Are their any other gay characters in games that aren't stereotypes?

[pierre666lol]

wow never thought of it like that ! thanks for the insight =D

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Well, unless the game has a romantic story for everyone involved, then a non-stereotypical gay character would just be a "person". As in, you have no idea what their sexuality is because it's never addressed.

So the only ones that stand out are the stereotypical ones, because of their behavior. Non-stereotypical gay guys just act like...guys.

 

[Dapper Ninja]

Alex Shepherd from Homecoming

Alex isn't gay; Double Helix just crammed a bunch of random sexual symbolism into the game in a weak attempt to appeal to Silent Hill fans. If anything, he's just sexually repressed.

 

[Akiada]

Here's something that's never addressed, characters in games who are 'blank slates' so to speak.

If you so wish then your faceless soldier in CoD is gay, Samus is a lesbian and the Necromancer in Diablo II is bisexual.

The point of a blank protaganist is so you can project yourself into the game through them, so if you are straight then your character is straight, if you are gay then your character is gay.

If a gay character has to be openly addressed as a gay character to be worth noting then we've somewhat forgotten the whole 'equality' thing that we were trying to do (after all, in a truely equal society, no-one would actually care about your sexuality so coming out and saying 'I'm gay' would be met with 'well that's great, what do you want? a medal?').

Blank slates aren't characters though. They lack characterization due to being blank slates.

And there's nothing about "forgetting equality" to be found in the fact that a gay character is openly addressed as such. Are we forgetting equality when a straight character kisses his/her love interest? Hell naw. Should work just the same the other way too.

Saying blank slates count as gay characters is like saying "The Rookie" from AvP is the most well-developed black character and an excellent example of racial diversity in games ever because a black man can play AvP and insert himself into the Rookie's shoes.

That's terrible logic. The Rookie is a slate. He isn't a character. He's an avatar for the player who happens to be black.

Alastair from DAO is your unstereotypical gay. Scared of women etc. In the same way Frank Spencer is completely closet.

But... Alastair isn't gay. You can't enter a homosexual relationship with him.

A lot of Bioware games pass the Bechdel Test (Starting at Baldur's Gate) as do Morrowind and Oblivion.

And that's still a small precentage of games. Bioware has made how manty titles? Under ten? And Morrowind and Oblivion pass only through technicalities like "female PC talks to female NPC" or "two NPCs start discussing how much they hate mudcrabs in an entirely nonsensical manner that in no way resembles an actual conversation. By chance, they both happen to be female."

 

[Iron Mal]

Blank slates aren't characters though. They lack characterization due to being blank slates.

And there's nothing about "forgetting equality" to be found in the fact that a gay character is openly addressed as such. Are we forgetting equality when a straight character kisses his/her love interest? Hell naw. Should work just the same the other way too.

Saying blank slates count as gay characters is like saying "The Rookie" from AvP is the most well-developed black character and an excellent example of racial diversity in games ever because a black man can play AvP and insert himself into the Rookie's shoes.

That's terrible logic. The Rookie is a slate. He isn't a character. He's an avatar for the player who happens to be black.

The aim of achieving equality is for everyone to be treated the same regardless of gender, race, nationality, sexuality or anything else. Being abused or praised because of your status as a minority are a sign of discrimination and bias (said minorities are probably more happy about recieving the latter but it still leaves the issue that you are being judged and treated because of one detail of your being rather than who you are as a person or what you've done).

Surely a character who just happens to be black or happens to be gay or happens to be female is exactly what the push for equality is aiming to create, a situation where people who were once frowned upon are no longer judged and are just seen as normal people like everyone else.

Another point to be made, so a major complaint is that gays feel alienated because there aren't many openly gay characters or protaganists out there?

Excuse me for being blunt when I say this but how the hell does that work?

Can I complain about feeling alienated because I often have to play as Americans when I am English? The short answer being of course I can't, part of someone who is well characterised is that you should be able to empathise with them even if their experiences or culture/background is vastly different from yours (not every game has to shape itself around my experiences and preferences).

Lots of people rip into Army of Two for having very 'close' male protaganists but while playing I actually noticed a number of very strong parralells between the way they interacted and how I act towards some of my friends (other than this the number of similarities between myself and them consists mostly of 'we speak English').

Dante's Inferno featured a protaganist who is a devout Christian (to the point of fanaticism), has a history of gratutious violence even towards innocent civillians, corruption on a grand scale and a 'them or us' view on others (in fact, I believe that one of his lines is 'THEY. ARE. NOT. US!') which boils down to irrational hatred on more than one occasion. Even so, I still empathised with the desire to protect and be with a loved one even at the cost of one's self (given how my beloved is currently half the world away it held particular significance to me).

And 'what about when a straight character kisses their love interest?'. Surely the point of a love interest is to explore the nature of human relationships, in that case surely the important part is that it is two people displaying intimacy? Does it matter who the participants are? (granted, this means there's no reason they can't be gay but on the other hand it means that a straight romance shouldn't lack relevence for a gay player either)

EDIT: I'm sorry for the wall of text rant, it's something like 6:30am and I have yet to get any sleep, I still stand by what I've written though.

 

[Akiada]

The aim of achieving equality is for everyone to be treated the same regardless of gender, race, nationality, sexuality or anything else. Being abused or praised because of your status as a minority are a sign of discrimination and bias (said minorities are probably more happy about recieving the latter but it still leaves the issue that you are being judged and treated because of one detail of your being rather than who you are as a person or what you've done).

Surely a character who just happens to be black or happens to be gay or happens to be female is exactly what the push for equality is aiming to create, a situation where people who were once frowned upon are no longer judged and are just seen as normal people like everyone else.

The thing is though, you can be treated the same while still being different, and acting different. We treat all people the same under the law, but people of different religious groups still hold differing beliefs, people from different cultures still have their various traditions and taboos, and so on. If a character is different it is going to be something you notice because they aren't going to be the same.

Can I complain about feeling alienated because I often have to play as Americans when I am English? The short answer being of course I can't, part of someone who is well characterised is that you should be able to empathise with them even if their experiences or culture/background is vastly different from yours (not every game has to shape itself around my experiences and preferences).

While one should be able to empathize with a well-characterized character, you can complain about having to play Americans so often. "America saves the day!" [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AmericaSavesTheDay] is a overused trope.

I mean, sometimes this trope is hilariously awesome (See: Metal Wolf Chaos [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Wolf_Chaos], where you play as the President of the USA and pilot a giant mecha to save the world.) but it's just so terribly overused that I was kinda glad when in CoD:MW the SAS ended up being the group that did the actual world-saving.

And I say this as an American myself.

Lots of people rip into Army of Two for having very 'close' male protaganists but while playing I actually noticed a number of very strong parralells between the way they interacted and how I act towards some of my friends (other than this the number of similarities between myself and them consists mostly of 'we speak English').

I doubt very many people seriously think they're gay. It's just an easy joke. Like the various "unmasking" jokes made on characters like Boba Fett, Master Chief, Tali and virtually every "never shows their face" character. Very few people believe that they're actually horrible space monsters/horrendously ugly/actually the opposite gender/etc. under the mask. It's just a good joke.

Likewise, AoT's protagonists aren't going to see many people honestly claiming they're gay. Just a lot of jokes about it.

And 'what about when a straight character kisses their love interest?'. Surely the point of a love interest is to explore the nature of human relationships, in that case surely the important part is that it is two people displaying intimacy? Does it matter who the participants are? (granted, this means there's no reason they can't be gay but on the other hand it means that a straight romance shouldn't lack relevence for a gay player either)

That's the entire point of the Diversity video. They do not want Token characters. They want fully developed characters and having fully developed characters who happen to be minorities would do the medium a lot of good in terms of diversity - which is always a good thing.

 

[Marmooset]

Well, there's Batman.

Oh, wait - he's the complete rough trade stereotype.

 

[Miles Tormani]

Vamp and Volgin from the Metal Gear series are both bisexual but it really isn't a major part of their character. Come to think of it, I don't remember it even being brought up after "Pliskin" explains that Vamp and Fortune's father were lovers.

If you pay close attention, you'll notice that Vamp tends to act somewhat differently around Raiden than he does around other characters. I personally thought that the implication was that Vamp has some deranged crush on Raiden. Makes sense, considering how androgynous the lad looks.

 

[Space Spoons]

I think Barrett from FFVII was intended to be gay. He's stereotypical in a few different ways, but he's not stereotypically gay at all.

 

[ABLb0y]

Alex Shepherd from Homecoming

Alex isn't gay; Double Helix just crammed a bunch of random sexual symbolism into the game in a weak attempt to appeal to Silent Hill fans. If anything, he's just sexually repressed.

Really? i thought the Si'am was supposed to represtent Bisexuality. huh.

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

Vamp from Metal Gear Solid was bisexual. Pissed off at snake for killing his boyfriend.

Some random neighbour in Indigo Prophecy but he was effeminate as hell.

Voldo from Soul Calibre.

And here is a website for the ones i missed. http://gaygamer.net/top_20_gayest_video_game_characters/

Uh, nowhere in any Soul Cali game is it stated that Voldo is gay. If anything I'm sure the only sexual pleasure he gets derives from pain and that doesn't necessarily connotate towards homosexuality. :/

 

[Something Amyss]

As far as Dumbledore goes, I think he's a bad example because I do not think the character was ever intended to be gay. I think JK Rowling said that to get attention, and try and make "Harry Potter" seem more socially relevent after the fact. That's why he doesn't seem that way, nobody would have guessed because it was never intended.

Except it originally came out (no pun intended) because Rowling didn't want "movie Dumbledore" to have a girlfriend. This wasn't some big revelation she announced to the press, it was something that was leaked from effectively a business meeting.

He seems gay to me, if only because "gay" impacts sexuality alone and does not translate into any other behaviour inherently. "Nobody would have guessed" for the same reason folks coming out of the closet often shock even their closest friends.

 

[blxtnsq]

I don't know, it depends what stereotype you mean. There's Leliana and Zevran from DAO who are bi but I wouldnt call them stereotypes (Leliana anyway).
The lesbian-cat-jedi from KOTOR wasn't stereotypical (to me anyway). I didn't even realise she was a lesbian until I'd already started a relationship with her. That may be more my fault though. Sneaky, sneaky lesbian-cat.
I've heard some people say that Ezio from ACII had a gay thing with Leonardo but I can't really back any of that up, that's just a rumour I heard. And then again, that's bi, not gay, so I don't really know if it counts.

 

[Treefingers]

The think is, a character only needs to be gay or straight if his love life is relevant to the plot. If it isn't making him gay would make it seem like they where trying to make some kind of statement when they weren't.

Imagine how badly a scene like this would fit into a game:

Female Character: "I find you attractive, have some sexual tension."
Protagonist: "No thanks, I'm gay."
Female Character: "Oh okay."
...awkward silence
Female Character: "That's okay by the way, I'm not like... er... I mean, I have nothing against you being..."
Protagonist: "Don't worry about it."

This.

To be fair, the sexuality of most games characters isn't even addressed. It's irrelevant. Master Chief could be a homo for all we know.

 

[MrGalactus]

How do you know who is and isn't gay without them being stereotyped? Mario could be gay! Maybe Yoshi, maybe Sonic, maybe Gordon Freeman, maybe Duke Nukem, maybe Master Chief. You get the point.
DUKE NUKEM IS GAY, EVERYBODY!!!

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Rememebr that 6.6 out of the 6.7billion people aren't as lucky to have the luxury of being able to understand and appreciate such a topic. To assume that 6.6 billion functions with the same ideologies of our feeble cloistered western society is naive.

Your maths is terrible.

You're saying that only 0.1 billion people (otherwise known as 100 million) function with western ideologies... which is interesting because that's less than 1/3 of the US population, let alone the combine populations of all western nations (which, if memory serves, is a bit less than the US population). So either most Western societies are filled with people that don't conform to any western based ideology or, as I stated earlier, you maths is terrible.