Do we need more LGBTQ+ protagonists in video games?

[Nieroshai]

No. How many games even have the protagonist even mention their sexual orientation? No Mass Effect and the like don't count because you choose it. The Last of Us or whatever it was did, and that's all I can think of other then that really dumb one, it was a movie about a sad lesbian or something but everyone made it out to be an amazing game.

I'd rather have a game focus on an interesting story rather then who the character likes to bone. I mean at best such an addition would be a footnote.

"Captain, the bad guys are doing things!"
"Holy shit balls! what are they doing?"
"I don't know, but I'm a transsexual."

Seriously? Is that what you want? That's how it's gonna end up if you keep asking for crap like this. If a developer feels like doing it because it's part of an interesting story then cool! If it's forced in because people kept bitching then it's not cool, and will probably cause more bitching and they won't try it again.

I take it you've never played The Last of Us. Ellie's sexuality never comes up unless you have the expansion. Also, if all you got out of the story was "Ellie's emo," you missed the apocalypse, the search for a cure, and a gay survivalist's desperate struggle to keep zombies off of his lawn, all from the perspective of a man desperate not to lose all he has left.

 

[Supdupadog]

Why is Ellie's leanings first when Bill was already having man troubles before the DLC?

Did everyone just kinda skip the cutscene with the big man meat magazine?

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Need, no.

Honestly it doesn't really matter if we do get them. Plenty of games it doesn't matter what the character is into. However it would be nice for some more.

 

[Treeberry]

No. How many games even have the protagonist even mention their sexual orientation? No Mass Effect and the like don't count because you choose it. The Last of Us or whatever it was did, and that's all I can think of other then that really dumb one, it was a movie about a sad lesbian or something but everyone made it out to be an amazing game.

I'd rather have a game focus on an interesting story rather then who the character likes to bone. I mean at best such an addition would be a footnote.

"Captain, the bad guys are doing things!"
"Holy shit balls! what are they doing?"
"I don't know, but I'm a transsexual."

Seriously? Is that what you want? That's how it's gonna end up if you keep asking for crap like this. If a developer feels like doing it because it's part of an interesting story then cool! If it's forced in because people kept bitching then it's not cool, and will probably cause more bitching and they won't try it again.

I can see where you're coming from but having non-straight, non-male and/or non-white characters doesn't have to be overt. A lesbian character, for example, in a soldier setting could just give her sweetheart and a quick peck on the cheek before departing.

And as for your example I could see this come up in a Mass Effect-like setting - you know when you're playing "counselor" to your comrades.

If it fits, it fits. If it doesn't, it doesn't. (If the people who write characters find it difficult, find better writers. I honestly don't get why people find it hard to write the non "default" characters - when they're supposed to be paid professionals to boot.)

 

[LegendaryVKickr]

I dunno about this. Unless it's a game where gender identification/sexuality may play a role, I don't think it's neccesary. I do think it's important for games to give more options for you to play the way you would if you were the character. If I'm black, Animal Crossing is a bit weird for me since I can only be white.

Grand Theft Auto, for example, is weird if you go to a strip club if you're into dudes. I feel like, as a straight man, if I were playing as a character that was forced to be into dicks, I'd be a little bit uncomfortable. Not saying that characters should HAVE to be straight/gay/whatever, but the player should be allowed to decide, like with Shepard in Mass Effect.

Also, who's to say characters we perceive as straight are actually straight? Perhaps Mario is just in denial, and uses the whole "rescuing the princess" thing to cover up his attraction for Waluigi.

 

[Ticklefist]

double post

 

[Ticklefist]

Every time people try to represent lesbians it's immediately dismissed as male pandering. By straight males, obv.

 

[norashepard]

Considering we don't have any major games with transsexual leads, genderqueer leads, or really any explicitly gay/bisexual leads, then yes, we do need more, if only to say that the needs are met.

Of course if I had my way we'd have a billion more, but something tells me I'll be long dead before that happens.

 

[A-D.]

Has your Sexuality or Gender ever shaped you as a human being?

And dont give me that cop-out on how people treat you cause of X, it doesnt affect the question. You are shaped by decisions you make, experiences you gather over the years and talents you learn, even if you might be predisposed to some of them. A character is not defined by their gender, or their sexuality, it is ONE aspect about them, but it does not define them, it does not sum them up.

You just answered your own question. The answer is yes.

I dont see how being male or female changes your experience of the world as you grow up. Are you forced to do Ballet as a girl? Are you forced to be good at sports as a boy? There might be some kind of cultural expectation, there is no law that enforces it. If you happen to be female there is nothing keeping you from being a lawyer, a doctor, an astronaut, a racecar driver or whatever else field you might be interested in. It also doesnt keep you from developing certain skills and talents for say art, writing, technology or similar.

Likewise, just because you MIGHT be treated differently based on gender, you are not immune from certain treatment. Just because you might be insulted for being a girl by a boy, you may just as well be insulted by other boys when you are a boy yourself.

What we "need" is complex and interesting characters, what gender they are, what haircolor they have, what skincolor they have or what their sexuality are comes last, because ultimately these are arbitrary and random.

Arbitrary, yes, but since we live in a world that doesn't see it that way, its not irrelevant, and pretending that people aren't treated differently based on some otherwise arbitrary differences, such as skin pigmentation, is rather detached from reality. Some alternate realities like to put some of these beyond them - for example, skin colour and racial heritage seems rather irrelevant to how humans are treated in the Mass Effect franchise - but not all games are like that. In fact, some games use this to their strong suit. LA Noire uses the fact that 1947 Los Angeles was a quite openly racist place to develop the main character. The fact that the protagonist in The Walking Dead is black tends to make players more cautious when encountering new people who aren't black (and its been shown in the series that racism isn't a completely unfounded fear). Spec Ops: The Line undoubtedly deliberately made Captain Martin Walker a white man so players wouldn't become suspicious of the game's attempt to subvert the genre until the game's own time of its choosing because we live in a world where we'd actually be surprised to find out that the protagonist wasn't white.

Games dont have to be all about how our world is? They can be about how we want the world to be like, or explore situations where the world is much different to our expectations. If your only lens is via the reality of our current culture then what is the point of playing a game, or reading a book, or watching a movie? Just because LA Noire was set in the timeperiod and let you explore this part of history does not imply this is still the norm nor do i see any connection of color-based suspicion in games. In a zombie apocalypse i would be suspicious of everyone i had not met beforehand because they are quite literally strangers in a world thats gone entirely to shit and could just as well be about to murder you as you turn your back to them, i dont see what that has to do with skincolor at all.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Well for me personally, no. But I can understand why people who are LGBT or any other letter of our great alphabet want to see some more characters who they can relate with. For me it depends on the tone of the game. I don't think such a character is necessary in a shooter, really. But a character-driven RPG or something? Sure, why not?

I think almost any kind of character can work provided they're well written.

 

[Supdupadog]

Grand Theft Auto, for example, is weird if you go to a strip club if you're into dudes. I feel like, as a straight man, if I were playing as a character that was forced to be into dicks, I'd be a little bit uncomfortable.

Well, you could always not go into the sausage club if it's an option. I find strip clubs skeevy in general.

And even if it's a more linear, stage kinda of game, (Like all the games with cheese cake strip club stages) well, suck it up. It's video games. We get sent to alien strongholds, caves with giant mutant lizard monsters, and sewers filled with rotting corpses and meat pods. I think you can make it through the segment with some man ass on display.

Not saying that characters should HAVE to be straight/gay/whatever, but the player should be allowed to decide, like with Shepard in Mass Effect.

As opposed to the many characters who have heterosexual inclinations that I don't decide. Joel, Booker Dewitt, Sly Cooper, Chuck green, Nick Ramos, James Sunderland, Nathan Drake, dude from Far Cry 3, ect.

Also, who's to say characters we perceive as straight are actually straight? Perhaps Mario is just in denial, and uses the whole "rescuing the princess" thing to cover up his attraction for Waluigi.

Well for one, that's dumb. Waluigi has nothing on RawkHawk.

Second, that's just dumb personal inflection. I could also say Mario's favorite pasta is fettuccine, and he jumps on goombas to deal with his feelings of having never know his father. But that means nothing, it's just filling in blanks that will probably never get filled with your own head garbage. And it means nothing to the character traits actually written in stone.

 

[Supdupadog]

Oh my god someone can see the representation outside of extremes.

You can have a bit of my ice cream sandwich anytime Fenrox.

 

[Ratty]

Jim Sterling put it pretty well in a recent episode of his show, if the game industry wants a wider audience yes it does need to start having a more diverse character roster. That includes characters of diverse sexuality and gender identity as well as more diversity in terms of race and cultural perspective. The straight white American teen-to-30-something dude market is already covered by the game industry, I doubt there's room for substantial growth beyond what the industry already sees in that market.

If the industry (particularly the AAA industry) really wants to expand it's time it nutted up and tried to appeal to customers outside its comfort zone.

PS- Given that gender identity/sexuality are some of the biggest topics of our time, it's a little sad that the "all grown up ready to tackle mature subjects" artform of games has as its most recognizable LGBT representatives mostly 20+ year old "joke characters" like Birdo and Poison.

 

[lunavixen]

As long as a character is well written and it can be written in without seeming forced in out faces or token (or for fanservice), I see nothing wrong with playing as a homosexual character. It'd be an interesting change from the usual heterosexual brown haired white guys that are in 99.9% of games. HOWEVER, I don't think it should be shoved into games willy nilly.

 

[fenrizz]

No, not really.
But hey, I'm a white, straight male so what do I know?

 

[Supdupadog]

That willy nilly line could apply to a lot of things.

"I sure hope they didn't add in that platforming section all willy nilly"

"I sure hope this ability scales well and wasn't thrown in all willy nilly"

"I sure hope that sniper type enemy wasn't included all willy nilly"

It's like something that really doesn't need to be said or reminded of. Same with "Well written/implemented".

Where we expecting a mediocre implementation?

Nothing is actually being said with those phrases. Other things should probably be said in their place.

 

[Vault101]

No, not really.
But hey, I'm a white, straight male so what do I know?

nothing

...[i/]Jon Snow[/i]

As long as a character is well written and it can be written in without seeming forced in out faces or token (or for fanservice), I see nothing wrong with playing as a homosexual character. It'd be an interesting change from the usual heterosexual brown haired white guys that are in 99.9% of games. HOWEVER, I don't think it should be shoved into games willy nilly.

well....willy has to be [i/]willing[/i] [footnote/]joke stolen from the vicar of dibley....she doesnt mind[/footnote]

 

[Frozengale]

Not anymore then we need another grizzled white dude as a protagonist. A character is only good if they are written and developed well or at least iconic in some way. Just making them Gay or a Transvestite doesn't make them any better or worse then the characters we already have. It COULD add something to them, but just because they aren't what we normally see wouldn't mean they are worth having.

 

[Riotguards]

it would be nice but forcing developers to add more LGBTQ won't help anyone, its better to have a character who stays perfectly within his character than to suddenly change his views

the same way adding more female token characters won't help either

 

[Hieronymusgoa]

well the industry could use more characters like those, but i can imagine it can be somewhat unconfortable for people to take control of a LBTQ character, adding them as side characters would be nice

Don't worry, us gay folks have been taking control of straight white guys for ages now and we're still gaming!

Don't know about the word 'need', but it would certainly be very nice. If only for diversity's sake. I don't need a gay character to identify with, but it's just nice to see once in a while. Just as it's nice when some celebrity comes out. It doesn't change my world profoundly but it's still good.

Amen. I am with you on this one.
I just felt much more immersed into the story in especially Bioware games where LGBT(QI*etc) characters are playable.
It is still not that I need them, but I like that we have them nowadays. And if Bioware can pull it off, then other big companies can do that too. As simple as that.