Do we need more LGBTQ+ protagonists in video games?

[rgrekejin]

I love the idea that we can only have gay characters if they add something to the story, like "heterosexual is default, so make a straight character unless you can think of a compelling reason for them to be gay. Otherwise I just don't wanna know!" Groan.

Don't tell me you're gay unless it's relevant to something I'm doing. 'Cause we're all straight here, right?

See, that's not what I think people mean when they reply "not unless it's relevant to the story". You seem to be under the impression that we're adrift in a vast sea of heterosexual characters with a very rare LGBT island thrown in now and again. But that's not actually true. What we actually have is a handful of straight characters, a few rare LGBT characters, and a vast, uncountable host of characters whose sexuality we know nothing about. And that's not counting all the games where the characters in question aren't even human, thereby rendering any discussion of their sexuality pointless.

This is because in most games, the sexuality of the characters is completely irrelevant to anything that's going on, and crow-barring it in without a good, story-related reason would make as much sense as adding an out-of-context discussion of said character's religious preferences. Seriously. Do we need more Muslim characters? More Catholic ones? More atheist ones? Do we need a diversity of faiths in videogames? I'm sure there are lots of people who would appreciate having a character who shares the same faith as them. And yet, no one even gives this suggestion any serious thought. Because we all instinctively understand that, in the vast majority of games, the religion of the character in question is utterly irrelevant to the proceedings. It only comes up when it actually is relevant.

So when I see the "not unless it's relevant to the story" reply, I tend to think it's less about people wanting you to have a special reason for disrupting their happy world of homogenous heterosexuality, and more about them wanting you to have a valid reason for inserting sexuality into the game *at all*.

 

[Darkmantle]

I love the idea that we can only have gay characters if they add something to the story, like "heterosexual is default, so make a straight character unless you can think of a compelling reason for them to be gay. Otherwise I just don't wanna know!" Groan.

Don't tell me you're gay unless it's relevant to something I'm doing. 'Cause we're all straight here, right?

I'm going to repeat my argument from earlier, though slightly abridged.

There are less explicitly straight characters then you make it out. Straight is NOT the default, the default is "un-oriented". Is "Soap Mactavish" of CoD fame gay? Is it ever brought up what naughty bits he prefers? Hell, I could, with some time, make a very strong case for "Soap" being a silently gay character. Same with Marcus Fenix from gears of war, he could very well be gay. I mean we know Dom is straight because he has a wife, but Marcus never seems to bring up his orientation.

But we both know, that the writers probably never even bothered to write a sexual orientation in for these characters. They are neither straight, nor gay, nor bi, nor anything else. It isn't brought up. I can't believe you would be satisfied with just name checking homosexuality, would that not just be tokenism? If Soap had some off-hand comment about a guy back home, would that be all it took to make you think homosexuality was taken seriously?

What people are saying, is that if the game has themes related to sexuality or the like, yea, having some non-straight characters is important. That's why I fully support and appreciate that bioware has started putting in homosexual relationships in their games. They have always included love interests etc in their games, and they let you make your own character in them, so it makes sense, and I'm glad they did it. But if you want games that have nothing to do with that kind of content to just start having token LGBT characters in them for no purpose other than to check themselves off as "gay-friendly", I don't think that's progress.

 

[Agente L]

I wouldn't go as far as saying "need", but it's always good to have variety on characters.

As long as it's a well written character, I don't have any problems with characters of any genre, personality or actions. Just look at Kanji] from Persona 4. It's a very well developed characters, with his inner struggles being shown and further worked on during the game. In the end, we don't really discover what he really was, but it's still food for thought. Heck, even Naoto goes through a somewhat situation. And it's an great character.

For me, it's less about "we need to have LGBT/whatever" and more "We need to have more good and well developed characters". The rest comes with it.

 

[Tarfeather]

I came here just to ask: What on earth does LGBTQ+ even mean?

 

[AgDr_ODST]

No we don't need more LGB heroes in games.

The orientation of a game's protagonist is the last thing I care about as long as the story, mechanics, level design and everything else is well done. If a game does have all of those things though but it's constantly shoving in my face reminders that say I'm playing as a gay man or a lesbian then I'll lose interest very quickly. I would much rather have a game where a deeper focus on normal or even alternative or sexualities can be optionally explored if that is not in fact the point of the game.

 

[Miles Maldonado]

I had a thought due to this thread: What if it's something that doesn't start as the primary element of a character, but an external force uses the fact to wreck the character's life either via blackmail in a society that isn't exactly happy about homosexuals, or to get him or her sacked from their position.

To me this seems like it would be a good story to tell - a character who already has come to terms with his or her sexuality finds themselves ruined by someone else who wanted them out of the way for something, or wanted them to bend to their will when they otherwise would not. Granted, this would probably only work in certain circumstances - the specific idea I had was an officer who was uninterested in politics who wanted to get his job done during a war, and the topic of homosexuality from a more corrupt officer who wants his position uses his own sexuality against him to twist his arm to whatever said corrupt officer wants even in the face of a bigger threat. Something like that.

EDIT: If nothing else it would be a change of pace from "X killed my wife/girlfriend/other significant person" and might serve as a story focused on rooting out corruption as well as attempting to send a message to the (probably fictional) society.

 

[Samael Barghest]

Keep dreaming. As it is now, it ain't happening. The game industry is only concern with profit. A game like that would spark too much controversy, especially if the character wasn't portrayed properly. There would be little to no sales, law suits, and pissed off people.