Lack of gaiety in gaming

[ProfessorLayton]

Ugh... I hate it when people try to be politically correct. Why not have a character in a wheelchair? I don't give a flying fuck whether you're gay, straight, bi, black, white, Asian, or anything.

 

[LisaB1138]

Agreed. TBH, we assume most characters are hetero, but without any romantic/sexual content, whose to say?

How exactly do you show that someone is gay in a game outside of either a romance scene or brutal stereotyping? Fact is it's just not something easy or, in my opinion, worthwhile to flesh out. Sure, if you want the main character to be gay and have a romance sub-plot then congratulations, you've managed to work it in there, but it has to make sense. Just injecting gay people for the sake of it would be retarded.

Agreed. TBH, we assume most characters are hetero, but without any romantic/sexual content, whose to say?

 

[AuntyEthel]

Isn't putting gay characters into games just for the sake of having gay characters kinda against the point of true tolerence, because it reinforces the stereotype that gays are different from straights, and should be treated differently? A character should be gay for a reason, not just to appease pressure groups.

 

[Ricky 49]

hey wait

coulden't u be a lesbian in mass effect well sort of?

 

[stevetastic]

I'm surprised Bridget and God Hand haven't come up yet.

ohhhh shit God Hand *shudders* that was horrific i thought the Japanese were fairly open to ideas like homosexuality, they attacked by thrusting at you

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Well most fifteen year olds think lesbians are "hot". I don´t think they would buy games with "male" gay main characters.

Again, who really knows what a characters sexuality is until he/she/it/they reveal it?

If the characters sexuality actually effects the game, then we're talking T&A.

 

[s0denone]

There's gay people in all japanese games, they're just put in ridiculous clothes, and passed as "Emo".

 

[Lt. Dragunov]

Well like most people say most gamers are homofobic (for what reasons are thier own) but sometimes having homosexual characters in games can add a good twist to it. Take the game enchanted arms, now I rented that game over a year ago and out of all the characters only one realy stuck out and that was makoto, and for anyone who has ever played the game you know what I mean. Now I did't know there was a character like him in the game but there is and his personality was alittle stereotype, but still his presence was a nice addition in the game that made it more enjoyable, well for me it was.

 

[Gravity Train]

I guess none of you have played Persona 4. One character in that game isn't exactly outright gay, but there are some issues of confused sexuality in there.

 

[Gravity Train]

Ugh, these conversations cause the bile to well up in my esophagus. Let's forget for a moment that gays make up 1% of the population, so why are we always pandering to them? But more importantly why even entertain the prospect that political correctness, that has done nothing but ruin every other source of art and media, be shoved into gaming? I roll my eyes disapprovingly every time it's suggested that Zangief is gay, because no one was saying that until about 2 years ago and his percieved homosexuality is fully based on stereotypes. Also I've never, ever found any credible information that points to the fact that he was designed to be gay. And if his gayity is legit, it was most likely retconned in recent years.

Can you really pin down a definite figure for how many gays are out there? Maybe if you mean the really flamboyant obvious type, sure, but there's a whole wide range of sexuality that doesn't quite fall into the "absolutely straight" and "absolutely flamingly gay" categories. More of a sliding scale, if you get my drift, with most people on the more or less straight end of the scale.

edit: I'll point out, I'm against shoving PC crap into games just for the sake of making certain groups happy. If a game developer wants to address an issue like homosexuality, it could work, but it would have to be natural and make sense in the context of the game. For example, making an FPS with a main character who just happens to be gay and spends the rest of the game killing/exploding things and occasionally bringing up the fact that yes, he is gay, would just be stupid, but I think someone's mentioned that already.

 

[Fightgarr]

Wasn't Snake gay?

 

[Fanboy]

Wasn't Snake gay?

I don't think so; I hear he likes the box.

Probably bi.

 

[Gravity Train]

Ugh, these conversations cause the bile to well up in my esophagus. Let's forget for a moment that gays make up 1% of the population, so why are we always pandering to them? But more importantly why even entertain the prospect that political correctness, that has done nothing but ruin every other source of art and media, be shoved into gaming? I roll my eyes disapprovingly every time it's suggested that Zangief is gay, because no one was saying that until about 2 years ago and his percieved homosexuality is fully based on stereotypes. Also I've never, ever found any credible information that points to the fact that he was designed to be gay. And if his gayity is legit, it was most likely retconned in recent years.

Can you really pin down a definite figure for how many gays are out there? Maybe if you mean the really flamboyant obvious type, sure, but there's a whole wide range of sexuality that doesn't quite fall into the "absolutely straight" and "absolutely flamingly gay" categories. More of a sliding scale, if you get my drift, with most people on the more or less straight end of the scale.

I fail to see your point. Even if, as you say, there are more gay people out there then the ones that openly define themselves as such, there aren't that many more.

My point is none of us knows what anyone else does in his own house (or possibly in a seedy motel room) and that the strict dividing line between "straight" and "gay" is something society made up. And anyway, the video game for the most part probably isn't the proper medium to bring up these issues. Even if they do count as art.

 

[Sebenko]

personally, despite being partial to a bit of man-love myself, don't really want to see gays in games. I couldn't care less what a character's bedroom habits are- there are more important things to be doing in games.

Bioshock's protagonist, Gordon freeman, Thief's Garrett, Morrowind's nerevarine... It makes no difference to me what their orientation is, they're not there for that. And that's without mentioning the bit-part NPCs who I care even less about.

 

[Aries_Split]

Mordecai from Borderlands is homosexual.

I'm also surprised no one brought up Bully.

That game certainly didn't destroy society.

 

[Wewt]

A game company isn't acceptive of gay people if they don't put in a character that is gay in their game? Is that the point you're making or did i miss it?

 

[Gravity Train]

That seems to be the gist of the article. The disturbing thing is that writer talks about how games aren't "progressing", as if the developers have a duty to shoehorn a bunch of racial, gender and sexual issues into every single game they make. That's the last thing I want to see.