Poll: Would you play a game where the main character was gay?

[Zombie_Fish]

Whether or not the characters are gay or lesbian or whatever shouldn't be a decider on whether or not the game's bad. However, if the developers overdo it and just have them making out in every scene and it is really the only aspect of gameplay, then there's a problem. There are limits to how far you should go with these things.

 

[Ionami]

Id just like to say I'm VERY happy to see an overwhelming amount of votes towards the "Yes to both" option.

Great community here at the Escapist!

 

[GonzoGamer]

Sure.
I love Katamari Damacy and I don't care how gay the king is.

I would even put up with a couple of steamy cutscenes if the game is as fun and original as Katamari.

 

[GoldenRaz]

Being the manly man-ish boy that I am, I feel compelled to add that all sex scenes with a "gay male" would have to be skippable for me to play the game. Also; beer, hockey, american football and chicks are awesome. (voted "both")

 

[RavingLibDem]

I wouldn't not play it because of its main character being gay, it would just have to be a good game, and not use this as a gimmick

 

[thousandfaces]

Like the poll and the majority of the people that has post here. I dont really care. However if the subject matter heavily influences the story, I probably wouldn't relate to the character at all. If the game sucks though, then i wouldn't bash on its gayness. Like Brokeback mountain, i didn't like the movie 1 bit, as a love story it sucked big time, but again not because of the gay theme.

 

[AdmiralWolverineLightningbolt]

i wouldnt, but not cause im prejudiced but just cause if the character's sexuality has a need to even be mentioned, i would like it to represent my own

 

[Farson89]

A game is a game, I don't see why a character's sexual preference would matter.

 

[Amund]

Most of the other posters beat me to the punch in saying that the OP and the poll have presented a game, said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it, and asked if I would play it.

Take your god-forsaken agenda somewhere other than the Escapist.

I asked the question in such a way to see if sexuality actually mattered to the people at the escapist, and if so to what extent.

 

[Amund]

You do realise that 'Yes to Lesbian' and 'Only as Lesbian' is the same thing?

To someone who can understand that they are the same thing, it is. However to most people, depending on how something is worded, it can have to different meanings. While the first "yes to lesbian" is passive, the second one "Only to Lesbian" is agressive. The first group of people would not be bothered if they played as a lesbian, but may be bothered by playing as a gay male. The second group would only play an lgbt game if the main character was a lesbian, and would probably be seriously offended by being forced to play as a gay male.

 

[Lucifus]

i wouldnt, but not cause im prejudiced but just cause if the character's sexuality has a need to even be mentioned, i would like it to represent my own

And you think that bothers gay people when playing 99.9% of games? Well it does a little but its ignored.

There has been suspect gay/bi main characters in gaming. Solid snake, Chris (Resident evil) and possibly even Gordon Freeman. Both Chris and Gordon has smoking hot women throwing themselves at them and they don't even notice/care.

Theres also Voldo, Liquid snake, Vamp, Raikov, Tingle (Spit), Hanah and Rain (from Fear Effect), Birdo, Alfred Ashford, to name just a few.


To be honest when i reverse this, playing straight characters don't bother me unless they are steriotypical (Which seems to be the same reasoning here too about gay characters). Games with women throwing themselves at gun toting and nauseatingly macho men irritate the life out of me. But then again a camp gay man as a main character sleeping his way through a bar would annoy me too.

 

[elitecrewer]

Tempted to use this as a cheap dig at Final Fantasy ('it didn't bother me when playing as *insert name of androgynous hero* in Final Fantasy *insert 1 - 12*, chortle chortle' sort of thing), but in serious I can't see how it would be important. Better still if the game used it in a creative way.

And besides, how do we know that half of our favourite game characters *weren't* gay. Does someone like Master Chief even *have* a sexuality?

 

[Sevre]

Makes absolutely no difference to me who I play as long as I can kick some ass in some form.

 

[ffxfriek]

Makes absolutely no difference to me who I play as long as I can kick some ass in some form.

seconded

 

[guardian001]

Um.. I really don't see how this would make a difference... So I suppose yes, I would...

 

[MasterMuffinMan]

The only time it'd really bother me is if the game were an RPG. I tend to play RPGs based on how I would personally react to a situation, and so if my character was railroaded into being gay, that would spoil the experience for me somewhat.

For most other games, the character's sexuality is rarely brought into question, which is the way it should stay, IMHO. Shooting the hell out of aliens is in no way affected by whether Master Chief prefers sausage or taco.

 

[IamQ]

I think yes, as long as the gameplay is good I'm happy.

 

[ForrestDixon]

How do you know? Gordon Freeman could be, Sonic could be, Mario could be?

Mario is always going after Peach....

But he has never actually gotten her! Hehe. I wouldent care. I would actually want to play the game more because of this. I mean, it would be cool to see how far gay people have come. From stonewall, to being main characters in videogames. That seems very cool to me. It wouldent even bother me if he, or she, was super flamboyent, as long as they were hero-y. But I wouldent want them in a game if they were only in the game so that they could be made fun of and abused.




OH! The game would have to be good to.