Poll: Games aren't gay enough.

[Assassin Xaero]

Voted "Bengay." because it was the only neutral/I don't care option. Personally, I think romance in games is a waste of time. I don't think they should make games where you can be gay just to do it, but if they are going to have it where you can have relationships, why not include straight and gay?

 

[False Nobility]

*wakes up to four pages of responses*


Well, I hope people read my edit in the OP. It's all I can do now. XD

I just want variety if it's GENUINE, not if it's forced token characters. We cool? We cool.

 

[Jammy2003]

I didn't say that article supported it at all either. I even noted explicitly that it DID support the questionable statistic of 5%.

It just brought up the fact that most people guess around that amount, which brings the statistic into major questioning. It contradicts the average experience by a massive margin. That's all. I just wanted to emphasize how worthless statistics on this are, and that I shouldn't have brought it up...Which is why I apologized for it...So....yeah. Sorry.

Ah, I now see exactly what you meant by posting it. Right, but to me that doesn't reflect that it is "closer to the true figure" (at least not intentionally) but rather due to the level of media coverage (both positive and negative) people think it is a much higher percentage than it actually is. Not because people actually know this number of people in their lives who are gay and this is reflected in their choice due to personal experience, but rather it's always "Well I don't know any/many, but I hear about them a lot so there must be loads somewhere else". I know a few, probably less than 5% of people I know, but then again I grew up in a pretty quiet and conservative area which doesn't foster people revealing that they are.

So.... yeah, statistics are useless, because there are so many factors its impossible to tell if the number should be higher or lower so.... I agree with you, in a way, I guess? Sorry for misunderstanding your purposes in posting the article, I was trying to figure out your stance but my head wouldn't wrap around which way you were arguing

Captch: Get your goat
But, Captch, I don't have a goat!

 

[surg3n]

Depends on the game. Most of the time in gaming, sexuality is not a factor. Could Marcus Phoenix be gay? - of course, have you seen him with any girlfriends?. What about Master Chief?, is Cortana some sort of holographic beard?

Personally I find sex in videogames redundant - Videogames are what we do INSTEAD of having sex, and seeing sex in a videogame just reminds me of that. Moreover, most of the time that there is a gay character, he has to be overtly gay, like camp, over the top - GTA games are like this every time.
The point is, how do we know that these people are or aren't gay?, if sex is not a factor in the game, then why do we need to be inundated with stereotypes in order to avoid offending 'stereotypes'.

I've kind of already said it but this irks me somewhat

"I play games because-" yeah sure..thats great..for you .....but then would you say the same things about movies?

if the creator wants to put it in for a reason (a valid one at least from their perspective) then by all means

like the sex scene in the Mass Effect 1...now regardless if you think it was fine/awful, it had a point,and I feel stuff like that needs to be done, to break down peoples reluctance to have certain issues in any media

again....just a pet peeve of mine

It's not a case of whether or not the game has a sex scene. When it's part of the plot, then the player has no control over it, no opinion on what the sexuality of their avatar should be. My point is that when it's possible to go and have sex in a videogame, well we do it not because it's arrousing, or fullfilling - we do it because most of the time, we will get some health back, or be able to gain something from it. To me, that's redundant, it's not part of the plot, it's just something added by the developers.

Let's remember Hot Coffee, on GTA:SA you could go and have sex with a girlfriend, and someone made it a mini-game. Now, the first time you have sex with that girl, it's actually part of the plot, it takes a bit of effort to seal the deal, and that is worthwhile and entertaining. I see the plot shag as part of the game, Hot Coffee, or even just the standard shagging, well it's a little bit sad when it's just there for the sake of it IMO. That's all.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

OT: Is this really necessary? I mean really? If you are playing a game , and the thing that bothers you the most is the lack of homosexual relationships , there is something wrong . There are so many other things wrong with the gaming industy , this is not a priority . Next thing you know transgenders/transexuals/phedophiles/beastiality is going to want to be represented in gaming . Stop forcing your views on people ! Then again enchanted arms had an idiot , and gay guy and a transgender as the main cast ...

Also i laughed when you said the medium was growing up . It isn't .

As for me personally . I'm not homophobic; i don't want homosexuality shoved in my face , and forced upon me in my games . It would be enough to stop me from buying a game i want .

There. Fixed.

 

[Overusedname]

So.... yeah, statistics are useless, because there are so many factors its impossible to tell if the number should be higher or lower so.... I agree with you, in a way, I guess? Sorry for misunderstanding your purposes in posting the article, I was trying to figure out your stance but my head wouldn't wrap around which way you were arguing

It's all good, thanks for keeping it classy.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Bit of a tangent here, but what really annoys me is what happens with 90% of non-heterosexual characters in video games, especially Bioware or Bethesda RPGs.

At some point a character will mention they're gay or bisexual or whatever. But they're not actually allowed to use any of those words, because that would be forcing it in your face or something. They're only ever allowed to mention it by framing the statement around someone of the same gender who they had/have a relationship with. Then both characters just carry on from there. No one really goes into it at all, they just kind of drop it into conversation and the player is often left mentally shifting gears over the fact that a character just said they're gay without actually saying they're gay. It just seems to show that they want to have gay people in the storyline with actually having any actual thought about their alternative sexualities.

And I suppose within reason that's fine. Not every game needs to get bogged down in awkward discussions about characters sexuality. It is possible for a character to reveal their sexuality in an offhand manner, especially when the game is in a setting where that sexuality is more universally accepted. It just seems slightly weird when no video game characters ever say something slightly awkward like "Oh, I didn't realise you were... Well, you know... Gay". Makes the dialogue that little bit less believable, from my point of view.

Depends on the game. Most of the time in gaming, sexuality is not a factor. Could Marcus Phoenix be gay? - of course, have you seen him with any girlfriends?. What about Master Chief?, is Cortana some sort of holographic beard?

Because I'm a Halo nerd I just wanted to note that all Spartans lose their sex drive as a negative side effect of the surgery and genetic enhancements they go through. Also Cortana is pretty much a mental projection of the woman who kidnapped Master Chief at the age of six to spend his life serving the military, who he and all the other Spartans came to think of as a mother figure.

Yeah, Halo's surprisingly messed up in places.

 

[In Search of Username]

Steve in Mass Effect 3 was a great gay character. He was openly gay but nothing was ever really made of it; he didn't act effeminate, didn't fit any stereotypes, acted exactly as a straight character who'd lost their partner would.

 

[Thistlehart]

While this may not actually apply, if you have the opportunity to play The Secret World, there are some awesome NPCs that you find out are gay if you talk to them enough.

One is a philosophical bomb-maker who is sticking around a hell-hole to protect someone he has feelings for, knowing that those feelings will never be returned.

The other two I've run into are basically a couple, stuck out in the middle of the desert. They're collegues, but if you talk to them enough and listen, they make subtle cutesy talk to each other. Of course, once you've talked to them long enough, they become more "comfortable" with your presence, and aren't very subtle (though they're still very polite). They are, however, badasses. One tries to stab a mummy to death with his walking stick, and the other is packing a greatsword.

Love those characters! Very well done.

 

[Jason Fayers]

I think in most games you just assume the main character is hetrosexual because sexuality doesn't come up, and hetrosexual is the default possition, or it's so unimportant you don't care. Ever wonder if Gorden Freeman is gay?

 

[ExileNZ]

Now, I've put it down as "Need more gay", but at the same time, bear in mind that a lot of protagonists are blank slates. They can be gay if you want them to be.

Blank slates aside, I was surprised at the assertion - "What do you mean?" I thought, "We've got WhatsHisFace from..." and then I drew a blank.

Who IS a decent gay character?

Then again, gay characters are unfortunately controversial in the US, so anyone hoping to market to the US either has to have clout to back it up or be so small as to go unnoticed.

Basically it makes selling the game harder, which sucks for everybody (except maybe One Million Moms, but really, fuck them).

 

[ExileNZ]

I think in most games you just assume the main character is hetrosexual because sexuality doesn't come up, and hetrosexual is the default possition, or it's so unimportant you don't care. Ever wonder if Gorden Freeman is gay?

Might explain why he never responds to Alex's advances...

 

[Fasckira]

I couldn't care if my character was gay much in the same way that I wouldn't care if he had brown or blonde hair, black skin or white skin etc.

If a game were to go out of its way to say "Look, our main character is gay!" it'd be ball-bouncingly cringe-worthy. Unless the point of the game was that you were playing a gay character fighting against an army of homophobes or something, at which point the fact becomes relevant.

 

[RJ 17]

It's called target audience. You can either pander to a select few (i.e. the gay community when compared to the rest of the world) or you can create a product that has appeal to a broader swath of the audience

who says that having a certain element in a game is somehow pandering or makes it unappealing for a broader audience?

Fallout New Vegas had two gay companions and a protagonist hwo could be gay/bi attracted to ghouls or techno-sexual (testing out Fisto the sex bot more than once if you know what I mean)

was that game pandering or somwho unappealing to most people? what about mass effect?

just because something is there does not make it pandering, and who says that straight people cant play as or in a game with gay people? who says white people can't play a game with black people in it?

if that really were the case then as a female I'd hardly play any games ever...

I get what your saying from a marketing perspecitve..but generally it doesn't have to be that way

And I understand what you're saying as well and you're right. But what I was talking about was the OP's apparent view that there aren't any games that have that as a focus. It's entirely possible I misread the intention of the OP, but I was trying to address why there's not many (if any) games that have the main (or supporting) character's sexuality as a primary focus.

We really shouldn't care what the sexuality of game characters are, as way more often than not their sexuality has nothing to do with the game or the story. There certainly is nothing wrong with putting in a couple homosexual characters, but their homosexuality is not a vital plot-point, but more of a side-note about their character. It doesn't matter if you made Shepard homosexual in ME 3, the story still plays out the same as if he/she is straight.

I really feel like I'm tripping over my own words here, like I'm not expressing what I'm really trying to say. So to put it simply: I just feel like a character's sexuality really doesn't matter one way or the other, and rightfully it shouldn't. As such game creators shouldn't have to draw focus and attention to the fact that a character is gay, keep it as a side note.

Really, my question for the OP is "Define what makes for a "well written gay character"." Do you want them to be a stereotype just so that everyone KNOWS they're gay? Have the character be a limp-wristed interior decorator? Or would you rather them be like they are in real life: normal people who don't force their sexuality on others...they're the same as everyone else, they just happen to be gay as well.

 

[tangoprime]

What does it matter? Oh wait, it doesn't.

Not that I'm against it, but it seems so pointless. "Mohahahahaha! I've taken over the world! (of course) Prepare to die! Oh, and I'm gay, by the way."

Exactly, are all the gay characters in games supposed to wear out and proud t-shirts or have rainbow ribbons pinned on their armor? I'm all about it, it's fine, it adds realism and can potentially make for great story bits, but seriously, stop making it such a big deal.

Also, has the OP actually played ANY story driven games in, say, the last 3-4 years or so? There are (potentially shoehorned in) gay characters everywhere. Even in games like Skyrim, you can choose to be if you like by deciding who to marry with no restrictions by gender (or species). Go play a bioware or bethesda game, seriously.

 

[FitScotGaymer]

The people who are saying the characters from Bioware games are gay are wrong. They are bisexual, there IS a difference.

Bisexual is not gay.
Bisexual is not gay.
Bisexual is not gay.

I find it kinda bad that I have to point that out.

Don't get me wrong almost all of them are really well written.

Ander's romance made me cry, and Kaidan I totally fell in love with in ME3. He was so awesome.

The only homosexual characters in any Bioware game ever was Mass Effect 3. Cortez and Traynor. Traynor is awesome, amazing, multifaceted, and just all round great.

Cortez is just a horribly offensive stereotype of what a gay man is. IMO.

Other than Traynor I can not think of any exclusively gay characters that were well written in any game any where.
And considering the estimate for how many gay people there r in the world is around 1 in 10 people; it is kinda sad that we don't have more.

 

[Something Amyss]

Games are pretty gay, it's just all hidden in thinly veiled homoerotic subtext. What gaming needs is not to be gayer, but to come out of the closet and admit that it's okay to be what it is.

 

[krazykidd]

Next thing you know transgenders/transexuals/phedophiles/beastiality is going to want to be represented in gaming . Stop forcing your views on people ! Then again enchanted arms had an idiot , and gay guy and a transgender as the main cast ...

As for me personally . I'm not homophobic, but i don't want homosexuality shoved in my face , and forced upon me in my games . It would be enough to stop me from buying a game i want .

Wow. It's disgraceful to describe putting gay or transgender issues into a game on the same level of frigging pedophilia.

And you're not homophobic but gay characters would mean you wouldn't buy a game? Yeah, sounds real consistant.

OT: Putting in token characters is never a good idea, but if it fits with the story and everything, it would be great to have more gay characters in games. It'd be nice for younger gay people to have a role model, it certainly would have helped me.

Gah . I said i don't wan it shoved in my face . Having it shoved in my face would turn me off .

And in all honesty , Without relying on emotion . Whats the difference between heterosexuality / homosexuality and pedophilia? Other than the latter is illigal . Homosexuality was once illigal, and homosexuals were once hunted as pedophiles now are . People are ( apparently ) born heterosexuals , born homosexual , and born pedophiles . Yet we expect pedophile to ( sucessfully) renounce their sexual fetish ( everything is a fetish) , something we would never ( or no longer ) ask of homosexuals . Society has evolved from accepting only heterosexuals to accepting every sexual orientation except for pedophilia . Why couldn't it contiue to evolve in such a way that one day we accept pedophilia ? On a basic level , pedophilia is no different from any other orientation , it is society and not nature that rejects it.

Disclamer: I do not in any way , form or manner support pedophilia , i am just looking at it objectively .

 

[Phasmal]

Sure, more gay.
I'm a big supporter of diversity in games and I'm not a homophobe, so why would I be against more gay characters?
I think you'd have to be really insecure in yourself if you get upset by being flirted with by an ingame dude

And in all honesty , Without relying on emotion . Whats the difference between heterosexuality / homosexuality and pedophilia? Other than the latter is illigal . Homosexuality was once illigal, and homosexuals were once hunted as pedophiles now are . People are ( apparently ) born heterosexuals , born homosexual , and born pedophiles . Yet we expect pedophile to ( sucessfully) renounce their sexual fetish ( everything is a fetish) , something we would never ( or no longer ) ask of homosexuals . Society has evolved from accepting only heterosexuals to accepting every sexual orientation except for pedophilia . Why couldn't it contiue to evolve in such a way that one day we accept pedophilia ? On a basic level , pedophilia is no different from any other orientation , it is society and not nature that rejects it.

Disclamer: I do not in any way , form or manner support pedophilia , i am just looking at it objectively .

Cause pedophilia is known to cause harm to children?
... Obviously?
And cause kids can't consent?

 

[mgirl]

And in all honesty , Without relying on emotion . Whats the difference between heterosexuality / homosexuality and pedophilia?

The difference is is that heterosexuality and homosexuality is mostly expressed through a loving relationship between 2 consenting adults, and pedophilia is often expressed through the abuse and rape of innocent children and I can't believe I've had to say that more than once now.