Mercury, go right ahead.


I don't know what's dumber: homophobic teenagers, or people who are offended by others making money off of them.