The Surge in LGBT rainbow characters - AKA: The New Demographic and why its happening.

[Metailurus]

It seems there is no point continuing this discussion. You clearly have deep battle scars from past arguments with SJWs, and have openly admitted that as a result you have no intention of being reasonable, or even shying away from stooping to the lowest tactics of your previous opposition.

There was no real "discussion" being had between us to begin with. Your posts directed at me basically amount to "I don't like you", which I don't really care about, and as such there is nothing to discuss.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

It seems there is no point continuing this discussion. You clearly have deep battle scars from past arguments with SJWs, and have openly admitted that as a result you have no intention of being reasonable, or even shying away from stooping to the lowest tactics of your previous opposition.

There was no real "discussion" being had between us to begin with. Your posts directed at me basically amount to "I don't like you", which I don't really care about, and as such there is nothing to discuss.

Again with the purposeful misinterpretation. But you're right about there being no discussion, since your posts have only a tenuous link between what I actually say.

 

[maninahat]

Honestly, I don't know why this even has to be a point of discussion. As a gay man, I looked at the fact that Kung Jin was gay, went "Huh. Alright. That's cool." and moved on with my life. For some reason, everyone and their grandmother has to go OMFG at the news.

Reality is: gay people exist, and they like to be represented in games. As someone who designs tabletops, and makes characters for those tabletops in stories, what people have to understand is that it takes effort to make a token ANYTHING in any game or creative setting.

This isn't token. It just is. And there's nothing wrong with that.

It's not the fact that a character is gay. There were gay characters in brokeback mountain. But brokeback mountain is a film that deals with the topic of homosexuality. Mortal Kombat doesn't. It's the fact that this is shoe-horned into the game to please the SJWs.

And this is absolutely a token gay character.

So my understanding is that unless the story is specifically about homosexuality, everyone should default to heterosexuality? That's like saying black people shouldn't be in a stories unless the stories are specifically about civil rights. What are the rest of the (presumably) heterosexual cast if not token themselves?

I don't know what Eskimo is saying, but when it comes to Kung Jin the handling has been bad. The vague way in which they presented it, the outside fictional universe conformation, the fact they use it as a key personality trait... If it's not tokenism it sure as hell is politically motivated. Basically as a move to appease the gay community and to bow to the political correctness gods for good publicity. As I said before it's really a cynical way to attempt to use the LGBTQ community. MK's expanded universe or no it makes very little sense in a series designed around over the top one on one combat, especially when the gameplay has no role in the canon and visa versa.

I don't know much about the details, but the Forbes article I read said that the characters sexuality only comes up in a vague, blink and you'll miss it cut-scene, that players had to ask the devs about to get the straight dope. That doesn't sound like tokenism. Tokenism refers to a contrived display of superficial inclusiveness, whereas implying a character's sexuality within a story is anything but. To put it another way, if you were aiming to impress SJWs with a lazy attempt to appear inclusive, why would you not make the gay character more blatant in the promotion of the game?

 

[Silvanus]

Newsflash: I don't really care if you believe I have a dismissive attitude or not. In fact, I hope you and others have fun chewing over it just like I have had to chew over the anti-straight white men stuff over the past 8 months.

The HMS Reasonable Compromise sailed months ago due to being forced out of port by the aggressive nature of social (in)justice's general approach to the situation. You surely cannot expect me to be reasonable when my opposition are whining about every little thing in games that I might have otherwise been able to enjoy, and petitioning developers to get them changed, and sticking dozens of articles in the media about how I and others like me are supposedly dead.

"dismissive attitude"'s like mine are a direct consequence of such happenings.

People were dismissive of your opinions in the past, and that justifies acting in the same way towards others who argue for representation? That's blatantly a double-standard.

 

[AgedGrunt]

Honestly, who cares? Unless the game is depicting the character in a lazy, stereotypical way then who the fuck cares what the dev's motive is? Avoid tokenism and write a solid character and it's a win/win for everyone involved.

I would say "who cares?" is what most people believe, but I find it interesting that LGBT and supporters say and want this normalcy, yet nobody seems to understand that they've cultivated a culture and, with the backing of mainstream society, teach (directly or indirectly) that deviating from Western majorities (white/cisgender male/straight) makes someone special.

This in fact conditions people to believe they're different, so it really is ironic that we all say it shouldn't matter when we're told the opposite. I could quote a reply by a gay male to the writer of MKX saying the homosexual character finally gave him something to relate to. In. Mortal. Kombat. If this is how a gay person reacts to a gay character, can anyone fault someone for having the opposite reaction? A character they cannot relate to?

Understand what society is doing when it gives human identity to cultural deviants. You have Becky, Tia, Chris and Dave: feminist, Latina, gay and Dave. Dave is white and works in accounting or something; there's literally nothing remarkable about him.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Growing up? lol. Right now the gaming industry is flooded with some of the most unprofessional amateurs ever seen. But hey, keep pushing that narrative, right?

Considering the current market penetration, and life long career professionals actually in development. Gaming is growing up as an artistic medium. But you can go ahead and keep pushing your fantasy narrative. The bad side is of course the questionable and shady behaviours being used. Same thing happens in TV and Movies too so the point is rather moot.

What's right with it, in commercial terms?

Appealing to a broader spectrum of people through a broader spectrum of characters will move more titles. Since only a minority seem to actually vehemently hate such characters enough to complain and even so many of them still buy the games.

And it's all in the eye of the beholder. Good luck selling a character who is going to invariably come across as a negative stereotype to most people who end up playing the game.

That's a strawman and your own opinion. Most people aren't going to make a fuss over a character that happens to be transgendered or homosexual. The ones who throw down outrage cards are a vocal minority.

As a straight white male who has always had the meat and 2 veg, it's not wrong for me to invoke that I enjoy games and their character distribution as they currently are.

So you're perfectly fine with excluding characters who aren't exactly like you? You know that makes you sound like a selfish jerk right? You're a cisgender straight white male, that means you have a very large presence in gaming media, and being the norm; always will. So why do you have a problem with more diverse character casts? Are you that bitterly hateful of people who are different from you?

What is the problem then, other than that I and people like me enjoy games in their current format? Jealousy? If you cant have fun then I'm not allowed to either, is that it?

Another strawman. As you will always have the best representation in gaming media. Why is it you have such a problem with inclusion?

As already stated, it depends on how they are written. On balance I probably would not be interested in any game that focuses on about how bizarre the main protagonist happens to be.

A prejudicial strawman. If you're not interested in a character you happen to find bizarre, no one is going to force you to buy that game. You'll still have more representation in the market than any other group. I'm not here saying we need to take all the straight cisgendered white characters away, I'm saying that some more diversity would be nice. Also you seem to lack empathy for any one who doesn't share your life experience, that's sad.

Given that you don't care whether my demographic are made into second class citizens in order to appease your desires, why should I care about your marginalisation?

So by wanting inclusion I want all straight cisgendered white males to become second class citizens? That's not only a strawman, it's plainly wrong, and you'd be crazy to actually believe it. As stated before. You have now and always will have the vast majority of representation. You're the market norm. So what you're doing is arguing to exclude people who are different from you because you're personally biased against them. Seriously how do people like you take calls for inclusion by another group as the intended total exclusion of your own? You're doing some seriously difficult mental gymnastics to invalidate my desire to be included because it doesn't cater to you. Once again that makes you look like an over privileged selfish jerk, does it not? Not once did I advocate the position of: "Lets get rid of all of these straight cisgendered white male characters and replace them with LGBTQ characters from other racial groups." My position is: Gaming is fun, but it sure would be nice to have some more diversity. So tell me what's bad about adding characters that are more representative of other groups like; other races, transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and women? What does that take away from you? How does that specifically exclude you?

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

It's the hot topic so of course the first thing to happen is pandering. And if it sticks and isn't a fad then more and more well written characters will occur.

And yes 90% of all characters will still be bland and stereotypical, but that's not an issue of LBGT or not, it's just the state gaming is in in general.

 

[Crimson Cade]

Raiden said it best in MKX when Kung Jin voiced his worry of acceptance: "People don't care if you want the D, brah."

Have interesting characters with depth. To make sexuality, gender or skin-color a defining trait is lazy and shallow. I am glad MKX left the homosexuality with a line, and didn't make it the centerpiece of his character like the token homosexual love-interest in Mass Effect 3.

I loathe the constant nagging that LGBT people are excluded because romance in games is mostly "Protag gets/saves the girl", like we're unable to relate to someone who isn't 100% like us. Infantilizing and insulting, really.