Major props on your avatar. One of my favorite TV series of all time.
Silvanus said:
I think you're slightly misunderstanding my problem, here. It's not a slight negative for me when I play a game with a heterosexual protagonist.
It only becomes a negative when that's all there is to play.
Ah, so it isn't a negative per game, it's a negative in general. I think it's been clearly well defined that there are games where the player may choose to be gay. So we do know that this is not all there is to play as in the market as a whole. Please understand, I'm not trying to dismiss your trivialize your feelings, I'm just trying to get a better understanding of them.
In games with high customisation, or even those with silent protagonists, the protagonist is indeed an avatar for the gamer-- but not so in many others. I dread to think which players are seeing themselves in F.3.A.R.'s Point Man!
This actually isn't true. Even playing a game with a stable and strong character (with clearly expressed characteristics, not physically strong) like Nathan Drake, that character is still the player's avatar and the player still sees it as them playing as that avatar. Please bear in mind this isn't to say that playing as avatars that are drastically different from the individual are necessarily a bad thing. Just that they see the avatar as themselves because that's what they're controlling. No different than the concept that the mouse pointer on a screen is you. Even now, you are expressing overall discontent with none of your avatars reflecting your personhood to the extent you'd want. This very conversation wouldn't exist if that wasn't the case.
I don't think it is "so important", exactly.
I'm just sick of gay people being considered unimportant. Straight people take for granted how much things are weighted towards them. In video games, they don't exist as protagonists outside self-customisation. In films, they don't exist as protagonists outside of tragedies. I know books with gay protagonists exist, but since I've never sought one out specifically, I've never found one-- I'm a prolific reader, and I've only ever encountered straight protagonists there, as well. As background characters, they're fine, but don't let them take the protagonist's role, lest they make straight people flip their shit as they momentarily forget they have the other 99% of media to turn to.
This wasn't aimed at you, Lightknight, you mentioned that you do sympathise earlier. It was just a general rant.
I understand the need to rant and feel free to do that to me any time.
Your answer falls in-line with what my other gay friends have stated on this topic and more important ones like gay marriage. You feel a need to have your orientation publicly legitimized and accepted in a medium that you enjoy/participate. Similar to being allowed into the "in-crowd". Having some games with stable main characters whose orientation matches yours would help you feel better about yourself and the society you live in as a homosexual individual. This isn't a bad desire, it's natural to want to fit in and feel like you're OK. (You are, OK, by the way. And you do have every right to have a full place in society.)
But it isn't that homosexuals are unimportant. It's merely that your demographic represents a small segment of the target market. In a business, that still makes you a customer but it makes catering something specifically to you a lot more costly to the business and something that may be a negative to even more members of the 95% than the 5% it benefits. It isn't as simple as a hotdog stand keeping 5 veggie dogs just in case a vegetarian stops by. Customization that allows for homosexuals is companies specifically catering to your market segment. I understand why a stable character would mean more to you but please don't dismiss being allowed the option in customizeable games as trivial. Those are companies that have taken the time to add the option specifically for you. Whether it's Dragon Age or Saints Row 4 or whatever, these are companies that spent extra resources to add it just for you and people like you. They had the discussion, "Should we encorporate homosexuality" and they said, "Absolutely" or "Why not?". The increasing trend to include this option needs to be seen as the gaming market catering to you.
While I hope you never feel like you don't count, you absolutely do count, you're going to have to come to terms with being a member of a very small minority. That does have and will always have its downsides. Complaining that the norm (straight individuals in this case) is treated like the norm is merely stating how things are what what they typically should be in a fair society. I'm not exactly sure how to get my point across, but I just want you to know that you aren't being uncatered to because you or people like you are unimportant or don't count. It is simply a numbers thing and doesn't deal with your orientation specifically. Like if you were a member of a political party that made up 5% of the US but only voted for members of your own party. You'd all have the same vote that anyone in the other parties have, it's just that the combined force of your party can't get anything passed by themselves. While many individuals like myself wouldn't have any problem with a gay protagonist and support companies that would design games with homosexuals in mind, I still want to be able to play characters that are like me for the same reason you want characters that are like you.
As a side note, I'll bring up Fable 1 if that hasn't been mentioned in which a non-customiseable protagonist may marry another man. I apologize if you're female, I don't know your sex and I don't recall a non-customizeable female/female relationship game. Most games that allow that now though are customiseable and I think that's the fairest way to accomodate the 5% without incurring any cost to the 95%.
I really hope I didn't step on your toes here. I'm just trying to discuss it in a realistic and honest manner.
