Editor’s note: I’ve rewritten this note about nine times. This article made me upset. When I did a search on the site, I only found one other piece about homosexuality. While I’m not gay, civil liberties for homosexuals are something I’m very passionate about. We’ve advanced pretty far as a culture, and it disgusts me that we still aren’t affording the same rights to every human being on earth…. I have to stop now (before I go full-tirade). Anyway, check out Garreth’s astute take on how video games portray gay characters. -James
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Homosexuality is a hard issue. In the former part of the last century, it was taboo. Recently, we have seen an amazing acceptance of homosexuality in all forms of media. We see it in music, movies, and prose fiction. But not in video games — developers still constantly drag their heels on the subject.
Finally, we are starting to see the emergence of gay culture and gay characters in gaming. The most talked about and controversial issue concerning gayness this year has been Dragon Age: Origins (and last year, Mass Effect).
Bioware’s narrative experience allows players to do whatever they want: Your character can sleep with partners of either sex, and many side characters are bisexual. This is a huge step forward; it is one of the only moments in my mind where you have the option to choose your character’s sexual preference.
Another game that came out this year is Grand Theft Auto 4: The Ballad Of Gay Tony. Rockstar has never really been known for pulling a punch. They pull issues apart and satirize them. Although you do not play as Gay Tony, you do play a business associate of his. Through cut scenes in the game we see that Tony is a stereotypical gay man. Tony’s biggest interests seem to be men, clubbing and using drugs (in that order). Whenever danger is abound, he tends to scream in a very high-pitched tone, duck for cover, and cry for his life. But the game tries to show a bit more about Tony: He takes care of two businesses while fending off the mafia.
In the game you have to find his persona — one that is extremely flamboyant and makes its home in a bath house. The point of the monster sidekicks in Persona 4 are to illustrate the parts of the characters that they don’t share with other (but that still deeply define of them). As the game progresses, we see others tease Kanji about being homosexual when he shows little moments of overt gayness.
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I applaud taking the time to make such a deep and complex character, and it has really shown that gaming can grow up and re-envision how to portray someone as more than a stereotype. The only downside is that Persona 4 was a small-release game. The general gaming public hasn’t seen it, so coming to terms with homosexuality is still off in the horizon somewhere.
Homosexuality is something that will always be a heated topic in the world — many bigoted people are out there. But to see that homosexuality is finally making its move into video game culture is great, and hopefully, it can be used as a tool for educating the public. I hope that 2010 will be the year where a major mainstream release will feature a homosexual character that is more than just a stereotype.