Ubisoft Writer Predicts No Gay Game Heroes Anytime Soon

[Ferisar]

I'm okay with gay protagonists... so long as it's optional.

Imagine, if you will, that the protagonist of an AC game just happens to be gay... seriously, think about it. AC4 Black Flag with a gay Edward Kenway? ahh.. so that's why almost all the sailors were male back then.

Remember how Ubi talked about Edward and his first mate having a close relationship?? now think about that comment along with a potentially gay Edward Kenway.

Sounds pretty entertaining, dunno man. It's not like Ubisoft is about to put hardcore gay pornography into Assassin's BoyhoodFantasyAdventure Creed. Even if he was gay, I'm pretty sure the fade-to-black won't make people go blind.

GOD IT'S SO GAY, I CAN'T HANDLE IT

SOMEONE, QUICK, BRING ME THREE LEMONS AND CANDLE WAX, I NEED TO SAVE MY PURE UNTOUCHED EYES.

 

[spartandude]

I'm okay with gay protagonists... so long as it's optional.

May i ask why you think Homosexuality for main characters needs to be optional? and do you think the same for Heterosexual characters?

 

[AgedGrunt]

Apparently no one is asking Lucien Soulban why he, an openly gay lead writer at a major game company, doesn't write gay heroes. If he has and his ideas were rejected, then where are the names of companies, executives and people responsible for the red light?

Worse, he doesn't appear to accept responsibility to change his industry, but he blames it (meaning publishers). Sounds like a cop-out.

Lucien, you're at the top. You write the games. You're in perhaps the best position to change course. What kind of message is this? Either have the courage to take a stand or you'll continue to be part of the problem, because this is your industry. Quit talking like a bystander.

 

[Kingjackl]

I guess one advantage is that unless a game specifically depicts a character as being in a heterosexual relationship, you can still assume that they are gay and the matter simply never came up. It doesn't need to be blatant- players can just do the Dumbledore thing if they think it suits.

For example, Gordon Freeman? Totally gay. Until Half Life 3 comes out, you can't disprove it, so let people believe it if they want. Similarly, Marcus Fenix? Doesn't reciprocate affection from females, spends a lot of time around burly men, could just as well have held a torch for the demonstratively heterosexual Dom. Phoenix Wright? Don't get me started. Only relationship with female characters as either a friend or an ersatz father figure, clearly very fond of Miles Edgeworth, wears lots of product in his hair.

That's the cool thing about gaming is that it's all relative to the gamer. Stuff like the Bioware games and Skyrim are just legitimising what was always open to player interpretation.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

He's right about sales. I wouldn't buy a game with a gay protagonist. I don't have a problem admitting that because I'm not homophobic. I don't feel the need to fake extra political correctness. I don't have anything against homosexuality, I just hate mandatory romances in video games. That's not why I play them. And it would be especially weird if that mandatory romance isn't something that I can relate to. I want to relate to the protagonist. I can't do that if you shove his/her sexuality in my face like it's somehow important. RPG's like Mass Effect and Dragon Age I'm OK with because I can just choose not to engage my character in a romantic relationship if I don't want to. And having that freedom makes it more likely for me to explore the possibilities.

There is one thing that does bother me even about those games. Take Mass Effect for example. Characters in that game react to Shepard like they don't know that he/she is hetero/homosexual. They should fuckin' know! So why not simply let people choose their sexuality in the character creator before the game?

See, this is a decent defense. It's a nice change to hear people just admit that gay relationships between characters aren't their thing because, well, it's their right.

On the other hand, I hate how some younger or more bigoted gamers will flat-out assume that if gays are given prominent roles in games, then the entire spectrum's going to turn pretty-pink. The rest of the world is slowly abandoning preconceptions like this, but it feels like the average emotional maturity of the hardcore gamer still has a way to go.

My typical argument is as follows: I'm a guy with pretty solid bisexual leanings. Some guys do it for me just as some girls do. Despite that, the "Shakarian" pairing (FemShep and Garrus) felt like the most evocative potential couple in the Mass Effect series to me. Despite that, I have no right, as a guy, to deride someone's else decision to play as ManShep and remain faithful to Ashley or Liara. I also don't have any right to judge anyone who figures ManShep belongs with Kaidan or Cortez. Romantic ideals are too personal to be criticized.

Now if only developers could catch up on this, that'd be swell. There's lots of progress being made in-game, yes, but the average dev still feels like an utter sausage fest.

 

[WarpZone]

Admittedly, I haven't gotten very far in Drunken Robot Pronography, but I was under the impression that protagonist Reuben Mastumoto was into dudes. He's ostensibly fighting 12 robot strippers and the robot bartender who was running his bar, but so far all the robot bosses I've heard speak used male voices.

You could make the argument that he could be a straight character whose bar just happens to include male entertainment, because that made more business sense in this setting, or that the Bartender changed the robots' genders when he did the Dr. Wily thing to them, or some other such handwave, but personally I like how Reuben comes across as an archetypal everyman in his interactions with other characters. Gay, straight, or bi, his sexuality is not the primary defining characteristic of his personality.

You could also argue that DRP isn't a AAA game, but I'm calling it. We are witnessing a Portal situation in the making. When DRP2 comes out, consoles are going to be begging for it, if not sooner.

 

[floppylobster]

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland didn't count? Is that not AAA enough for you? Pussies.