Trans Character in a game

[jesskit]

Ok Im not sure if this should be here or gaming but most topics of this nature end up in off topic so here I go.

If you were a game designer, how would you implement a transgendered character say as the main character into your game? It could be say an FPS or RPG (more likely to get the character development) or any type of game.

Considering the very very low representation of trans people in gaming there seems to be a fair amount of interest on the topic here on the forums, and so I ask you the escapist gaming community, how would you do it?

captcha
Steam punk
it knows I love it hehe

 

[Queen Michael]

I'd make the transgender part of her a very small part of the game. As in, it wouldn't have any real impact on the gameplay. That's usually what people like the most; when you don't make a big deal of it.

 

[The_Scrivener]

The first thing to cover is why use a transgender individual to begin with? Does gender matter?

Metroid is the greatest use of gender-neutrality in terms of an arbitrary assignment of gender with no tremendous repercussions outside of the maternal themes in a few scenes. Portal is somewhat in the same boat as the relationship between Chell and GLaDoS is a more modern, fleshed-out tongue-in-cheek exchange to the Samus/Mother Brain relationship.

More fun is to think about what games you already played have a transgender protagonist that you never thought about. How many games can you prove for certain the hero isn't trans? Of course based on the pronoun game when developers talk about it, it's obvious they look at them as one or the other and that's how they're conceived creatively, but in the context of only the video game there's hardly any way to know that Nathan Drake wasn't born with a vagina and had his breasts amputated.

ANYHOO.

If you want to use a transgender protagonist and make it a point, then I suggest a game that frequently works with identity and the definitions thereof. A noir crime-laden self-deception fest with an unreliable narrator would be great. Or better yet, a Mulan-style warrior who goes to battle amongst the world of pirate men to discover that at heart she simply is a man. Or a Salem Witch trial stealth game where a suspicious-looking born male must continually disguise himself as a burly militia-enlisted citizen to disguise the fact he's an actual practicing female witch.

 

[jesskit]

The first thing to cover is why use a transgender individual to begin with? Does gender matter?

I guess my question was because of a desire for diversity in gaming. Perhaps even virtual role models that people can aspire to be like. Also gender does matter in ways that people dont think of. Consider the new Tomb Raider, would Lara's reactions come off the same had she been portrayed as a male?

My question also doesnt mean it has to be overt and is directed towards both Transmen and Transwomen. Consider how they would approach situations, the relationships with other characters. What about an rpg that had romantic arcs ala bioware games. How would this affect your character and the portrayal of them

another great captcha
Words have power

 

[DrRockor]

I can think of a transgender person in a game Erica in Catherine. They didn't really make it a think till the end. It was alluded to when Johnny was interested in her but other than that it wasn't really a factor. I think that is a good way of doing it. You don't make it a thing unless it needs to be, just play it like it would go down in the real world. People respect the persons wishes and don't bring it up every other conversation.

 

[krazykidd]

I can think of a transgender person in a game Erica in Catherine. They didn't really make it a think till the end. It was alluded to when Johnny was interested in her but other than that it wasn't really a factor. I think that is a good way of doing it. You don't make it a thing unless it needs to be, just play it like it would go down in the real world. People respect the persons wishes and don't bring it up every other conversation.

This . But for somereason i don't think jonny knew about it . I can't remember if they ended up doing it in the end , but he seemed a bit naive to me .

OT: Did no one play enchanted arms ? Shame gaming comunity , For shame.

 

[Dismal purple]

I guess there could be a story about what it's like to ask your mother about bras when you're adult and not a teenager, and what's it like to only have sons and then suddenly have a daughter.

Or it could be a fun way to prevent the master detective from finding out too much about a character until they find out they're googling the wrong name.

 

[Angelous Wang]

Unless the game had sex or nudity in it, I probably wouldn't even bring it up.

If the game had a male to female character that was in love/relations with a male, I would just have them act the same way towards each other the way a "normal" hetro couple would. And other than that I'd have the male to female character act like a female the rest of the time too.

Trans people do not go around screaming that they are Trans to every one they meet ... well not normally anyway. The only time it would come up is if they are going to enter relationship or have sex with someone.

Other than that the only time they would really ever mention it might be to friends, just to help avoid any awkwardness between them or create closeness the way normal friends tell each other their secrets and stuff.

Just think about Mass Effect and think "what if Shepard was Trans?", what would it have changed?

All it would have changed would be the relationships (except Liara), other than the game would have been the same.

 

[Superlative]

If i were doing it, I'd just have a character whose face and mannerism have a few subtle traces of their birth gender but call themselves something else.

 

[EvilRoy]

I would probably take the Final Fight route as with Roxy and Poison. Seemed to work for them.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

I'd say just make it a part of them. Don't point it out unless it's actually a major, relevant thing. Handle it subtly, or just mention it outright once or twice so the player knows they're trans without beating them around the head with it. As for existing trans characters, there's Poison, Birdo, I heard there's one in Catherine but I don't know their name, and there's some hints that Naoto Shirogane is planning to have the operation in the future And technically there's the player character in Fable 2 and the Saints Row series, because they can switch gender in the game.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

When it comes to RPG's, MMO's or, open-world games I would copy what Saint's Row 2 did: instead of making gender binary I would have a slider or possibly more than one to control height, weight, muscle-definition, masculinity, etc. The first NPC you talk to will have that moment where they don't know how to refer to your character and you can finish their sentence by saying either "...sir", "...ma'am", or, "...(character's name)" for the gender-neutral kind of player. Incidentally, I'm one of the 4 people in the world who are annoyed that Saint's Row 3 made gender binary.

 

[piinyouri]

I believe I remember the girl you meet in Nier being transgendered if not transsexual.

Anyway what most everyone else said. Don't make a tremendous deal out of it.
I'm like mostly anyone else. I do good things, I do bad things, I have things I like and things I dislike.

If you met me in real life the very last thing I'd bring up in conversation would be my personal issues.

 

[Chasing-The-Light]

I kind of like what Atlus did with Naoto in Persona 4. I like that they included her, and she was 'trans' because she was trying to make a name in a male-dominated career path. That being said, I hesitate to use the word trans for her BECAUSE she did it in order to be respected, and because she wished she was a male, not so much because she actually felt like a guy or anything.

The one thing that I didn't like about that approach, however, was I didn't like how the moment the protagonists found out she was a girl, instantly everything switched over to female pronouns. I wish there had at least been a scene where they asked, or talked about, "Well what do you want to use?" Because suddenly all of Inaba knew she was a girl, and that kind of bothered me.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm...not sure, excluding transphobia, how it would be an issue. Unless it's just something that's mentioned in between talking about things actually related to the game.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

Well, unless them being trans* mattered in some way to the events of the game, I guess I would just have that be the case and never even mention it. Tacking on artificial situations for the fact to come up in would serve no purpose beyond beating the player over the head with an irrelevant detail, which would mean that the player character being trans* is actively detracting from the quality of the game.

Of course, one could build a game from the ground up such that the character being trans* is consistently important, but that runs a serious risk of becoming preachy melodrama.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Ok Im not sure if this should be here or gaming but most topics of this nature end up in off topic so here I go.

If you were a game designer, how would you implement a transgendered character say as the main character into your game? It could be say an FPS or RPG (more likely to get the character development) or any type of game.

Considering the very very low representation of trans people in gaming there seems to be a fair amount of interest on the topic here on the forums, and so I ask you the escapist gaming community, how would you do it?

captcha
Steam punk
it knows I love it hehe

Simply, be a character. Being transgendered isn't your primary aspect, just a small facet of who they are. Maybe have an embarrassing story then go back to like, fighting Chimera's with your teeth.

 

[makano]

I consider it bad story telling when you make a character who's only purpose is to be "gay/trans/fish" does a gay person only solely define him/her self as gay and that's it? can't they be more than just the token gay, real gay people don't act this way they are people that love who they love but they also can fight for the cause and don't let a single aspect of there person define them.

So sick of this your with us or against us argument

I hate one note story telling for example the gay relationships in mass effect 3 while i was playing it i said to myself "There is a whole galaxy as stake here people and you want to care about who has sex with who".

Personally I DO NOT CARE WHERE PEOPLE STICK THINGS its not relevant when you have a alien death force shooting down at you.

 

[Flutterknight]

Like everyone else said, I would just have it be one more detail to their character (as it is with us real trans folk), and avoid making it a big deal unless you felt you absolutely had to for some reason, and even then only if you could do it without objectifying, fetishizing, or otherwise poorly representing, or outright misrepresenting, the reality of what it means to be a trans person. Unless you're really planning on making it a very large part of the story (or the entire story being a chronicle of their transition, which would be *really* boring), I'd definitely say just leave it as a small detail, and ideally don't even mention it in the main story. Depending on the kind of game you would be planning, I could see it being included as a minor detail that the player never actually has to see, such as having classified or otherwise secret dossiers of your party members being a little hidden bonus in a more modern RPG or something similar could be a good place to include a detail like that with some backstory, but never actually mention it in the main game. You could probably handle it well as part of a personal sidequest for the character in a game like that as well either by having something involving an unsupportive family member or even maybe visiting the character's childhood home and having another party member just curiously ask who the [child of trans character's birth gender] is in a picture hanging up or something, but ultimately the best bet would definitely just be to not make a big deal out of it no matter what you do.

Sorry about the rambling wall of text, that happens often with me. XD