On Gay Themes In Videogames

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.

Morrowind

[yoyhed]

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:Why?

[cephyn]

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?

[rsadelle]

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.