LGBT topics in Video Games

[LeonardoDaFinchy]

I want to see a gay Nathan Drake. Badass, physically fit, attractive without being stunning. The only thing that indicates that he may be gay is that he refuses the advances of the female love interest. No gay sex scenes, no hitting on guys, no 'positive' gay indicators, just the simple refusal of an offer that a straight character would jump at.

Could be subtle, challenge stereotypes and all that.

 

[omega 616]

Nah, what does leliana liking the soft touch of a woman have to do with ferelden being taken over by darkspawn or what Loghain is up to?

So what if the guy you get your dragon scale stuff from likes his partner more than just friends?

A charcters sexuality doesn't need to feature in anything other than a soap, in a soap you can have two people of the same and one is attracted to the other but the other is straight and how that gets dealt with over the course of many episodes.

In a 40 hour game, were people would rather be killing rather than talking it has no place. Even in games such as The sims, it's nothing more than "hehehe, I made two lesbians but I am not going to make two gays!".

Maybe that just my nature of not caring, let alone not caring which sex you prefer.

 

[moretimethansense]

Gay issues?

I don't know, how would you define gay issues.
For that matter how would you descrbe straight issues?

Gay charecters?
Absolutely, there is literally no good reason not to, so long as it isn't used a a marketing point.

Homosexuals are people just like you(?) and me(? ), the moment people stop making a big deal of it one way or the other the world will be a much better place.

 

[moretimethansense]

In a 40 hour game, were people would rather be killing rather than talking it has no place. Even in games such as The sims, it's nothing more than "hehehe, I made two lesbians but I am not going to make two gays!".

I am offended by this, first off if you care more about killing than talking you sir are playing the wrong genre of games.
I'm going to go make a gay couple in The Sims Media#val just to spite you now.
And I'm going to flesh them out and make it believable too, just you wait!

 

[Freechoice]

Having them for the sake of having them is inappropriate and disrespectful.

Oh, and the proper term is LGBTQ. If you want to be as PC as possible, QUILTBAG.

Queer/Questioning
Undecided
Intersex
Lesbian
Trangender
Bisexual
Asexual
Gay

I shit you not.

 

[omega 616]

In a 40 hour game, were people would rather be killing rather than talking it has no place. Even in games such as The sims, it's nothing more than "hehehe, I made two lesbians but I am not going to make two gays!".

I am offended by this, first off if you care more about killing than talking you sir are playing the wrong genre of games.
I'm going to go make a gay couple in The Sims Media#val just to spite you now.
And I'm going to flesh them out and make it believable too, just you wait!

Ok, I might have been a touch heavy heanded. If the talking leads to people being stabbed in the back and/or a nice twist then I am interested, if it turns out my bestest friend is gay I don't care.

What does his preferance have to do with me? It is like saying he doesn't like carrots, what does it matter?

 

[icyneesan]

I don't have a problem with real world problems portrayed in my video games, nor do I have a problem with 2 men or 2 women in love/doing it/getting married in my video games as long as its done in a tasteful way. If anyone has a problem with me being okay with it or developers being okay with it then...

 

[moretimethansense]

In a 40 hour game, were people would rather be killing rather than talking it has no place. Even in games such as The sims, it's nothing more than "hehehe, I made two lesbians but I am not going to make two gays!".

I am offended by this, first off if you care more about killing than talking you sir are playing the wrong genre of games.
I'm going to go make a gay couple in The Sims Media#val just to spite you now.
And I'm going to flesh them out and make it believable too, just you wait!

Ok, I might have been a touch heavy heanded. If the talking leads to people being stabbed in the back and/or a nice twist then I am interested, if it turns out my bestest friend is gay I don't care.

What does his preferance have to do with me? It is like saying he doesn't like carrots, what does it matter?

It matters about as much as anybody's sexuality matters, plus it affects their characterization and backstory.

And bny the way, think about what you said for a minuite, imagine that your bestest best freind in real life were gay, wouldn't it affect your outlook somewhat?

For example you may or may not be offended by homophobia (I don't know you and I'd rather not guess), but let's assume that you are, if you overhear someone insulting gays you may be offended by their views but it doesn't really affect you, if your best freind were gay you may take it personally as they are by extension insulting your freind and are insinuating that he is les of a person simply by virtue of being gay.

Of course it makes a difference, every little thing that happens to us changes and shapes our world view, imagine what an entirely different sexual identity would do to your personality.

 

[omega 616]

In a 40 hour game, were people would rather be killing rather than talking it has no place. Even in games such as The sims, it's nothing more than "hehehe, I made two lesbians but I am not going to make two gays!".

I am offended by this, first off if you care more about killing than talking you sir are playing the wrong genre of games.
I'm going to go make a gay couple in The Sims Media#val just to spite you now.
And I'm going to flesh them out and make it believable too, just you wait!

Ok, I might have been a touch heavy heanded. If the talking leads to people being stabbed in the back and/or a nice twist then I am interested, if it turns out my bestest friend is gay I don't care.

What does his preferance have to do with me? It is like saying he doesn't like carrots, what does it matter?

It matters about as much as anybody's sexuality matters, plus it affects their characterization and backstory.

And bny the way, think about what you said for a minuite, imagine that your bestest best freind in real life were gay, wouldn't it affect your outlook somewhat?

For example you may or may not be offended by homophobia (I don't know you and I'd rather not guess), but let's assume that you are, if you overhear someone insulting gays you may be offended by their views but it doesn't really affect you, if your best freind were gay you may take it personally as they are by extension insulting your freind and are insinuating that he is les of a person simply by virtue of being gay.

Of course it makes a difference, every little thing that happens to us changes and shapes our world view, imagine what an entirely different sexual identity would do to your personality.

I had a gay friend, I say had 'cos I used to live with him and now I don't 'cos I was forced to move out due to living there too long.

To me he was just another person, the fact that he liked boys meant nothing. If somebody were to insult him it would be his problem not mine, I am not going to be insulted for him. If he wants to say something to them, thats his call but it's none of my business.

 

[moretimethansense]

I had a gay friend, I say had 'cos I used to live with him and now I don't 'cos I was forced to move out due to living there too long.

To me he was just another person, the fact that he liked boys meant nothing. If somebody were to insult him it would be his problem not mine, I am not going to be insulted for him. If he wants to say something to them, thats his call but it's none of my business.

Fair enough I suppose, but I'm willing to bet it mattered to him.

As I said earlier, every thing we see and do changes the way we think in sometimes subtle, sometimes drastic ways, if he weren't gay he may have had an entirely different personality.

EG. I have a freind whom was bullied somewhat at schhool and recieved quite a bit of physical and mental abuse at home.
If it weren't for that we'd never have becaome freinds, we have very little in common personality wise but we can relate easily due to having gone through similar events in our lives.
Hell, we'd likely never have met.
My oldest freind has asburgers syndrome, without it he's be a very different person and again, we'd likely never have been freinds as it was his social problems combined with his utter lack of sham that made him approach a stranger and invite jim to play(we were six).

My point is, his homosexuality does matter to you as he may have been a totally different person without it.

To sum up:
There's no reason NOT to have gay charecters in games, and having gay charecters allows for more varied backstories and motivations.

Though if I may ask you a question:
Do you feel the same way about heterosexual charecters in games?
Cause if not you may just be a little bit biased.

 

[omega 616]

I had a gay friend, I say had 'cos I used to live with him and now I don't 'cos I was forced to move out due to living there too long.

To me he was just another person, the fact that he liked boys meant nothing. If somebody were to insult him it would be his problem not mine, I am not going to be insulted for him. If he wants to say something to them, thats his call but it's none of my business.

Fair enough I suppose, but I'm willing to bet it mattered to him.

As I said earlier, every thing we see and do changes the way we think in sometimes subtle, sometimes drastic ways, if he weren't gay he may have had an entirely different personality.

EG. I have a freind whom was bullied somewhat at schhool and recieved quite a bit of physical and mental abuse at home.
If it weren't for that we'd never have becaome freinds, we have very little in common personality wise but we can relate easily due to having gone through similar events in our lives.
Hell, we'd likely never have met.
My oldest freind has asburgers syndrome, without it he's be a very different person and again, we'd likely never have been freinds as it was his social problems combined with his utter lack of sham that made him approach a stranger and invite jim to play(we were six).

My point is, his homosexuality does matter to you as he may have been a totally different person without it.

To sum up:
There's no reason NOT to have gay charecters in games, and having gay charecters allows for more varied backstories and motivations.

Though if I may ask you a question:
Do you feel the same way about heterosexual charecters in games?
Cause if not you may just be a little bit biased.

The way I see it is, all the people in the game are a sexual till otherwise stated. Even if they do have sex how will effect (affect?) the story or there chacter? I was going to use DA:O as an example of what I meant but I have only done a play through were I "did" morrigan, so I have no idea how the story unfolds if you don't "DO" anybody or have a lesbian or a gay man, I would imagine the story wouldn't be all that different.

I get what you mean by your story but how does that translate into a game? You could get to the same point with any configuration of gay/lesbian/straight/bi/a sexual just with different, to go with your example that dad of the person your playing could have beaten the person for not being straight or for being straight and wanted to ballet instead of football.

They might have been picked on in school for there sexuality or 'cos they had big teeth and glasses, there still getting bullied.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[moretimethansense]

The way I see it is, all the people in the game are a sexual till otherwise stated. Even if they do have sex how will effect (affect?) the story or there chacter? I was going to use DA:O as an example of what I meant but I have only done a play through were I "did" morrigan, so I have no idea how the story unfolds if you don't "DO" anybody or have a lesbian or a gay man, I would imagine the story wouldn't be all that different.

I get what you mean by your story but how does that translate into a game? You could get to the same point with any configuration of gay/lesbian/straight/bi/a sexual just with different, to go with your example that dad of the person your playing could have beaten the person for not being straight or for being straight and wanted to ballet instead of football.

They might have been picked on in school for there sexuality or 'cos they had big teeth and glasses, there still getting bullied.

I hope that makes sense.

Context, I know I'm not good at explaining things but the ending of DA(for example) has a very different context if you romance morrigan to if you don't and another different context if you befreind her but don't pursue the romance with her.

The point I'm trying (and apparantly failing) to get across is that it does matter.

For example in Harry Potter, word of god says that Dumbledore is gay and may have been in loive with Grindlwald, now you might say that it makes no difference, but it changes the context of the battle between him and Grindlwald in his backstory.
In one version he was betrayed by and then killed his best freind, in the other it was the man he loved.
It makes rather a big difference.

Now granted that's hardl;y the best example but imagine if a charecters sexuality were written in to them from the start, it makes a difference.

Besides which, as I have said a few times now, there's simply no good reason NOT to.
To illustrate my point I'm going to ask you, why should they put black charecters in to games?
It doesn't affect how they play so why do they feel the need to?

The only reason this is even a question is that homosexuality still isn't fully accepted, I mean how many times have you heard people say "I'm not homophobic but, I don't want to see two guys kissing, it's gross."?

 

[Thaluikhain]

I don't see how it's an issue.

The existence of games with homosexual characters in them doesn't stop the existence of dozens more that doesn't have them. People allergic to playing video games with gay characters aren't been forced to play them. If, for some reason, you can't bear to play DA2 because of the homosexual elements, you might be able to find some other game somewhere which doesn't have any.

The only possible reason for people not wanting homosexuality in games would seem to be people thinking that homosexuality (or, at least the creation of a game for a different target audience) is flat out wrong and shouldn't be done.

 

[KingofallCosmos]

Having them for the sake of having them is inappropriate and disrespectful.

Oh, and the proper term is LGBTQ. If you want to be as PC as possible, QUILTBAG.

Queer/Questioning
Undecided
Intersex
Lesbian
Trangender
Bisexual
Asexual
Gay

I shit you not.

I get your point, but doesn't it strike you as odd, maybe not PC that they throw 8 different lifestyles in one heap? It's almost saying everyone that's not normal.

 

[omega 616]

The way I see it is, all the people in the game are a sexual till otherwise stated. Even if they do have sex how will effect (affect?) the story or there chacter? I was going to use DA:O as an example of what I meant but I have only done a play through were I "did" morrigan, so I have no idea how the story unfolds if you don't "DO" anybody or have a lesbian or a gay man, I would imagine the story wouldn't be all that different.

I get what you mean by your story but how does that translate into a game? You could get to the same point with any configuration of gay/lesbian/straight/bi/a sexual just with different, to go with your example that dad of the person your playing could have beaten the person for not being straight or for being straight and wanted to ballet instead of football.

They might have been picked on in school for there sexuality or 'cos they had big teeth and glasses, there still getting bullied.

I hope that makes sense.

Context, I know I'm not good at explaining things but the ending of DA(for example) has a very different context if you romance morrigan to if you don't and another different context if you befreind her but don't pursue the romance with her.

The point I'm trying (and apparantly failing) to get across is that it does matter.

For example in Harry Potter, word of god says that Dumbledore is gay and may have been in loive with Grindlwald, now you might say that it makes no difference, but it changes the context of the battle between him and Grindlwald in his backstory.
In one version he was betrayed by and then killed his best freind, in the other it was the man he loved.
It makes rather a big difference.

Now granted that's hardl;y the best example but imagine if a charecters sexuality were written in to them from the start, it makes a difference.

Besides which, as I have said a few times now, there's simply no good reason NOT to.
To illustrate my point I'm going to ask you, why should they put black charecters in to games?
It doesn't affect how they play so why do they feel the need to?

The only reason this is even a question is that homosexuality still isn't fully accepted, I mean how many times have you heard people say "I'm not homophobic but, I don't want to see two guys kissing, it's gross."?

To be honest I don't want to see anybody kiss anybody, I think it's all "gross".

They put black guys in so they can say "hey, were being PC", thats the only feeling I get from it. Like they made everybody white, then realized and thought "we better make one of them coloured so we don't get hated on for it", the example that springs to mind is ME2 and I think gears only had one black guy in it.

Seriously, I have no idea who those people are, I have never seen a Harry potter film. I can gather what your point is though and to be honest, all it seemed to do was add a little emphasis to fight. If they had made it so they were bestest friends from the age of 1 and they were like brothers, would that be so different from one loved the other? I think it sounds like they used it as a surprise/twist aswell, "omg, he's gay! I never saw that coming!".

I will have to complete some of my other save games on DA:O 'cos I have like 5 left to do. I love character creators.

 

[Pearwood]

But hey, at least they tried to put a male homosexual in there. I mean, he turned out to be a rather unlikable slut, but at least they tried.

He wasn't unlikable, he was really sweet once he opened up. And what he said when I chose to take someone else into the final mission was by far the most emotional response out of any of the romances. But I'm just one of what seems to be about five Zevran fanboys so I'm biased

About having more LGBT characters in games sure if it's done nicely. Compare Dragon Age Origins to Dragon Age 2, Zevran and Leliana were both well designed characters even if Zevran made himself look like one night stand material only and Leliana had some freaky moments ("I was just watching you sleep" being the one that instantly comes to mind). On the other hand the Anders retcon combined with the fact he's the most flirtacious of the romances does make me think they just wanted to showcase the PC aspect of it. Fenris is still good though, still on my first playthrough so haven't really tried the others.

 

[moretimethansense]

To be honest I don't want to see anybody kiss anybody, I think it's all "gross".

They put black guys in so they can say "hey, were being PC", thats the only feeling I get from it. Like they made everybody white, then realized and thought "we better make one of them coloured so we don't get hated on for it", the example that springs to mind is ME2 and I think gears only had one black guy in it.

Seriously, I have no idea who those people are, I have never seen a Harry potter film. I can gather what your point is though and to be honest, all it seemed to do was add a little emphasis to fight. If they had made it so they were bestest friends from the age of 1 and they were like brothers, would that be so different from one loved the other? I think it sounds like they used it as a surprise/twist aswell, "omg, he's gay! I never saw that coming!".

I will have to complete some of my other save games on DA:O 'cos I have like 5 left to do. I love character creators.

Yet you took the Morrigan romance option first?
Interesting.

But do you think that they should all be white?

Actually, SPOILERS FOR THE HP FANS THAT HAVEN'T READ IT YET, AND IF YOU HAVEN'T WTF ARE YOU PLAYING AT IT'S BEEN OUT LONG ENOUGH, Dumble door is effectively the big good, he is the headmaster of the school and one of Harry's mentors, at any rate in his back story Grindlewald was a dark wizard that Dumbledore started knocking about with after his sister was beaten by muggles (regular humans) so they started to wreak a bit of havok, after a while they started looking for certain magic artifacts so they would be effectively unstoppable, Dumbledore got a hold of one, the most powerfull wand in excistance, you could oinly use it's full power if you killed the previous owner.
Grindlewald decided that he wanted it so he tried to kill Dumbledore, he failed, as such Dumbledore saw what the lust for power had done to Grindlewald and was doing to himself, combined with the shock of killing his best friend (and according to Word of God, the man he loved) caused him to give up his ambitions for power.

END SPOILERS

Granted this is hardly the best example, but it does give it a bit of a bitter edge.
As for the difference between someone you love and the closest friend you've ever had?
It's just different, I can't really describe it.

 

[EllEzDee]

Another reason why i hated New Vegas: everyone was fucking gay. I mean seriously, is that what happens in a West coast American apocalypse? Everyone turns gay? Is there no way of portraying gays in videos games without it being completely fucking stupid?
A straight character doesn't mention anything to do with their sexuality, but when a gay character is introduced, they immediately talk about their sexuality. Why can't we just leave sexuality out of games unless it's abso-fuckin-lutely necessary.
Oh yea, because having a gay sex scene generates publicity for the mainstream video game market.

 

[Cronq]

If you're offended, it's your fault entirely. "Discriminate" is not a bad word, it's just been the victim of a smear campaign by the weak and fearful.

 

[Busdriver580]

No.

That's entirely pointless and it has absolutely nothing to do with video games at all.

Anyone who puts it in them is just trying to "send a message", and games trying to send a message have all unanimously been terrible.

Yeah, I hated Metal Gear Solid too