On Gay Themes In Videogames 164
shadowcabbit writes "Gamespot's most recent GameSpotting covered a wide range of topics, but probably one of the most intriguing among them is the examination of homosexual themes in video games. The article raises a few interesting questions, such as 'how much longer until an explicitly 'gay' game comes out?', but oddly focuses on male homosexual relationships, claiming them to be a way to entice female players; and mentions that while the main purveyors of homosexual content in games are Japanese companies like Squaresoft and NEC (who made the infamous Chou Aniki series), U.S. producers are starting to slip in some risque content, citing Temple of Elemental Evil's 'gay pirate' Bertram, and Will Wright's The Sims not balking at same-sex couples adopting a child character." We've previously covered another article on a similar subject.
Please don't be an event (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't wait for the day when a new 'group' can be represented in video games on tv without making an event out of it. If I'm playing a game, and it turns out a character is gay or whatever, cool, no prob with that. As a matter of fact, that made GTA3 kind of funny. But if I'm supposed to run out and buy a game BECAUSE it's revolutionary for putting a group of people in a spotlight.. then, geez, what's the point? Am I supposed to buy this game to prove I'm not a bigot?
Eh sorry for the rant. I just have trouble imaginging that this isn't offensive to gays. In an effort to prove they're not any different from anybody else, they're made out to be uber special in some grand glorious event. It reminds me of that episode of South Park where the nurse had a fetus on her face.
Re:Morrowind (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
You may be interested in Graham Nelson's interactive fiction game, Jigsaw [wurb.com] (reckoned to be one of the best text adventures ever written).
There are two main characters, working against each other: White, you is the player character; and Black, the major NPC. Black is trying to change history, and you are trying to prevent it. Mostly.
One of the major plot elements is that you and Black fall in love. This makes things a little complicated, as you can imagine, and is extremely significant to the storyline.
However, the interesting thing is that Jigsaw never mentions what sex you and Black are. Clever wording means that the text never even uses pronouns to refer to the two of you. All you know is that you find Black highly attractive. This means that you're free to project any sex you like onto the two characters. Different players will have different mental images; some reviewers saw White and Black as both being male, more tended to see them as being a heterosexual couple, of various combinations. (If you're at all interested, I saw White as being female and Black as being male.) It's a remarkable piece of work.
(Must try replaying it... I never finished it the last time I tried; it is fiendishly hard.)
Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, I love seeing gay love (I'm not talking about sex this time) in movies, when it just happens and they don't make a big thing out of it.. It's unfortunatly very rare in the westen world, but in asian movies (at least japanese and korean) you sometimes see gay/lesbian lovers and it's just there as a part of the plot and they don't focus on it anymore than they would have done with a straight couple. Beautiful!
I'd really love to see a fun lovestory adventuregame like Monkey Island but where Elaine is a guy (or even better, a transsexual) but they just ARE without making it a "gay-game"...