Online Kombat

[Lightknight]

Kotaku's readership and monthly hit counts actually increased as Gamergate got bigger. The site's most successful month ever was the November after Gamergate hit. Also, Polygon's readership has remained steady, while Gamasutra (which was never aimed at the gaming public in the first place) saw a sizable drop in readership.

Really? I'd have suspected a tremendous spike in every site that published articles on the matter. That's generally the purpose of click bait articles anyways and gamers are dead was the "flamiest".

I understand the Kotaku bit. They've got to be the biggest name in gaming sites right now and I'm sure people were looking for answers even if they weren't coming.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Yea, I don?t give a fuck. I mean, seriously! Who cares if they?re a gay character in Mortal Kombat. I mean, there?s been gay characters in video games before; it?s not like this is some kind of ground breaking phenomenon! I mean... WOW! There a gay character in a video game! Who gives a fuck? I mean, Bioware has had a zillion gay characters in their games. I mean, I could make a list if I wanted, but I?m too lazy to bother doing so because it would be such a waste of my time to put any solid context behind my claims. But it?s not just Bioware games either. Zhang He, from Dynasty Warriors, is totally another gay character in video games. I mean, it was never confirmed, but he obviously is. I mean, look at the way he talks and dresses! And someone already mentioned Venom from Guilty Gear! Gay characters are ALL over video games, seriously! And this is really nothing new. I mean, we?ve had gay video game characters for the longest time! I mean, what? You think Tails is straight? Give me a break. We all know which way Tails turns in bed.

I?m letting you all know that I don?t give a fuck. I mean, totally. What?s the big deal about being gay anyway? I mean, you?re not normal, so does that give you should get some kind of special representation in games? I mean, really! Just because you?re gay doesn?t mean that you?re entitled to get some kind of special treatment in games. All of this social justice bullshit that?s getting pushed onto video games recently? I just don?t give a fuck man; it?s all just minorities acting like they deserve special treatment and stuff, just because they?re minorities. I mean, get over yourselves, WE?RE the majority, so WE deserve more representation in games. I don?t give a fuck about all these minorities pulling a victim routine and trying to force gamers to accept that you exist. I am totally entitled to speak for all gamers, and I?m telling you all right now--Gamers don?t give a fuck about representation in games!

But you don?t understand. I REALLY don?t give a fuck. That?s why I wrote this two-thousand word post in the comment section of Kotaku and am now copy and pasting it here. Seriously, when it comes to representation in games, I just don?t give a fuck. And BECAUSE I don?t give a fuck, this is the exact reason why no one else should give a fuck also. It?s just a waste of time and money for devs to spend their time and effort on representation in games because I just don?t give a fuck about that kind of thing. And, since I?m an average straight, white, male gamer, it?s safe for me to say that all gamers don?t care about representation in games. I mean, most gamers don?t give a fuck about representation in games, and I really, REALLY don?t give a fuck. So why is this even posted on a news site any? I mean, what? Is a slow news day or something? Posting news that no one gives a fuck about? God...

Sorry about the language.

I really hope this comment is serious. Because it is so much more funny if it is serious.

 

[O maestre]

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?

I hear you man, for all we know the entire cast of Mortal Kombat is homosexual, and it still wouldn't be a big deal due to the way Mortal Kombat games usually deals with story.

The only story heavy fighter game I can think of is Tekken. Even some of my (filthy peasant) casual gamer buddies notice stuff like the various familial relations in Tekken's story, not so much when it comes to MK or Street Fighter.

 

[K12]

Is he stereotypically gay? How is he identified as such in the game?

They really don't draw much attention to it. This is the only reference to it in game.

This is a pretty classy way of doing a gay character. He's not "The gay guy" his homosexuality is just as relevant as it would make sense to be.

Never ever thought I'd used the word classy to refer to Mortal Kombat!

 

[Sanderpower]

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?

It's a lose, lose situation then. If you just put in their gay without using it to develop the backstory, you get accused of just shoeing it in. If you do use the fact that their gay as part of their backstory, you're accused of trying to shove a person's sexuality into their face. In both cases, you're accused of just adding a token character.

No matter what you do, there will always be somebody out there who are against a gay character and will find some way to be against said gay character while JUST skirting the line of being a bigot.

 

[DerangedHobo]

Pssst. Every time a character's main motivation is "MY WIFE IS DEAD" that's their sexuality coming up as a central character trait.

That seems to be the loss of a loved one coming up, while it is bringing up sexuality by proxy it is completely inconsequential what gender they are unless they died due to their sexuality.

 

[The Wooster]

Please, for the love of god, let the people making comments about how they don't care be doing it in jest.

 

[GrumbleGrump]

Is he stereotypically gay? How is he identified as such in the game?

They really don't draw much attention to it. This is the only reference to it in game.

Holy shit I did not pick up on that.

 

[The Lunatic]

I didn't notice he was gay, honestly. I haven't played the game, but, I've watched a person or two playing bits and pieces of the story mode.

Just took him for a regular fighting guy.

So, that's neat. Admittedly, the whole "I don't know if they'll accept me" is a bit cliche. But, whatever, at least they didn't take "The Bioware approach".

However, I find in a lot of instances, complaint about people complaining about this kinda thing tend to be very trumped up.

It's kinda like with the "Black Stormtrooper" thing that the media got in a tizzy about not long ago. I never saw anyone complaining about it, and I looked pretty hard. But a news site said there were people complaining about it, so, a bunch of other sites agreed there must have been too.

 

[Aerith]

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

It should have been called "Kritical Miss".

0/10

 

[Jake Martinez]

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).

Video games may be one thing, but don't you think that maybe gay people are over represented in most forms of media? After all, our best estimates are that they only make up somewhere around 3-4% of the population (although technically that's not even true because about half of those people self identify as bisexual)

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this, as truly I don't care (unless it gets to the point of absurdity) but I would postulate that most writers and creators make characters who are ones that they feel they can relate to and if you look at demographics, the vast, vast, vast majority of those people would be heterosexual, hence the preponderance of heterosexual characters.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if every single gay writer decided that they would only write about gay characters, we'd still only have a small percentage of gay characters without heterosexual people deciding to write them.

In light of that, it's not terribly surprising that there would be very few gay characters in video games. It's also not nefarious in the least, or something that people ought to be concerned about. I'd be more worried if gay people were being excluded from the industry, or if writers were being told directly to NOT make gay characters.

 

[StreamerDarkly]

This is a thing now? Trumpeting a trait of a character that doesn't really apply to gameplay in the grand scheme of things?

Well written characters are rare. Well written gay characters even more so. People are happy with a dev for managing it.

So y u mad, bro?

Please, for the love of god, let the people making comments about how they don't care be doing it in jest.

I see what's going on here. Couldn't find anyone in the thread that fit the angry homophobe stereotype as depicted in the comic, so let's see if we can bait a moderate.

While I can understand how it would be rewarding for comic artists to provoke the exact type of behavior they're mocking (relevance and all), you don't often see them take to the comments section to achieve it. The odor of tryhard is strong.

On the plus side, assuming you're not above self-mockery, you've inadvertently developed some fresh material for a new comic.

 

[WhiteNachos]

Question: Is there any romance or sex in Mortal Kombat involving the new gay character?

 

[Machine Man 1992]

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 >.>

Like the progressive games journalists who can not shut up about things like this.

 

[kajinking]

Ok after watching a video showing all the characters and their fatalities I still can't tell who it is. The fact that it's not being boradcast with giant neon signs over whoever it is means I don't care.

 

[JCAll]

Question: Is there any romance or sex in Mortal Kombat involving the new gay character?

Not at the moment. He is just a character who happens to be, which is why he was afraid to join the White Lotus seemingly because Liu Kang, his cousin and the White Lotus champion, couldn't accept who he was.

So who are the fans going to ship Kung Jin with? I'll guess Rain.

 

[Silvanus]

Video games may be one thing, but don't you think that maybe gay people are over represented in most forms of media? After all, our best estimates are that they only make up somewhere around 3-4% of the population (although technically that's not even true because about half of those people self identify as bisexual)

Some estimates, yes, though others are higher. Perhaps more significantly, remember too that younger people are more likely to identify as non-straight, and also more likely to play video games, which is another reason using a national survey stat such as that isn't too useful.

That aside, I certainly don't feel gay characters are over-represented. I still have a damn hard time finding gay protagonists, and I've looked pretty hard.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this, as truly I don't care (unless it gets to the point of absurdity) but I would postulate that most writers and creators make characters who are ones that they feel they can relate to and if you look at demographics, the vast, vast, vast majority of those people would be heterosexual, hence the preponderance of heterosexual characters.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if every single gay writer decided that they would only write about gay characters, we'd still only have a small percentage of gay characters without heterosexual people deciding to write them.

In light of that, it's not terribly surprising that there would be very few gay characters in video games. It's also not nefarious in the least, or something that people ought to be concerned about. I'd be more worried if gay people were being excluded from the industry, or if writers were being told directly to NOT make gay characters.

Population proportions account for part of it, but not all. After all, a number of straight authors have proven themselves more than capable of writing gay characters capably. Plus, even when a gay creator creates a gay character (as in the case of DA:I), they're still accused of pandering, so it's unavoidable.

My complaint is that creators are being told just that, by a subset of the fanbase-- a subset which vocally complain about how it shouldn't matter, that it's pandering (regardless of how it's done), that it's politically correct.

The MKX case is an example. The complainants have not had anything taken away from them (as there are still countless straight characters, which are not under any threat), but would prefer to take something away from others. They don't want others to get what they themselves have taken for granted all along. It's just simple dismissiveness.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm not accusing you of any of the above. You seem level-headed.

 

[Sanderpower]

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).

Video games may be one thing, but don't you think that maybe gay people are over represented in most forms of media? After all, our best estimates are that they only make up somewhere around 3-4% of the population (although technically that's not even true because about half of those people self identify as bisexual)

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this, as truly I don't care (unless it gets to the point of absurdity) but I would postulate that most writers and creators make characters who are ones that they feel they can relate to and if you look at demographics, the vast, vast, vast majority of those people would be heterosexual, hence the preponderance of heterosexual characters.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if every single gay writer decided that they would only write about gay characters, we'd still only have a small percentage of gay characters without heterosexual people deciding to write them.

In light of that, it's not terribly surprising that there would be very few gay characters in video games. It's also not nefarious in the least, or something that people ought to be concerned about. I'd be more worried if gay people were being excluded from the industry, or if writers were being told directly to NOT make gay characters.

Well if we wrote based on population demographics, then white characters should be far more rare and the vast majority should be Asians. Also we should have far more religious devout characters, far less tall characters, more illiterate characters, etc.

I understanding where your coming from, but it's flawed because the truth of the matter is that mass media by it's nature doesn't represent the average, it represents the "interesting".