Gay protagonists in AAA games

[Tastyfish]

Comic book companies do this now. Comic book companies have introduced gay characters into there fold in recent years in a far more consistent rate.

I think Midnigher and Apollo being gay is the penultimate example.
They are both ultra violent, brutal aggressive, they graphically kill their opponents.
And they kiss and they have a very convincing love affair to boot
LOL....
I think the violent potrayal mixed in with love and care really hits the nail on the head on how our characters can be written VS the tropes.

[Deleted]

I think Ellen has some commentary that you all need to consider, esp the ones who think there is some conversion factor aspect to having to play a gay character.
Gay people are raised among heterosexuals, everywhere heterosexuals. That heterosexuality almost never infulences them to be that way. They remain Gay even with the bombardment of not gay. Why are you so scared?
Playing a gay character is not going to make you gay.

If your sexuality hinges on your video game character choice I honestly think you need to reevaulate why you are so easily infulenced by a game.

i dont think there is some conversion factor for either sexual orientation in a video game and i know some great gay people in my life but to be honest if it comes to sexuality i get really uncomfortable playing something i wouldnt want to do in rl...dunno why its just this topic because well, lets be honest ive tried nearly every shit out in videogames...from glory hero to massmurdering psychopath but this just feels weird. for example i couldnt bring myself to play a gay shepard in mass effect...dunno call me anti gay if that defines me but it is like that, felt wrong...god, i just hope it doesnt feel so wrong the other way around. /mindblown

[Trassk]

I think Midnigher and Apollo being gay is the penultimate example.
They are both ultra violent, brutal aggressive, they graphically kill their opponents.
And they kiss and they have a very convincing love affair to boot
LOL....
I think the violent potrayal mixed in with love and care really hits the nail on the head on how our characters can be written VS the tropes.

fuck I love that series.

(I was trying to find less graphic pages too, lol)

Maybe I should have included what midnighter did with the jack hammer.

[zealo]

bullcrap. that is a cop out as great as there could be one.

Straight characters are established in games all the time. There isn't an option to turn off there hetero. Why is it such an issue to have a gay canon character in a story driven game?

Sexuality of the main character is not established at all most of the time.

As for making those that do hetero, welcome to marketing and catering to the majority of your user base. Giving the player a choice rather than a predetermined path is superior to both of these since it pleases both sides without forcing anything upon the other.

[Deleted]

So nevermind any and all gay people in the world because of peoples bigotry.

You know, if you go back 70 years, this character wouldn't be accepted either.

Its amazing how people glance over this fact and don't learn from history. "Oh but hating on gays isn't the same as hating on blacks cause blacks can be straight".

well, lets just say people are stupid and change in mind and hearts takes longer then it should...

[Tastyfish]

i dont think there is some conversion factor for either sexual orientation in a video game and i know some great gay people in my life but to be honest if it comes to sexuality i get really uncomfortable playing something i wouldnt want to do in rl...dunno why its just this topic because well, lets be honest ive tried nearly every shit out in videogames...from glory hero to massmurdering psychopath but this just feels weird. for example i couldnt bring myself to play a gay shepard in mass effect...dunno call me anti gay if that defines me but it is like that, felt wrong...god, i just hope it doesnt feel so wrong the other way around. /mindblown

It's not anti gay. It's just honest that you are not comfortable. At least you get the same feelings resonate the same way for the gay kid. That is a good bit of empathy there.
At some point a middle ground will be reached I am sure.

[Trassk]

well, lets just say people are stupid and change in mind and hearts takes longer then it should...

with that in mind, should those kind of people always be appealed to?

[Rooflesstoofless]

But you'd have to be a major fool to assume thats all a character in a story drvein game is based upon. The bigger question would be, if you are playing an action oriented game with shooting and blowing shit up, and THEN you find out the main character you are playing as if gay later on, why would that sully what the character does in the game for anyone?

So you have people play a game that go along the normal whateverness of a game and then throw "SURPRISE! I'm gay!" at them? That doesn't sound like a recipe for absolute disaster or anything.

The reasonable answer is that it should not, and it should make for an interesting character. But thats not how peoples minds word now is it, because all they will think from then on is 'oh, I'm playing a gay character'.

How is that interesting? It doesn't sound interesting to me in the least.

What matters is being intelligent enough to go beyond that crappy backwards attitude and see the character.

No, a crappy backwards attitude lacking intelligence is thinking that as long as something exists and is of personal interest to you it should be put into a game and a AAA studio should fund it. Just as crappy is blaming the gaming community for not making it happen yet with claims of homophobia.

the point is, guys like those who wrote the comic series like the authority did so and didn't give a shit what people thought of it, they just did it, and it worked out as a good series. And thats all that needs to happen, not giving a shit about naysayers, just writing a comic or a book or a game, having gay characters in. If people complain, F**K them, they don't have to read/watch/play it.

That is an excellent way to go about it. Make/fund your own game, put the characters in it that you want to see and then you can claim F**k them all you want.

[Edge-]

Gay or lesbian protagonists are simply impossible in Assassin's Creed series. The reason is how the Animus works - genetic memory carried by your direct offsprings (your first child, if I remember correctly). No heterosexual sex = no offsprings. On the other hand, a bisexual character could be a workaround...

We've already covered this. Gay people are perfectly capable of having heterosexual sex, even with someone they're not sexually attracted to. It's not as if the sperm or egg magically ceases to function in a homosexual.

See: Countless men an women in straight relationships who come out as gay and admit that they engaged, and had children, with a partner of the opposite sex due to societal pressure/other factors.

[Deleted]

with that in mind, should those kind of people always be appealed to?

as long as they are the majority you will have to be patience for them to come along...you cant force change, nor should you...as someone that speaks up for gay people here you should know that.

[Doktor Faustus]

Make a gay character in Mass Effect.

This is not new, and many people would be offended if a mainstream game had an openly gay lead, just as many in the world cry out at famour people coming out.

Please, for the love of whatever you consider holy, stop defining yourself as this, that or the other - and stop wearing you sexuality on your sleeve.

You are a human being first and foremost, labels are not necessary.

Lets try and have all humans having BASIC rights before we start preaching the rest.

[dekal]

Don't really care about a hero's orientation, as long as there's a good story and game play to be had.

[Trassk]

That is an excellent way to go about it. Make/fund your own game, put the characters in it that you want to see and then you can claim F**k them all you want.

You do understand what an indie game is right?

[Deleted]

You do understand what an indie game is right?

iam sure he does, whats your point?

[Trassk]

as long as they are the majority you will have to be patience for them to come along...you cant force change, nor should you...as someone that speaks up for gay people here you should know that.

of course. But in a world where gay marriage is becoming a reality now in countries like america and parts of europe, and where companies like comic books such as marvel and dc, the biggest brand comics in the world, have openly gay characters, why then are the gaming companies shying away from doing this in a significant way?

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iam sure he does, whats your point?

that indie games can become as popular as any mainstream game and having an opening gay character in such a category is not beyond the realms of possibility.

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We've already covered this. Gay people are perfectly capable of having heterosexual sex, even with someone they're not sexually attracted to. It's not as if the sperm or egg magically ceases to function in a homosexual.

See: Countless men an women in straight relationships who come out as gay and admit that they engaged, and had children, with a partner of the opposite sex due to societal pressure/other factors.

Now see, they could make a video game character with a story like that for some seriously interesting appeal, it would make for a strong backstory for the character, more then some of the cut and paste "my parents died now i'm out for revenge" backdrops.

Think about games like Heavy Rain, the intense storytelling in that. Or silent hill 2

[Deleted]

of course. But in a world where gay marriage is becoming a reality now in countries like america and parts of europe, and where companies like comic books such as marvel and dc, the biggest brand comics in the world, have openly gay characters, why then are the gaming companies shying away from doing this in a significant way?

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that indie games can become as popular as any mainstream game and having an opening gay character in such a category is not beyond the realms of possibility.

yeah, and from what i understood he didnt oppose the idea, thats why i dont get your harsh and aggressive tone.

and to change to law and rights is not comparable to changing the view of the population of a country, thats why i think it will take some time for it.

[Trassk]

yeah, and from what i understood he didnt oppose the idea, thats why i dont get your harsh and aggressive tone.

and to change to law and rights is not comparable to changing the view of the population of a country, thats why i think it will take some time for it.

of course it will. But it just seems that while other industries are braving up to the idea, like comic books, TV, movies.. its games that are seriously lacking behind. Why is that?

[THEORACLE64]

Mod warning - Read before considering posting

Taken from http://blog.ubi.com/shockingly-short...ucien-soulban/

The main points that Lucien mentions (he's openly gay btw)



Do you think the gaming community is still close minded with the idea of having gay protagonists in games?

I don't think developers should go out of their way and specifically create a game or characters around being a "gay" protagonist. However, I think it's important to display certain real-life situations and characters. I'd much prefer it if developers had "gay" characters on whether it fitted the storyline or character, as much as any "straight" character. It would be much more tasteful and accepted rather than purposely creating one purely on the basis of the character being gay, because it'll always just come off tacky (as obvious and as tacky as it can be when developers make characters as womanisers or man-whores purely around that).

[Edge-]

of course it will. But it just seems that while other industries are braving up to the idea, like comic books, TV, movies.. its games that are seriously lacking behind. Why is that?

Because compared to those mediums, video games are far, far younger. That puts them under additional scrutiny (see the countless BLAME VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES! every time an act of violence happens) from the media and society, especially due to its interactive nature (the aforementioned mediums are all passive).

[Rooflesstoofless]

Gay people are raised among heterosexuals, everywhere heterosexuals. That heterosexuality almost never infulences them to be that way. They remain Gay even with the bombardment of not gay. Why are you so scared?
Playing a gay character is not going to make you gay.

Its not a matter of being scared. Its a matter of wanting to have to RP as something that you have no interest in at a personal level. Wanting a gaming studio to put their finances on the line just to cater to an extremely small number of customers doesn't make any sense.

My only other coworker for the last five years is openly gay (horay for night shift). Is he my friend? Yes. Do I care about him and want him to have all the rights I am entitled to? Yes. Do I spend time with him and his boyfriend during my free time? Yes. Do I want to dress like him and go to gay bars and get hit on by other men? No. It isn't something I'm interested in and isn't something I'd enjoy.