Poll: Games aren't gay enough.

[False Nobility]

EDIT: HOLD THE PHONE, DADDYO. I don't want token characters, just want variety cause it's generally a good thing and groovy and stuff. Okay? Koo. And I don't mean to bad-mouth Mass Effect, I enjoy most of it, I just personally found the relationships odd. I still admire the attempt by Bioware.

Yes, I did give it that title to be eye-catching. If your reading this, it worked. DANCE PUPPETS.

I've come to a disturbing realization recently. I was playing Persona 4 with a friend about a week ago (she's a lesbian) And she asked if the main character could be gay. He couldn't, and she found this weird, as one of the lead characters in your party was.

And...I kinda found that weird as well. And then I noticed something worse: I couldn't think of a single decently portrayed gay character besides that one guy. In all of gaming. Period.

I mean, I'm not exactly a champion of political correctness, but that kind of horrifies me that 2012, we only have ONE well-written gay guy in the whole mainstream gaming spectrum. 0 well-written lesbians. I'm sure some of you can point me in the direction of indie games and some visual novels that defy this, and that's better than nothing, but what about the mainstream? And I know Shepard and other such open-world leads can be gay, but I'm talking about in-canon characters that are written as GAY. I'm not so sure I consider his/her love interests to be all that well written at times, personally. I mean, they're great characters, but I feel like they act...odd when you get them in the bedroom. I dunno, maybe that's nitpicking.

Either way, that's only 2 mainstream games that does this (debatably) right. Does this disturb anyone else? I thought our little medium was growing up. Was I wrong? I don't think it should be mandated that all games include a member of every race, gender identity, sexuality etc. But inclusion is a good thing, no? I'd like to see a bit of variety to next cast of heroes, for more reasons than one.

 

[Pink Gregory]

It depends how much importance you can place on a character's sexuality; I can sort of imagine the best possible scenario being "yes, I'm homosexual, but there are more important things going on right now, so can we talk later?"

True that homosexuality is under-represented, but knowingly overt representation runs the risk of just being a token inclusion, and therefore really not all that equalising.

 

[Ryotknife]

Anders from dragon age 2 was gay, and an amazing character.

 

[Smeggs]

I just don't see any actual need for it in gaming. Not talking about gayness, just sexuality in-general. You want the character to be gay? Great, he is, but do we really have time to worry about his sexuality when DEATHAGEDDON, LORD OF BONES is currently defiling the world with his vile hordes? It can be used for cutscenes and talks to flush out characters and set them apart, but sexuality in a game, varying to a certain degree depending on what the game is actually about, doesn't need to be that big of a deal.

 

[StriderShinryu]

If a game makes mention of relationships or sexuality, sure, why not. I don't see anything wrong with having more gay characters as long as they have an honest place in the experience and and are well written. Having gay characters who are just there to fill some sort of quota or are just there to be obnoxiously stereotypically GAY!!1!, however, is something I can definitely do without.

 

[Pink Gregory]

DEATHAGEDDON, LORD OF BONES

*snrk* teehee

Lord of Bones.

...What?...

 

[Danceofmasks]

Was just playing Guild wars 2 ...
So Caithe is gay .. so what?
Are the writers supposed to make a big deal of it?

It's a private thing, and if it should become relevant to the story, you find out.
Otherwise, you don't.

 

[Mirroga]

I thought the topic is about games being too grim. Well, the problem is majority of society is not accepting of the gay community mostly because the majority of said society have religions which consider them taboo. Even the most archaic of religions still have problems with women equality. And the gaming industry in itself is already being bashed for sexualizing women too much and even considering them not even reference actual religious gods that are worshipped even today, let alone the ultra violence claims.

It's just a leap too big for most triple A games to even try experimenting as such let alone trying to be innovative.

 

[felbot]

Quite blunt there, are ya?

Well cortex was a rather swell homosexual character in Mass Effect 3. As was Arcade Gannon, Veronica, and technically Cass in Fallout New Vegas.

And yes, I wouldn't mind more homosexual characters, but then again, I wouldn't mind there not being either. I'd like it, but I don't see it as priority.

cass? i am fairly sure shes straight, veronica and arcade though are definitely homosexual

on topic, sure more gay characters if people so wish, fallout new vegas has loads of them and most of them are awesome.

 

[Vault101]

variety in all aspects of charachter traits is nice

and somtimes oyu have ot take baby steps towards that (as in ME3 weather or not you thourght they were good/bad)

 

[Vault101]

cass? i am fairly sure shes straight, veronica and arcade though are definitely homosexual

on topic, sure more gay characters if people so wish, fallout new vegas has loads of them and most of them are awesome.

Well cortex was a rather swell homosexual character in Mass Effect 3. As was Arcade Gannon, Veronica, and technically Cass in Fallout New Vegas.

there was that off-hand comment "eh...somtimes I get so drunk I don't care who I sleep with" so she may have "gone there"

however it seems Cass would self identify as straight...so its kind of going into a more grey area

 

[Overusedname]

Was just playing Guild wars 2 ...
So Caithe is gay .. so what?
Are the writers supposed to make a big deal of it?

It's a private thing, and if it should become relevant to the story, you find out.
Otherwise, you don't.

Of course it doesn't have to be a big deal. They just barely exist in the medium.

I don't recall the OP saying it had to be a big deal, but it would be nice for gay lead characters to exist. Many sources suggest 30% of the world is gay. Looking at games? You'd think it was 0.5%.

What constitutes making it a big deal, btw? I think a female lead can say "...She's kinda hot." in reference to some female NPC and not make all that huge a deal of it, and just make her crush on her a running gag whenever they interact. Stuff like that doesn't happen, ya know? It adds a bit of variety to the cast, writing, humor, drama, etc.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Joachim from Shadow Hearts covenant was gay, and his end game side mission is possibly the gayest thing you will ever see in a game outside of those Cho Aniki or whatever games.

Fear Effect games had lesbians, and really nothing else worth mentioning.

Plenty games these days allow love interests to be same sex, but other than those examples I mentioned I can't think of any that are homosexual by default.

Its actually somewhat funny hearing people's reactions to it in Dragon's Dogma, because you could totally be into one character and give them the ring item, and end up with another as your love interest just because you spoke to them all the time.

I ended up with the Duchess 1st time and Madeline the 2nd time for my lezzy encounters.

When I hear straight guys say they ended up with the innkeeper or Fornival I lol. When they say it was Fornival's daughter I inform To Catch a Predator.

 

[Overusedname]

Also, please add "Gayben" to the poll options.

 

[Sixcess]

Fear Effect games had lesbians, and really nothing else worth mentioning.

When you have lesbians you don't need anything else.

 

[WoW Killer]

Is a character only gay when they announce themselves as such? There are far more completely neutral characters, as in characters who don't specifically describe their sexual orientation, than characters who come out as openly straight. If a character never mentions their preference, then why should it be presumed they are straight? Gay people aren't all flamboyant stereotypes. By adding "more gay" into games, I can only imagine this as pandering towards those stereotypes, and I really don't think games need any more of that.

 

[krazykidd]

Yes, I did give it that title to be eye-catching. If your reading this, it worked. DANCE PUPPETS.

I've come to a disturbing realization recently. I was playing Persona 4 with a friend about a week ago (she's a lesbian) And she asked if the main character could be gay. He couldn't, and she found this weird, as one of the lead characters in your party was.

And...I kinda found that weird as well. And then I noticed something worse: I couldn't think of a single decently portrayed gay character besides that one guy. In all of gaming. Period.

I mean, I'm not exactly a champion of political correctness, but that kind of horrifies me that 2012, we only have ONE well-written gay guy in the whole mainstream gaming spectrum. 0 well-written lesbians. I'm sure some of you can point me in the direction of indie games and some visual novels that defy this, and that's better than nothing, but what about the mainstream? And I know Shepard and other such open-world leads can be gay, but I'm talking about in-canon characters that are written as GAY. I'm not so sure I consider his/her love interests to be all that well written at times, personally. I mean, they're great characters, but I feel like they act...odd when you get them in the bedroom. I dunno, maybe that's nitpicking.

Either way, that's only 2 mainstream games that does this (debatably) right. Does this disturb anyone else? I thought our little medium was growing up. Was I wrong? I don't think it should be mandated that all games include a member of every race, gender identity, sexuality etc. But inclusion is a good thing, no? I'd like to see a bit of variety to next cast of heroes, for more reasons than one.

No no no no no no no ! We are not ready ! We can't even get past heterosexual relationships without cries of sexism . We are not ready to tackle homosexual relationships . One group at a time dammit!

OT: Is this really necessary? I mean really? If you are playing a game , and the thing that bothers you the most is the lack of homosexual relationships , there is something wrong . There are so many other things wrong with the gaming industy , this is not a priority . Next thing you know transgenders/transexuals/phedophiles/beastiality is going to want to be represented in gaming . Stop forcing your views on people ! Then again enchanted arms had an idiot , and gay guy and a transgender as the main cast ...

Also i laughed when you said the medium was growing up . It isn't .

As for me personally . I'm not homophobic, but i don't want homosexuality shoved in my face , and forced upon me in my games . It would be enough to stop me from buying a game i want .