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Games Entertainment

On Gay Themes In Videogames 164

Posted by simoniker from the de-lovely dept.
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.
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On Gay Themes In Videogames More

On Gay Themes In Videogames

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  • who ... cares.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBraynard ( 653724 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:02PM (#9678644) Journal
    More than movies or TV, games are about being fun. So while you might see an otherwise unejoyable tv miniseries get acclaimed for discussing some kind of social issue like pedophilia or AIDS, you are not going to find a game that tries to make a social issue it's theme cause it won't sell.

    There is no market for 'artistic' games. Only fun ones.

    • Re:who ... cares.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by I_Love_Pocky! ( 751171 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:30PM (#9679028)
      I don't know why this has been modded off topic. You are clearly trying to say that making a "gay" game for the sake of it being a "gay" game is "artistic."

      In that sense I agree with you. As with anything else, there is no point in creating entertainment featuring a particular segment of society unless it adds to the entertainment value.

      My biggest problem with this whole idea is that unless it is handled properly, I would think that any "gay" game would probably turn out to be one big stereotype reenforcing gay joke.

      Honestly, it shouldn't matter if a character is gay or not. Just as it usually doesn't matter if they are straight (I would think Duke Nuken would probably have been a very different game if Duke was gay). Most games don't really have that much sexual content in them anyway.
      • NWN wont let you be gay.

        You cant make yourself a sexy elf maiden and then go visit the female prostitutes. You also cant have sexual encounters outside of the brothel...so not true to D&D

    • Have to agree with this one. Games are supposed to be about fun. And since games are expensive to make, it only makes sense that that there is a need to appeal to the widest possible audience.

      I think you can draw a distinction between highly scripted games with strong characters and less scripted games with more abstract characters. For the strongly scripted games (FFX), one needs to tell a story that will play to the big audience, which probably means being low on the explicit male homosexual behavior,
      • Since gays make up a small fraction of the audience, primarily gay-themed games will have a similar market to primarily gay themed movies. They will, by financial necessity, have smaller budgets, smaller scope and smaller development staff.

        I hope you're trying to talk about the pragmatics of financial success in our extremely homophobic society. I assume that gay people most often watch primarily straight-themed movies. There's no reason to assume that our population will ignore good movies or videogames
    • "There is no market for 'artistic' games. Only fun ones."

      I have to disagree. Take Shenmue for the Dreamcast. Beautifuly artistic, and I don't regret buying it-- definately got my moneys worth -- but really, it was nothing more than a real life sim. It wasn't anywhere as 'fun' as it was artistic, and yet it was on most peoples must buy lists..
      • It was? I don't think I've ever heard of it. I had friends with Dreamcasts too.

        • It was quite popular, but not in all regions. European copies, for example, were rare as hens teeth. I would really like to see them finish off the Shenmue series ( it was supposed to be, what, 5-6 games? ), but each one cost so much, and sales on the XBox port of Shenmue 2 were dissapointing, so I don't know if they'll ever see the light of day.

          Still, worth checking out, in my opinion. One for the armchair martial artist.

    • Re:who ... cares.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Chasuk ( 62477 ) <chasuk@gmail.com> on Monday July 12, 2004 @05:18PM (#9680452)
      A game with "gay" content is not an artistic one (necessarily).

      I'm gay. I also happen to be artistic, but that has nothing to do with the type of content that most of my community would like to see.

      What would we like to see? Gay-blindness, really. Game mechanics which make no distinction between hetero or homo avatars, and no gay characters who are stereotypes.

      Ever heard the joke about the trick-or-treater who dressed as a serial killer? The punchline was that he dressed the same as the everyone else, because serial killers can be anyone.

      Gay people can be anyone, and frequently are not whom you would expect.

      If I can speak on behalf of the gay community, I would guess that this is our collective wish: to be depicted and treated in games exactly like the hetero majority.

      From the main article:

      U.S. producers are starting to slip in some risque content,

      Gay content is not risque content. See above if you don't get it.

      • Re:who ... cares.... (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        i am also gay, and I agree wholeheartedly with your opinions.

        People/media try to turn homosexuality into an issue, when I personally believe it to be a "non-issue". It doesnt matter except in the context of my own home, who i am attracted to.

        Especially the difference between how lesbians are treated verus how gays are treated in the media in general
        • I'm sorry that you were moderated down here; I honestly can't see any reason for it.

          Especially the difference between how lesbians are treated verus how gays are treated in the media in general

          Agreed. Lesbians make (most) hetero men horny, unless those lesbians are dykes, so they have a far higher degree of acceptance than gay males.
      • That was a well-argued post, with several valid points. It's good to see homosexuals like yourself coming forward and dispelling such silly myths and rumors.



        ... so, if I agree with what you said, will that turn me gay?



        ;-)

        • Re:Congrats (Score:3, Funny)

          by Chasuk ( 62477 )
          Simply by asking that question, I can calculate using the Secret Gay Quotient Calculator[TM] that you are already 26.895431% gay.

          :-)

      • Ever heard the joke about the trick-or-treater who dressed as a serial killer? The punchline was that he dressed the same as the everyone else, because serial killers can be anyone.

        Ah, that's awesome - and much easier than a "Frank" costume! Well, I'm set for October now.

        YLFI
      • I love you, my fellow homosexual. Sometimes it bothers me when people come up tome and ask for fashion advice, or some other crazy stuff that I just plain don't know about. I also get too many questiosn of "Are you really gay?" after not being able to help them. It's quite sad. Anyways, on the issue of gays in video games. I think the Sims is the best example of what I want to see. I want to see a loving relationship between two characters, who are just like all the other polygon characters fromt he cover
      • That's what I liked about the fact that same-sex couples in the sims can adopt. Really this is the only way to handle the issue that makes sense in a game though - People are complex creatures and it's not possible to say what effects result from having two female parents, a male and a female parent, or two male parents, but in the game there is clearly no effect (unless they code one in) so it's easier just to not disallow it, since there are no penalties.

        I don't know much about special problems found in

    • So while you might see an otherwise unejoyable tv miniseries get acclaimed for discussing some kind of social issue like pedophilia or AIDS

      Yeah, that's because everyone knows that only homos molest kids and get AIDS. Right? Not just do only homos perpetuate these aweful crimes, most homos are involved with them. Right?

      pfft, yeah. right.

      There is a market for "artistic" games, though whether or not gay people/bunnies/monsters are part of the plot. I suppose part of this is what you consider "artistic" to

  • Morrowind (Score:4, Informative)

    by yoyhed ( 651244 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:04PM (#9678671)
    In Morrowind (2002), Crassius Curio, in one instance, demands you give him a kiss for him to give you what you need, and another instance, demands you remove all your clothing (and you actually have to go into your inventory and remove everything you're wearing).

    • Re:Morrowind (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That was a dialogue tree for female characters. It turned out to be a bug, as evidenced by some digging around in the resources that turned up an unused dialogue tree that should have been applied for male characters.

    • That only happens if you are female or you played (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:51PM (#9679339) Journal
      That only happens if you are female or you played with a patch (or perhaps you had a bug (he didn't ask my male char)) but morrowind was hetero. Meaning females and males had different love interests. Of course since morrowind was designed to be easily patched by users this was quickly altered so that you could do all the love stories regardless of your characters sex.

      Wich might suggest that the game playing audience is a lot more ready for this then the game makers or the game reviewers or the game raters.

      In morrowind when you where naked you were still in your undies. In a prequel I think when you where naked you really where naked. This was removed to appease goverment regulators in the USofC(ensorship).

    • Though Deus Ex 2: Invisible War sucked ass, there was one funny moment in it.

      You had to get into a penthouse in a classy hotel. The obvious way was to sneak in and "pick" the locks.

      The second was was to "pick up" some male ambassador and agree to become his "chamber boy" or something like that; I think there was another layer, like you had to meet his old boyfriend of something. But in the end, you got the key to the apartment.

      While it was a chuckle, it was so worthless since breaking into the penthous

  • Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JavaLord ( 680960 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:06PM (#9678689) Journal
    The article raises a few interesting questions, such as 'how much longer until an explicitly 'gay' game comes out?',

    How about when a game comes out that has a story where the character is gay, and the characters sexuality adds something to the storyline? I'm sure it won't end up being like that, some game developer will do it just to be 'edgy' and it probably will have no bearing on the game whatsoever.

    but oddly focuses on male homosexual relationships,

    Of course, because they are more shocking/disturb more people.

    claiming them to be a way to entice female players;

    Not....likely. It's more likely that you can entice male players with female homosexuals.

    and mentions that while the main purveyors of homosexual content in games are Japanese companies like Squaresoft and NEC

    Of course, because their culture is more open (or depraved, depending on your point of view) when it comes to sex.

    and Will Wright's The Sims not balking at same-sex couples adopting a child character."

    Why not, it's only someone else they can market the Sims to. Personally I hope when the first "gay" character comes out of the closet it actually has something to do with the storyline of the game, rather than it be just window dressing.

    This article is way behind the times. I play CS and all I ever here are people telling each other how gay they are. Maybe that is what all those terrorists and CT's are fighting over. It's all pent up homoerotic sexual frustration.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)

      by cephyn ( 461066 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:11PM (#9678764) Homepage
      In an american context you're right, but in Japan, homosexual male relationships do indeed entice female players. Just look at anime and manga geared towards the femenine audience, almost all will have pretty-boy characters, many of them engaged in at the very least flirtatious behavior with other male characters. I agree that's unlikely to draw American females, but in Japan its a proven tactic.

      • Re:Why? (Score:2)

        by c ( 8461 )
        It's worth pointing out that homosexual characters and themes abound in North American science fiction literature. Off the top of my head, Jeter's "Bad Voltage" (from early 80's), Scott's "Trouble and Her Friends"... Darn, if I was in my library I know I could read off a dozen or more. If a game developer's been reading sci-fi most of his/her life, gay characters wouldn't be such a strange concept.

        Dunno about the marketing folks.

        c.
      • I agree that's unlikely to draw American females, but in Japan its a proven tactic.

        I don't know. There's a pretty strong contingent of American female gamers who are into the bishounen boylove (I can direct you to numerous fansites, fanfics, and whatnot as proof). Probably not as many as there are in Japan, but still a sizable number.

        • well i guarantee you its not as big as Japan. Sizable number is a vague statement. I agree its definitely a non-zero number (I've known a few gals myself who are into it) but I don't think its anywhere near the size of the Japanese contingent, by any metric you can think of.

          --% of females age x to y
          --% of females who play, or are interested in playing, games
          --% of gaming community
          --on and on.

          Is the community growing? Yes! I've seen it grow a lot in the past 5 years especially -- but I'd still consider i

      • Re:Why? (Score:2, Informative)

        by rsadelle ( 719824 )
        Ever hear of slash [wikipedia.org]? Slash is to western fandom as yaoi (mentioned in TFA) is to Japanese fandoms, and it's very definitely a woman dominated, woman oriented piece of fandom. Granted, we're a relatively small demographic in the larger scale of things, but that doesn't mean we don't exist. The last slash con I went to even had a panel specifically directed at getting women's ideas of what they want to see in mainstream gay porn.
        • I have heard of it. I never meant to characterize the US population as zero, but only to point out that as a marketing component, boylove themes are much more common for female audiences than here in the US. I think its growing here, but its still nowhere near the popularity level of Japan, and I would be surprised if it approached that kind of popularity anytime soon in the US.

    • Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 )
      Personally I hope when the first "gay" character comes out of the closet it actually has something to do with the storyline of the game, rather than it be just window dressing.

      Personally, I don't. Just as a character being straight doesn't need to have anything to do with the plot of a game, a character being gay doesn't either.

      In regards to the "how much longer" question, I thought Solid Snake seemed pretty fruity. Maybe that was just my fantasy life getting out of control.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by david.given ( 6740 ) <dg@cowlark.com> on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:29PM (#9679023) Homepage Journal
      How about when a game comes out that has a story where the character is gay, and the characters sexuality adds something to the storyline? I'm sure it won't end up being like that, some game developer will do it just to be 'edgy' and it probably will have no bearing on the game whatsoever.

      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.)

      • That's not an example of sexual orientation adding something to the storyline; it's an example of the author avoiding the issue of gender. Which isn't a bad idea in an interactive medium like video gaming.

        Rob

      • Gender projection is a wonderful trait to exploit in text adventures - my alltime favourite short adventure[1], avoids explicitly gendering the player until the final scene. While it's not as interesting as what you've just outlined, it's a step in the right direction. I projected a male persona onto the adventurer, but other people who have played it report varying conclusions.

        YLFI

        [1] - Rot13 for spoiler: "Cnenqr"

    • claiming them to be a way to entice female players;

      Not....likely...

      I wouldn't be so sure of that. A lot of the other girls I know enjoy such stories/games. Japan has yaoi, America has slash. (IE Kirk / Spock). Actually that gives a whole new meaning to the name of this website...

  • Are you gay? (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Cthefuture ( 665326 )
    "Gay? I wish!"

    -- Troy McClure

  • About FF7... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Of course Cloud is gay! He spurned Aeris for a date with Barret! It's like turning down Jessica Alba for Mr. T! I mean, like WTF?

  • Please don't be an event (Score:4, Interesting)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:16PM (#9678819) Homepage Journal
    " The article raises a few interesting questions, such as 'how much longer until an explicitly 'gay' game comes out?"

    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.
    • Hey I totally agree with you, but its just not going to happen until EVERYONE sees [group x] as just regular people too.

      I'd only buy the game because its good, not because of its social value (if the game was crap, but had a [group x] character, you're right, so what?) but when a game is good and it treats the character of [group x] just like any other character, mission accomplished in my mind.
      • but its just not going to happen until EVERYONE sees [group x] as just regular people too.

        Um, give up now then. First of all, some people are racist/sexist/*ist and wont be different no matter what you do. Second of all, people have a right to be *ist if they want. I'm not, I believe people are people and that's that, and I think that is the right way to be. However, I also believe in freedom. So if you want to believe that gays shouldn't be, you go believing that. And as long as you don't actually hurt

    • Re:Please don't be an event (Score:5, Insightful)

      by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:32PM (#9679058)
      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.

      You mean like Gay Pride street parades?
      • "You mean like Gay Pride street parades?"

        It's a little different when a huge group of them voluntarily gets together, but I get your point.
      • Or St Patricks Day parades for the Irish? Or maybe you'd like to tell African-Americans not to have Black History Month Parades or Civil Rights marches because they shouldn't make an event out of trying to prove they're just like everyone else.
        • I hardly think the St. Paddy's day parade sets out to prove the Irish are just like everyone else.

          In fact, I think you're almost spectacularly missing the point off making a pastime out of getting hammered on green beer. Erin go bragh! :)
    • And anyway, now that I think about it, why shouldn't it be an event? Imagine you're a certain type of person that has never, or almost never, seen a positive representation of yourself in popular media. Why shouldn't you be excited that now there is?
    • my faith in humanity has been restored. Thank you for your insightful comentary.

      What you mentioned really is the heart of the matter. Just make a damn game, let the player discover the plot, meet the characters, and enjoy the game.

      I live in Seattle, sometimes my groceries are bagged by somebody who is obviously gay. I don't grab the announcement microphone and declare that I have just met a homosexual. It's not that big of a deal.

      Of course if gay nude beach volleyball comes out that will probably make

  • Well... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Per Wigren ( 5315 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:29PM (#9679024) Homepage
    I'm openly bisexual myself and I just hate it when they make a big thing out of homo/bi/trans sexuality, like it's supposed to be sensational or chocking or something.. Get over it, it's no big deal..

    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"...

    • Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cephyn ( 461066 )
      Of course, its normal and common over there, so of course they dont make a big deal about it. Here, its not like that. Once a big deal is made, it will be normal and not a big deal after. Just look at civil rights for a historical context. A big deal was made when women fought for, and won, the right to vote for the first time. Now, its not a big deal, its normal for women to vote. What would be a big deal is if you say, lowered the voting age to 16 or something like that.
      • Sure, gay rights is a big and important political question right now because gay people are being politically opressed but homosexuality in itself is not a big thing, that's what I meant.
    • In Ultima 6, 7 and 7-1/2 your male or female character can engage in some optional sexual encounters, which are not limited by your gender. It's not integral to gameplay, but neither is it much remarked upon by the game.

  • Try XBL! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:33PM (#9679076)
    Gosh, the author obviously hasn't played Xbox Live very much. If I'm to believe what everyone I've played against says, nearly everyone on XBL is gay.

  • Who Has Time? (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by blunte ( 183182 )
    Who has time for gay video games when there are so many gay pride marches to attend!

  • As someone from Amsterdam, bleeeeeeeeh (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @03:45PM (#9679252) Journal
    From what little I know from japan from the media (and how much does anyone of us really know about the world except through the media) they are even more homophobic then Americans. It is just that there is one segment of the entertainment media that makes money off selling stories about guys in love with guys. Why? Ask a yaoi reading japanese girl :P then ask her for her phone number and take an upskirt photo (perhaps that is the reason. It has been suggested that to women gay men are safe. A gay man will not harress, rape or peek at them.) As a guy I like some ecchi anime but some of it crosses the line where you start to wonder when the girl will just punch the guys teeth out.

    Anyway that is my theory about yaoi.

    In most games where relationships take a role I don't like it when I am forced to "only" take the approved hetero option. The sims was a very welcome exception. I can tolerate that the love interest in Planescape torment are only girls, I am a guy with strong hetero feelings (translation: Oooh bouncies!!!!!) but I can imagine that a hetero female or gay male or gay female wants to have a wider choice then angel succubus and boiling devil girl.

    Same with the otherwise excellent KOTOR. Why can't I whoo balista with a female char eh? (and people that choose to finding out that the mandolorians were like the spartans eh?)

    As someone whose family was closely affected by the holocaust I am extremely nervous about people that suggest that certain life styles are less worthy. You just know that people that say gay people should have lesser rights then hetero's want to say the same thing about differently colored people or people with different religions.

    So good luck to The sims 2, a courageos decision if they really leave it in in the current american climate. Peter Molyneux if you finally allow me to play a lesbian (and anyone who wants to a gay) paladin I might even forgive you for Black & White. (note it got to be a love story not toee was not a love story)

    As to the gamespot story, well it is clear its author still needs to learn a thing or two about homosexuality. Picking out high-heels and lipstick for your female avatar doesn't make you gay. If anything picking a male character and making his looks just right and hunky makes you gay. Creating a sweet hot perky female avatar just makes you pervert. When gay rights have been achieved world wide the human race will have made a step forward but when the rights of perverts have been regonized we will have arived at nirvana. Oh well back to getting balista to play the b-side. (as a side note do female players of KOTOR like the way the male comes on to their character? As the male I played the "50's" movie banter character constantly teasing balista but playing as a female I just found him tiresome, is that my testosterone talking or does the estrogene crowd feel the same?)

    • Same with the otherwise excellent KOTOR. Why can't I whoo balista with a female char eh?

      I'd have to hazard a guess that balista simply isn't attracted to women. If the designers were really clever, they'd have a few male charcters that can't woo her either, on account of her not liking them.

      Oh, and most of your post is very close to trollish. While I agree that homosexuals deserve a plethora of rights, it's wrongheaded to think that there are no "lifestyles" deserving of scorn. Serial killers and abus
  • Wait, what about Mario and Luigi? Haven't they been around for a while? ;)

    Let's not even mention Toad...

  • Homosexuality in Japanese games... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dancingmad ( 128588 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @04:38PM (#9679950)
    ...comes from the presence of it in Japanese culture. The Japanese are much more open about sexuality on the entertainment level than Americans are: Janet Jackson shows one so so breast and the country freaks out. One of the most popular doramas (an hour long sitcom / drama) in the last few years was GTO (based on anime and manga), which should characters watching hardcore porno (and showed the porn). That sexuality has been a part of Japanese culture since the explicit Tale of Genji and later explicit wood block prints.

    This extends to homosexuality; it's no secrect that priests and samurai often performed homosexual acts. Beat Takeshi Kitano was in a film about this, Gohatto, which presented members of the Shinsengumi as homosexual.

    As mentioned Yuri and Yayoi are popular manga genres exploring lesbian and gay themes respectively. Even other popular media can have references to it; I remember in Final Fantasy VII Cloud getting his HP restored after visiting a brothel and being fapped (nothing is shown) by another guy. A lot of it can be done jokingly.
  • There are many movies and games that had hidden gay characters. For example, Tom Cruise plays a homosexual character in top gun the movie. There are clues everywhere. Though they made it so that it was hidden / acceptable in the 80s.

    Other homosexual game characters include Don Flamingo in Mike Tyson's punchout. Many more.

  • The problem is that in many games it really isn't a relevant issue. Often this becomes more of an issue in role-playing games or other games where the storyline may involve romantic subplots and such, but much of the time it's irrelevant.

    Quite frankly I think that this is probably the preferable option as well. It's far more realistic whereas making a character explicitly homosexual would make that a central aspect of the character. Does it matter whether the commandos in Contra were homosexual or heterose

  • Queer Eye (Score:3)

    by NedR ( 701006 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @05:26PM (#9680544) Journal
    For the most part, the article was relatively interesting, but it touched on one small pet peeve of mine. That is to say, it is absolutely necessary to mention Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in every single public discussion of homosexuality in the media? It seemed out of place in the article, which just made it irritating.
  • field? The writeup makes no mention of Gary Fairy, the towel man in LSL 6! He was a pioneer, treat him as such!
  • "but oddly focuses on male homosexual relationships"

    Probably because the largest audience for games at the moment is straight men and straight men are turned on by bi-sexual, lesbian, and straight women? Most straight men would not however be comfortable playing a game with a gay male theme.

    Most women I've known on the other hand, just want there to be pics of naked studs as well as bimbos, and wouldn't be uncomfortable regardless?

    Of course their answer might be different in a forum asking their opinion

  • I saw this in a game once. Anyone ever play the game Star Trek: Elite Force [gameinformer.com]? It's a standard FPS, but they throw some cutscenes at you. The interesting thing was you could play as a male or female member of the Elite Force.

    About halfway through the game, a female NPC hits on you in the ship's bar. I think this part of the script was written assuming you were playing the male character. My first time playing through as the female character, it was surprising for me when I realized that a female charac

    • They've had gays on star trek before. I remember quite a bit of that on voyager and no one made any kind of deal about it. Some in DS9 too, wasn't Garak gay? I remember him propositioning Worf in one episode...
  • We've seen female homosexuality, at least alluded to, in games for years now: Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Fear Effect, Enter the Matrix...

    I'm sure I could go on. For a while.

    As for the argument that homosexual characters could be used to bring in female players, I think that's on target. There have been more than a few essays written about the fact that most of the Kirk-Spock erotica out there is written by women for women. A lot of the male-on-male sexual encounters in Japanes

    • We've seen female homosexuality, at least alluded to, in games for years now: Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Fear Effect, Enter the Matrix...
      I'm pretty sure tommy was gay... You'd think in at least one mission he'd get it on with Mercedes and/or Candy Suxx, but nope, one of the major missions involves buying a nightclub...
  • 2 "unknown" gay characters:

    1. Tony from Earthbound (confirmed by Shigesato Itoi)
    2. Raw Steel from Unreal Tournament (as stated by Cliff B.)
    • More two:

      Ustvestia, Phantasy Star 2
      Ash, Streets of Rage 3

      Ustvestia's sexuality was removed from the american release, and Ash was just removed. Actually, SoR3 was seriously softened for the american release and, as Diehard Gamefan put it - they changed a GREAT game into a GOOD one. :-\
  • IIRC, in the (awesome, but underrated) guilty gear franchise, one of the male characters, Venom, loves another male character, Zato-1, but his love goes without reciprocation.

    So homosexual themes/characters/etc in games has been here for a while, especially in Japanese games, considering the lack of it being a taboo.

    I still have a problem with it though (I have seen too much yaoi/homoerotic fanfic for my poor eyes)
  • Sexual preference and gender roles are often left out of games. As a matter fo fact, in very few games on any platform is there a chance to choose your sex, let alone your sexual preference, and even more remote, have it make a hill of beans difference on the game.

    I'm not saying you have to make a game just for gays but if you are going to make a role playing game, at least offer the option to play male or female, and if there are possible encounters NPCs where flirting or more is possible, then at least
  • It's called Metal Gear Solid.
    The most camp game ever made. Think about it!

    Quote: Ocelot: "There's nothing like the feeling of sliding a long silver bullet, into a well greased chamber"

    How Solid Snake is not a gay icon, I'll never know. Maybe the market has been ignoring this demographic.
  • I was quite happy while playing Deus Ex: Invisible War to find different situations where you could use your gender to your advantage, depending on the gender of your character. In one part, playing as a male character allows you to seduce another man to get you ahead in the game.

    Outside the roleplaying aspect there, there are no gratuitous attempts to make sexuality obvious - it's just a game where one of the NPCs is gay and you can take advantage of that if your character is male. That's all there is to
  • This [qrd.org] is all I could find online, but there was definitely a gay computer game produced several years ago, in the early 1990's, for the Macintosh: GayBlade. It is a traditional fantasy roleplaying game, obviously with a gay-friendly twist. Never seen it, never played it, would like to play it....

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