So, I was playing Mario Kart 7 (as Yoshi, but of course) when I was suddenly thrown into thought- probably something to do with the Yoshi/Birdo relationship thing. I thought, "Why is it that the LGBT community is so rarely represented in video games?" Spoiler: Explanation of Birdo/Yoshi Birdo is biologically male as everyone, I am sure, is aware. If not, it says so in the manual for Super Mario Bros 2. He's also voice acted by a bloke in almost every game, so that's something. Birdo and Yoshi were also confirmed to be in a relationship in Double Dash, so that's definitely a thing. http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ngc/gm4j/02.html Then surely, since they're both males, that makes them a gay couple. Oh, and incase anyone's about to type the words "Yoshi Lays Eggs", male-confirmed Birdo also spits them, so nuh. Besides, the eggs are used as projectiles to attack enemies and defend yoshi, not to reproduce. I mean, yoshi can form an egg around himself at will. Does that count as unbirthing? I personally doubt it does. He's even referred to as male by Nintendo themselves. In otherwords, Yoshi and Birdo are guys and lovers, and don't deny it. Back to the original question. I mean, Assassin's Creed had Leonardo, who was hinted in Brotherhood to be homosexual, but I'm pretty sure that was done because it's usually presumed that he was gay. Though Yoshi is likely some form of queer, Nintendo haven't commented- Not to my knowledge. All the other examples I can think of seem to use LGBT-yness as a source for humour. Which is a shame. I don't believe a characters sexuality should become the characters entire identity, as it has done many times before. But I do feel like perhaps homosexuality is a little under-represented in the games industry. I mean, name one game (Other than perhaps Yoshi's Island) where the protagonist is homosexual. One. Just one. (As much as I love indie games, they don't count. Unless they're successful indie games. Successful indie games count.) Anyway, just getting stuff off my chest. General sexuality-in-videogames thread.
Depending on player choices... The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Fable Mass Effect Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Jade Empire Dragon Age Also, in Borderlands 2, Axton is bisexual.
Nintendo don't want to because it's still seen as a little bit iffy in their games. A lot of these characters, especially Mario games, are rarely given any characteristics that could turn them off to certain demographics. Namely, parents buying a Mario game for their children. It's stupid but likely. However, the Legend of Zelda seems to be the more likely for a Nintendo game with a positive LGBT character. Once they stop being the butt of jokes or villains, I guess...It's a place that already has a plethora of weird characters in their fantasy environment. It might happen.
A developer has to be careful with how they represent homosexuality in game because it's so incredibly easy to go too far with it and come across as cramming it down the player's throat to the point where, after the first few minutes, they're like: [video=youtube;M9kRewzz_pM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9kRewzz_pM[/video] Also, a character's quirk becoming their whole identity is not that unusual an occurrence in games in general, that quirk being sexuality or otherwise. Most games don't have very deep characterization to begin with.
Mass Effect. Oh my gosh. Mass Effect. Seriously, my (gay) friend never shuts up about his male Shepard dating Kaiden Alenko. My female Shepard stuck with Liara in all the games, and we always have these arguments over which of our couples were cuter. As far as sexual representation in games goes, I think some writers ought to get a little bit more creative with the gender representations of characters and then pair them off as possibly heterosexual or homosexual. That was why I liked pairing my female Shepard with Liara in Mass Effect (besides the fact that I really like Liara). Liara was agendered, meaning she didn't have a gender, but at the same time the common conception of Asari (her species) is that they're female since they have female characteristics. So, on the one hand, it was a gay relationship, but on the other hand it was neither gay nor straight. I liked that it let the player form their own understanding; that was part of the creativity of the narrative that the player was able to build.
I would have loved to have more than just the handful we did get in the Mass Effect games so far. Maybe in the future. Also, as a Garrus/Tali fan, it would be wonderful to have a few more dimensions there...
LGBT / gay / whatever the **** is "not represented" in video games because it is not a game designer's job to go out of his or her way to represent everybody who wants attention. It is their job to make interesting characters, and I've got to be honest - I have never met someone who identified as LGBT who was interesting. Interesting people - including LGBT's - do not make this trivial bull**** a cornerstone of their identity. You more vocal LGBT's are not fighting for the right thing at all. The point of LGBT / feminism / etc. is that everyone is allowed to choose who they want to be. Why do you need everybody to pay attention to you to do that? This ridiculous insistence on "representation" is contradictory to your entire platform. It's incredibly codependent, vain, and selfish - I thought LGBT was founded on freedom of individuality and independence of societal standards? No one is "properly represented" in video games because they're video games. Get over it and move on.
Why are you being so hostile? No one here is saying that we NEED non-heterosexual characters in games. We're just talking about how it would be nice if there were more positive representations of us therein. I just don't get why you're yelling and swearing. And at the end there you say that no one is properly represented in video games because they're video games. Well this is ludicrous and quite frankly makes no sense. The fact that something is imperfect is not reason to let it be; in fact, it's quite the opposite! We don't need LGBT characters in video games, but it would be nice. It would be nice because it would show that we're regular people too. And it's nice to have diversity. So really, why the hostility?
See, the problem with "diversity" and "LGBTQBBQUSA" in video games is that it doesn't matter. Or, it shouldn't. When I'm playing TF2 as Engineer, I'm not worrying about if it's "politically correct" to kill the Demoman trying to nuke my sentry. I'm not worrying about what gender/sexuality/favorite breed of walnut Pyro is. I'm trying to shoot him and hopefully not burn to death. If I'm playing a game, and a line about a character's sexuality or whatever comes up, that's fine. But when you look at stuff like Gone Home, where the entire time it's hamfistedly trying to relay the message of "YOUR SISTER IS A HOMOSEXUAL" for 6 hours or the 5 minutes it takes to run into the attic. (And I should know what's hamfisted. I'm the king of ham.) tl;dr: It shouldn't matter, writers need to learn how to write them better first.
I think that the whole "it shouldn't matter" thing should go both ways. If a character is written well, I agree, I don't care if she is gay, or if he is straight, or if xhe is an alien or whatever. But then it shouldn't matter if a character is LGBT. Of course it is ludicrous to think of whether or not it is PC to "kill the Demoman trying to nuke my sentry" because even if that character was gay, they are still on the opposing team. I am a pansexual transwoman, and I'd be offended if I was treated better that a heterosexual cisman. We're not arguing (or at least I am not) that gay people should be in games so that you can't kill them or whatever. I'm arguing that it would be cool to have a gay character or whatever else period. When there are it is usually done tastefully I'd say, so that is good, but there are examples to where they portray gayness as bad. And I'm not even talking about villains who happen to be gay. Basically, me and you are on the same side, but we may have a slight conflict of philosophy in this. (Also, I don't feel like Gone Home was hamfisting anything. It seems like it was just trying to reveal story to you in the weird way that it does)
Well, I guess this already is a beaten horse point but any character of the LBGT persuasion, in anyway, is usually made to be seen as one of the following, if not all; Insane, A Villain, A sadist of some sort, ect. It's sad that the few times that LBGT characters are used, it's either they are turned into villains, or severely censored to the point that they are perceived as something not right. One of the biggest cases of unknown gender involves a Paper Mario character named Vivian. What a lot of Americans do not know is that in the Japanese version of the game, Vivian is a guy. A femboi essentially. A lot of the dialog involving Vivian and his sisters makes more sense when you see Vivian as a femboi. Though due to censorship in America, Vivian is full on female.
Axton from Borderlands 2 is openly portrayed as Bisexual, and he's probably one of the most sane in the group of Vault Hunters. But similarly to what Narrow said, I don't care what sexuality fictional characters are. I just want that sweet, sweet, orange loot.
Fun fact: On one of the Smackdown games (I think it was Here Comes the Pain), you can create a female character but select MALE on her bio page. There are a few scenes in story mode where the divas will flirt with you and give you the option to kiss them.
