Homosexuals in gaming.

[rokkolpo]

I finished both Army of Two games.

that's Bromance......and it's beautiful.

not gay.

 

[SkullCap]

http://www.freewebs.com/superzambezi/Birdo.jpg

Nothing new in the world of gaming. Case in point.

Ever since "Super Mario Bros. 2" er I mean Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic.

 

[Noone From Nowhere]

Let's see...there is Spirit Monk and Skye or SM and Silk Fox in Jade Empire, Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 2(it didn't really count in the first game since gender has no meaning regarding Asari),the Hero from Fable 1&2, and the Fighter's Guild Boss' son in Elder Scrolls 4 that are non-stereotypical homosexuals in games that I can recall off hand.
Of course, all but one of those are optional orientations.

Are people clamoring for a Brokeback Mountain, Gravitation or Revolutionary Girl Utena game right now or something like it?
If they are, then count on gay protagonists becoming as commonplace as curvy women are in games now where before Chun-Li and Lara Croft, they were almost completely unheard of.

 

[Jim-a-Lim]

Let's clear something up - Marcus from G.O.W. gay, we are talking by the man a jumbo pot of vaseline for christmas gay. Evidence - well lets face it hes in amongst all those men an never once makes a comment on where Doms wife really is, my guess? he sold the lass you all know it

 

[bobknowsall]

i remember one of the five characters in i have no mouth and i must scream was a homosexual, and a major psychological plot point was his admittance to his wive about that fact. that was in the late 80s or early 90s, mind you^^ would have been controversy fuel unleaded if the game would not have had a million really bad mindfucks up the sleeve that made this fact fade into the backround somewhat^^

I can just imagine a possible exchange:

1st guy- "Man... I just had to admit to my wife that our whole marriage was a sham so I could fit in with societal norms. It was awful..."
2nd guy- "I just had to walk fifteen miles through broken glass to get a f---king can of peaches. And guess what? We haven't got a bloody can opener. Somehow, I find my sympathy strangely lacking at the moment."
- *a strange, muffled noise emanates from the corner of the room*
2nd guy- "Oh, and Larry got turned into an amorphous blob. He can't even complain about his problems, man."

i...don't think this is how it went. still that made me laugh inapropriatly hard xD

Yeah, I haven't actually read the whole story, so that's probably a very inaccurate plot summary.

And thank you. I do try. XP

 

[CrafterMan]

Yeah the protagonists sexuality has no bearing on my enjoyment from a game.

-Joe

 

[StANDY1338]

I always thought Spyro was a bit queer, but he can breathe fire so fuck it.

This is probably the best thing I have seen all day.

I don't really see the need to be honest. It's not like homosexual people can't relate to straight protagonists. Although I do wonder about army of two sometimes.

 

[WolfThomas]

I finished both Army of Two games.

that's Bromance......and it's beautiful.

not gay.

I'm not insulting the games, I enjoyed them both and there's nothing wrong with homosexuality. But I honestly find the games better (and more hilarious) when I interpret them as being a couple, especially the psuedo-twist ending of 40th day.

 

[Lamppenkeyboard]

Valve seems to have been closing off that possibility woth Freeman, there is the whole potential thing with Alex, and there is a picture of a woman in his locker at Black Mesa.

But it wouldn't really make a difference. I don't usually follow the story to that type of game. I pretended that I was a contract killer in Half Life 1, and I killed all friendly characters I came up against, as well as the enemies. And in the second I imagined that my suit was laced with explosives, and that I had to fight for the resistance, and I could not kill any or else I would be blown apart. This of course was Vance's revenge for my actions at Black Mesa.

What I am trying to get across is: make the character a beastophile for all I care, I probably won't pay attention anyway.

 

[Benjeezy]

Valve seems to have been closing off that possibility woth Freeman, there is the whole potential thing with Alex, and there is a picture of a woman in his locker at Black Mesa.

But it wouldn't really make a difference. I don't usually follow the story to that type of game. I pretended that I was a contract killer in Half Life 1, and I killed all friendly characters I came up against, as well as the enemies. And in the second I imagined that my suit was laced with explosives, and that I had to fight for the resistance, and I could not kill any or else I would be blown apart. This of course was Vance's revenge for my actions at Black Mesa.

What I am trying to get across is: make the character a beastophile for all I care, I probably won't pay attention anyway.

I might have a problem with that last bit, but then, you may be made of tougher stuff then me.



As for the gay/straight thing, it's not a big deal to me. I have a gay friend, and eh's a pretty cool guy. Eh watches Glee and doesn't afraid of anything Neither of us would have a problem playing as a different sexual orientation, as it's only a game.

 

[Daedalus1942]

In Anthony Burch's, "Rev Rant" he mentioned Homosexuals in games and how there should be characters who are homosexual, but they don't let that stereotype who they are. After listening to that I thought about the subject, and realized that in most games, there really isn't any defining moments where you can tell the lead character, or player character is straight or not.
What does that say? That just because someone is bad ass we think that they're straight? For example, Gordan Freeman COULD very well be gay. Master Chief could be gay. And Marcus from Gears Of War could be gay, I think. I never really got in to Gears Of War. Even if a main character came out of the closet, would the gaming population be ready for it? Lets say In Half-Life Episode 3, Someone mentions Gordan being gay and no one says anything like, " No hes not!" in game, while your playing as him. What would you do? He's still Gordan Freeman, He's still a speechless bad ass who crowbar's things in the face and saves the world, he just happens to be gay. I think that if Master Chief was gay, there wouldn't be so many 10 year old's calling each other fags...No,no that wouldn't change. Would people still like to play the game? What do you think?

Gordon Freeman is clearly gay. He doesn't wish to tap the Alyx Vance? He's pretty gay. And I'd love if MC was gay. That would make me piss myself from the hilarity of all those fratboys crying in their dormitory at night.

 

[Lamppenkeyboard]

I do find beastiality disgusting. I can't stress that nearly enough in text form. What I was trying to say is that I really just don't pay attention to that kind of thing in gaming.

I will admit that I went overboard with the message. Very overboard, in fact.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

A good majority of people are homophobic, even if they don't say it. If there is knowledge that the main character is gay, very few people will even consider looking up the game at the stake of seeming "queer" towards there peer.

I guess...gay main characters are okay. I don't mind gay people, but they kinda...freak me out. They just shouldn't came out of know where. if the main character is gay, make him always gay instead of pulling shit out of there ass.

 

[Uszi]

TL;DR warning:

<a href=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-showbiz7-23oct23,0,5726083.story>Or were the signs there along?!?

Let me pull up that list for people who might mistakenly read your post and think there's actually something to those signs:

[sub]1. His pet. "Fawkes, the many-colored phoenix, is 'flaming.'"

2. His name. "While the anagram to 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' is 'I am Lord Voldemort,' as my good friend pointed out, 'Albus Dumbledore' becomes 'Male bods rule, bud!'"

3. His fashion sense. "Whether it's his 'purple cloak and high-heeled boots,' a 'flamboyantly cut suit of plum velvet,' a flowered bonnet at Christmas or his fascination with knitting patterns, Dumbledore defies the fashion standards of normative masculinity and, of course, this gives him a flair like no other. It's no wonder that even the uppity portrait of former headmaster Phineas Nigellus announced, 'You cannot deny he's got style.'"

4. His sensitivity. "Leaders like Cornelius Fudge, Rufus Scrimgeour and Dolores Umbridge (yes, even a woman) who are limited by the standards of normative masculinity could not fully embrace where Voldemort was weakest: in his capacity to love. Dumbledore understood that it's tougher to be vulnerable, to express one's feelings, and that one's undying love for friends and for life itself is a more powerful weapon than fear. Even his most selfish moments in pursuing the Deathly Hallows were motivated either by his feelings for Grindelwald or his wish to apologize to his late sister."

5. His openness. "After she outed Dumbledore, Rowling said that she viewed the whole series as a prolonged treatise on tolerance. Dumbledore is the personification of this. Like the LGBT community that has time and again used its own oppression to fight for the equality of others, Dumbledore was a champion for the rights of werewolves, giants, house elves, muggle-borns, centaurs, merpeople -- even alternative marriage. When it came time to decide whether the marriage between Lupin the werewolf and Tonks the full-blooded witch could be considered natural, Professor Minerva McGonagall said, 'Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world.'"

6. His historical parallel. "If Dumbledore were like any one in history, it would have to be Leonardo DaVinci. They both were considered eccentric geniuses ('He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes'); both added a great deal to our body of knowledge (after all, Dumbledore did discover the 12 uses of dragon's blood!); both were solitary, both were considered warm, loving and incredibly calm; both dwelt in mysterious mystical realms; both spent a lot of time with their journals (Leonardo wrote his backwards while Dumbledore was constantly diving into his pensieve); both even had long hair! And, of course, a popular thought among many scholars is that the maestro Leonardo was gay."

7. The fact that so few of us realized he was gay. "No matter how many 'clues' I can put down that Dumbledore was gay, no matter how many millions of people have read these books again and again, Rowling surprised even the most die-hard fans with the announcement that Dumbledore was gay. And in the end, the fact that we never would have guessed is what makes Dumbledore being gay so real. So many times I have encountered friends who are gay that I never would have predicted. It has shown me that one's sexual orientation is not some obvious 'lifestyle choice,' it's a precious facet of our multi-faceted personalities. And in the end whatever the differences between our personalities are, it is time that our world heeds Dumbledore's advice: 'Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.' Today as I write this, I believe that it's time for our aims to be loyal to what the greatest wizard in the world would have wanted them to be: love."[/sub]

Like... If JKR had said something as she was WRITING the books, then maybe.

As it was the announcement came out about precisely when the craze over the final book was finally fading slightly.

The fact that someone who is "...incredibly fluent in "Potter" textual analysis...," or in other words, the best of the best, could only come up with these flimsy signs just ads weight to the argument that the "Dumbledore is teh gheyz lol," fiasco was little more than a publicity stunt on the part of JKR.

[sub]Breaking the "signs" down:

1. Bullshit. All phoenixes are "flaming" and there are many more important symbolic interplays on Dumbledore having a phoenix than the fact that by definition it is a bird who is "flaming." I hope we haven't boiled all fire-related analogies down to homosexual ones. And I hope that we don't ignore the actual symbolism behind Fawkes and other phoenixes, i.e. rebirth and new beginnings.

2. Bullshit... The anagram thing is in the realm of evangelical preacher bullshitting. "Here's your conclusion, FIND SOME EVIDENCE!"

3. Bullshit. There are fashionable straight men. And wizard's in general have weird fashion sense. This is probably one of the most convincing ones, and it's a blatant appeal to homosexual stereotypes. If JKR really wanted Dumbledore to be gay, I would find it slightly disgraceful if the strongest evidence was his eccentric mode of fashion.

4,5. Bullshit, bullshit. This again is an appeal to stereotypes. The fact that we can't have open, sensitive male figures who are straight is annoying. I consider myself open and sensitive. I also consider myself 100% straight. The fact of the matter is Dumbledore comes off as so open and sensitive because he is Harry's surrogate father, and as his only parental figure in the whole series, he has be to be nurturing. BAM! Are all nurturing men gay?

6. Bullshit. This evidence boils down to: Dumbledore reminds me of another dude I think is gay without much solid evidence. "So, if one is (probably) gay then the other MUST be gay!"

7. Translation: "I give up! There really isn't any evidence! But let me just continue to try and prove the conclusion that I set out to prove by bullshitting on the fly!"[/sub]

Let me be clear that I'm not arguing that JKR is wrong and Dumbledore is straight. I'm arguing that Gay Dumbledore is a product of JKR's ego and not a valid or defendable literary feature of the series.

 

[cobra_ky]

*snip*

Oh wow, you're really serious about this, huh? Personally, I don't think Rowling was that desperate for attention, especially when was still on the publicity tour for the last book. But I don't claim to know Rowland's motives, nor do I care. What I do know is Dumbledore is the kind of gay character people have been waiting for for a long time; a gay character whose sexuality is completely unremarkable. Would he have been a better character if Rowland had been dropping hints all along? Would it have added to the story in anyway?

Retrofitted or not, Dumbledore's homosexuality isn't at odds with anything in any of the books as far as i can remember, so I don't see why he can't be part of the discussion on gay characters.

 

[WhiteRat07]

You could be gay in dragon age and noone seemed to notice.I think we are advanced enough as a culture the only people that care any more religious nuts.

 

[charliesauce]

Have you never played any Japanese games at all or watched any Anime, their are alot of Homosexual Characters in their Library of games.

And why not I say, we can have any type of sexual Orientation, it's just america and their western society that dictates that homosexuality or anything other then White and Straight with no emotion is acceptable for a man. It's quite pathetic really.

Other cultures all over the world need to embrace everything and anything the world is changing and it's time we got rid of our traditions and religion and walked a different path of technology and logic.

I say bring it on, get rid of the stereotypes, it's getting annoying now.

Yours Uber'ly

Charliesauce.