What do so few gay gamers play FPS games?

[Gorilla Gunk]

Weird topic but whatever I need to vent a little.

So I'm a gay gamer (Refuse to use the term "gaymer" because it's fucking retarded), but I'm also a gay gamer who happens to love shooters of all shapes and kinds, from Call of Duty to Bioshock to Borderlands.

The problem is, I'm apparently am in a minority within a minority because as it turns out, not a lot of gay gamers play shooters. I found this out when I joined a gay gaming forum and asked if anybody there played Battlefield or Killzone and was met with whatever the written form of a judgmental stare is.

Turns out 99% of all gay gamers are really into RPG's in a big way, which is fine. I like RPG's too. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Skyrim, Dragons Dogma, etc. But most of them are into Bioware's games or MMO's or JRPG's. I can't really get into those games like they do so I'm forced to just sort of sit on the sidelines while they have epic conversations about some sidequest in Mass Effect.

I know people like but what they like but when I say it's extremely rare to find another gay dude who likes shooters I really mean it. I know I could probably just continue playing with other random straight dudes and I'm sure you're thinking "What does it matter?" and you mostly have a point but it is nice to occasionally play with someone like you where you don't have to tiptoe around and watch what you say, etc.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

You have to watch what you say just because someone else has a different sexuality than you? What kinds of things are you saying? I'm intrigued.

 

[Ando85]

I'm not gay, but I can see where you are coming from. It would be alright just to play with anyone with no regard to one's sexual orientation. It is however a sad state of affairs when the height of homophobia exists on shooters. I have never encountered people more judgmental and homophobic than say the typical CoD player. They throw around the word "******" more than anything to the point where it has lost any meaning.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

While I kind of understand what you mean, I think for the most part it is silly.

For me there are two kinds of people that play games, assholes/perverts/alphas/bullies, ect, ect, all lumped into category one. The second kind of player are the nice, mature ones. When it comes to community, talking about games with other people and actually playing the games with each other, that is all that matters to me. Sexual preference really shouldn't matter.

I do however understand what you are getting at. The first group I described tend to play FPS's a lot and those type of people being, homophobic cunts, tend to push away other people, mostly males that are gay, because it is such a hostile territory.

Of course this is mostly for online shooters. Games like bioshock are loved by all sexualities, it might just not be as out in the open because quite frankly the gay community is just as fucked up as every other community. They are pressured and stereotyped to be a certain way and gay people might not think sharing about how they like a game like bioshock might not be gay enough. A silly way of thinking. I have known a few homosexuals to love black ops as it is fun to play with friends.

Bioshock is one of my favorite games and I am not straight myself. I tend to stay away from most gay communities as I find most of them appalling and askewed.

Don't feel you have to tiptoe around straight people, because there are actually open-minded, down to earth people out there. If a prick gives you a hard time because you mentioned something homosexual, there is this wonderful mute button.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

OP, are you sure that it's gay gamers in general, and not just the culture of the specific gay gaming site you frequent? I mean, for example, this site has a pretty strong anti-multiplayer bias, but that doesn't mean multiplayer isn't incredibly popular with the general population. It's just that something about The Escapist attracts people who don't like to play with other people. I'd be wary about generalizing about an entire class of people from one internet forum.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Well I can't really comment since I play a few FPS's, and my boyfriend is even more fanatical about them, especially old ones like Doom. Having said that, if you've actually been on a gay gaming forum and you've seen this attitude on there then you've probably got a wide sample of people than I have.

So what I've seen doesn't really agree with your analysis and I remember getting a bit annoyed when Movie Bob implied that old Nintendo games were inherently more inviting to people with different sexualities than modern shooters. Because of all the bright colours, I guess...

 

[ohnoitsabear]

OP, are you sure that it's gay gamers in general, and not just the culture of the specific gay gaming site you frequent? I mean, for example, this site has a pretty strong anti-multiplayer bias, but that doesn't mean multiplayer isn't incredibly popular with the general population. It's just that something about The Escapist attracts people who don't like to play with other people. I'd be wary about generalizing about an entire class of people from one internet forum.

Pretty much this. Forums, especially smaller ones, tend to attract people with a wide variety of similar interests. So, the community of the site you frequent probably isn't strictly gay gamers, but gay gamers that all have similar gaming tastes.

I'm not trying to argue that gay gamers play FPSs just as much as everybody else (I have no idea, really), but your evidence isn't enough to prove that only a very small number of them do.

 

[BeeGeenie]

I'm not gay, but I can see where you are coming from. It would be alright just to play with anyone with no regard to one's sexual orientation. It is however a sad state of affairs when the height of homophobia exists on shooters. I have never encountered people more judgmental and homophobic than say the typical CoD player. They throw around the word "******" more than anything to the point where it has lost any meaning.

^Could be something to do with this. It may be that the gay community is playing into cultural bias.
"FPS players are homophobic>
therefore gay gamers should prefer other genres>
therefore I never took the chance to get into the FPS genre, I decided to play RPGs instead>
therefore that's what I'm into."

Maybe you're just one of the few gay gamers that have given the genre a chance...
or maybe you just haven't found the right forum yet.

Either way, it's an interesting question. I could see someone actually researching this in sociology or behavioral psychology or something.

 

[Aeshi]

Wait, they don't? I could've sworn the entire FPS userbase was nothing but Gays according to all the people I've talked to in FPS multiplayer.

Spoiler

that was a joke

 

[StBishop]

OP, are you sure that it's gay gamers in general, and not just the culture of the specific gay gaming site you frequent? I mean, for example, this site has a pretty strong anti-multiplayer bias, but that doesn't mean multiplayer isn't incredibly popular with the general population. It's just that something about The Escapist attracts people who don't like to play with other people. I'd be wary about generalizing about an entire class of people from one internet forum.

I agree with the sentiment, but my personal experiences are that of the gay men I know, there are no FPS fans.

OT: That said, could you not play with friends OP? Surely that's a setting where you can "play with someone like you where you don't have to tiptoe around and watch what you say, etc."?

I do understand though, I imagine it would be quite hard to find people who you get alone with as a gay FPS fan. Most of the FPS fans I know are either homophobic, or insensitive to issues such as sexuality (ie. things they don't encounter everyday).

 

[GoaThief]

I don't find a problem with too many close-minded people playing FPS titles. Maybe it's a console thing? I've seen much more bigotry expressed in MOBAs and MMOs.

My clan is very much based around open-mindedness, particularly regarding sexuality of all kinds. Perhaps groups and clans might be the way forward for you?

 

[Tdoodle]

That's just one forum, they tend to attract like-minded people.

There's probably a good reason for the Bioware RPGs though, Bioware are quite keen on appealing to all audiences and appealing to the gay community is part of that. It won't be the only reason, but it'd certainly draw me in if I swung that way.

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

Well, I'm technically gay and I absolutely love FPS games, them being my favorite genre next to racing games. Plus, a good chunk of my gay friends play a lot of games like Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, and Counter Strike. Hell, even my boyfriend and I have played through Serious Sam: TFE's and TSE's co-op together, and he plays a few other first person shooters outside of those games too.

Granted, few of my friends play CoD like I do (which is where most of the stereotypical homophobes supposedly reside), but otherwise my experience shows the opposite of the claim that "Gay gamers dislike FPS games".

So basically, I have to agree with this guy:

OP, are you sure that it's gay gamers in general, and not just the culture of the specific gay gaming site you frequent? I mean, for example, this site has a pretty strong anti-multiplayer bias, but that doesn't mean multiplayer isn't incredibly popular with the general population. It's just that something about The Escapist attracts people who don't like to play with other people. I'd be wary about generalizing about an entire class of people from one internet forum.

Seems more like a case of the people the forum you frequent just being uninterested in FPS games, OP, than the whole community of gay gamers disliking first person shooters.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

Weird, when I first tried to post this thread I got a 404 Error and gave up.

OP, are you sure that it's gay gamers in general, and not just the culture of the specific gay gaming site you frequent?

I've been to more than one gay gaming forum and it's always the same story.

why not group with girls? They too are looking for open minded people to play FPS games.

No thanks. Chicks always want me to be their pet homosexual and I'm just not having that.

OT: That said, could you not play with friends OP? Surely that's a setting where you can "play with someone like you where you don't have to tiptoe around and watch what you say, etc."?

Nope. All my friends like JRPG's and isometric dungeon crawlers like Torchlight and Diablo.

^Could be something to do with this. It may be that the gay community is playing into cultural bias.
"FPS players are homophobic>
therefore gay gamers should prefer other genres>
therefore I never took the chance to get into the FPS genre, I decided to play RPGs instead>
therefore that's what I'm into."

Yeah, that's probably exactly what happens. I imagine of lot of gay folks play one game of CoD and swear the entire genre off after getting called '******' once.

I think a lot of gay guys consider FPS games a "straight" genre, if that makes any sense.

Well, I'm technically gay and I absolutely love FPS games, them being my favorite genre next to racing games. Plus, a good chunk of my gay friends play a lot of games like Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, and Counter Strike. Hell, even my boyfriend and I have played through Serious Sam: TFE's and TSE's co-op together, and he plays a few other first person shooters outside of those games too.

Granted, few of my friends play CoD like I do (which is where most of the stereotypical homophobes supposedly reside), but otherwise my experience shows the opposite of the claim that "Gay gamers dislike FPS games".

Heh, wish I had friends like yours.

 

[The White Hunter]

Weird topic but whatever I need to vent a little.

So I'm a gay gamer (Refuse to use the term "gaymer" because it's fucking retarded), but I'm also a gay gamer who happens to love shooters of all shapes and kinds, from Call of Duty to Bioshock to Borderlands.

The problem is, I'm apparently am in a minority within a minority because as it turns out, not a lot of gay gamers play shooters. I found this out when I joined a gay gaming forum and asked if anybody there played Battlefield or Killzone and was met with whatever the written form of a judgmental stare is.

Turns out 99% of all gay gamers are really into RPG's in a big way, which is fine. I like RPG's too. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Skyrim, Dragons Dogma, etc. But most of them are into Bioware's games or MMO's or JRPG's. I can't really get into those games like they do so I'm forced to just sort of sit on the sidelines while they have epic conversations about some sidequest in Mass Effect.

I know people like but what they like but when I say it's extremely rare to find another gay dude who likes shooters I really mean it. I know I could probably just continue playing with other random straight dudes and I'm sure you're thinking "What does it matter?" and you mostly have a point but it is nice to occasionally play with someone like you where you don't have to tiptoe around and watch what you say, etc.

I'm bi, do I count? I play a hell of a lot of shooters. Probably too many of them! Nothing like a nice crunchy headshot.
I also loves me some RPG and exploration.

That said I don't think that I know anybody else with my orientation or gay people that play a lot of FPS's or action games they mostly play rpg's and shit... or shovelware.

I'll play BF or COD or w/e with you? Killzone too lol

 

[twobeef]

You know, some stereotypes do exist. There are women that play FPSs, as well as women that play fighting games or women that play RTS, but if you took a survey of all of the people that play those genres, you'd find that they're mostly populated by heterosexual males. Why is that? Is there natural instinct that drives guys to play those games? Are there societal pressures that drive the genders into liking different things as they mature? I dunno.

I'm curious, have these forum friends played FPSs and just decided it's not their thing, or do they just actively stay away from the genre because they feel like there's something that would stop them from getting into it to begin with?

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Wait, they don't? I could've sworn the entire FPS userbase was nothing but Gays according to all the people I've talked to in FPS multiplayer.

Spoiler

that was a joke

This is not true, since whilst many of them claim to lust for your tender behind / describe in meticulous detail how they just ravaged your tender behind, many of them also appear to have had intercourse with one's mother which they will also describe to you in excruciating length and volume.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I'm not sure what sexual orientation has to do with playing games. My orientation, or gender, has never ever come up as an important issue. I guess if you're just talking over a voice chat while playing and you want people with a certain color to their conversation it could be a reason. I dunno how to help you out there though since I never joined leagues/guilds/groups/clans.