Would you like to see more same sex couples in gaming?

[Pumpkin]

Let's all respectfully share our opinions~

[Fynn]

Yes! All the gays! Make it gayer!

[Pheesh]

Not really fussed. But I don't crave relationships in my games usually. I appreciate them if they're well done though, so I wouldn't be opposed to seeing same-sex couples in video games so long as it's well written.

[Psychotic]

Depends if I, as a player, have control over the relationship. In games like Bully, Dragon Age, Fallout etc. I will be a gigantic slutbag who will make it my mission to romance everyone possible. Male, female, love robot, you better believe I'm going to make as many of them mine as I possibly can. In Bully I would make out with half the school. And then if it was a boy I had kissed, beat them up :shobon: (you couldn't beat up girls) The more, the better.

When it comes to a love story that's on rails like, say, Squall and Rinoa, I don't really care as much.

[Freya]

Yeah I think so. But not like forcing them in to force them in. Like let's not fill it with gay couples to just have gay couples. I like how Mass Effect 3 did it. You had you NPC guy who flew you places. He was in a relationship but it wasn't like overt and they didn't make it stand out that that was who he was, it was just part of his character. I liked that. I want it casually in the games. Same with more female characters. Don't make it like "OH HERE'S THE LADY!" Just have them in there like it's natural because it IS.

I like variety in my games. More gay couples = more variety. Life isn't full of straight people or males or whites or whatever. Specially in fantasy or scifi stuff because at that point, you were the ones who created the world, you could have literally anything in it.

[Formalhaut]

I certainly would. Things have been steadily improving, but really BioWare has been the developer paving the way in this area. It's strange playing a game where same-sex relationships are just seen naturally. But BioWare should not be the only developer willing to include same-sex couples.

There are examples of same-sex characters, though they're often flanderised in some way, especially if they feature in a fighting game. But really, well-written same-sex characters and relationships are pretty much in the domain of role-playing games. I can't really remember many well-written characters in other genres.

[Wolf Kanno]

Not really fussed. But I don't crave relationships in my games usually. I appreciate them if they're well done though, so I wouldn't be opposed to seeing same-sex couples in video games so long as it's well written.

Pretty much my thoughts on this. I don't particularly care for romance in my gaming plots because it is rarely done well, but if the writing is on par, I have no issue with same-sex relationships.

[Vermachtnis]

Sure, why not. I ship everyone with everyone anyway. Let's make it canon.

[Crop]

I don't really care either. I prefer close friendships, or parent/child dynamics in games really, since I've seen them portrayed better (The Walking Dead and The Last of Us as examples). The majority of romantic relationships in games just have me cringing or rolling my eyes at dialogue or character actions regardless of the gender of the participants.

[Karifean]

I really don't care for my own sake, but for the sake of the gaming scene as a whole I went with yes. It should be something completely natural to find in a game, which it doesn't seem to be quite just yet.

In relevant news, just last week a VN dealing with homosexual relationships (lesbian to be precise) made its way onto Steam, and from what I hear it deals with the matter very tastefully despite being rated 18+. (VN in question: http://store.steampowered.com/app/402620/)

[Sephiroth]

Life is Strange is pretty bisexual. I love it.

[Mirage]

Only if the romance plots are also good.

I also feel like it's really just japanese games that are lagging behind in this case.

[Jinx]

Yes, absolutely! The only thing I'd worry about is seeing too many cliches or stereotypes about gay people, but that aside I think more same-gender relationships in video games would be awesome!

[Madame Adequate]

Yes because I want to fuck the elves

[Mr. Carnelian]

Yes! All the gays! Make it gayer!

Mmmhmm. :nod:

[Freya]

I really don't care for my own sake, but for the sake of the gaming scene as a whole I went with yes. It should be something completely natural to find in a game, which it doesn't seem to be quite just yet.

In relevant news, just last week a VN dealing with homosexual relationships (lesbian to be precise) made its way onto Steam, and from what I hear it deals with the matter very tastefully despite being rated 18+. (VN in question: http://store.steampowered.com/app/402620/)
I just saw a blowback today about a new VN on steam when I was looking at siliconera this morning. There's a murder mystery VN coming out on steam and the comments were full of not so great things because it's Yaoi.

People :/

[Formalhaut]

It is true, Japanese games are lagging behind, mostly because of the obvious taboo nature. It is becoming better; Fire Emblem Fates being a more prominent example. Funnily enough, Persona 2 had the opportunity for a gay relationship, which was then rescinded in P3 and P4 (there are flashes of this with Aigis, and a very tentative exploration with Kanji).

But yeah, western games, especially western RPGs, are becoming more progressive.

[Fynn]

You could actually drug the lesbian character into becoming romantically interested in the male main hero in fates, though :p Luckily, they'll remove that in the Western release

[Mirage]

One of the examples where the localization team has more sense than the devs.

[Pumpkin]

You could actually drug the lesbian character into becoming romantically interested in the male main hero in fates, though :p Luckily, they'll remove that in the Western release

What? Why is this a thing?

[Mirage]

because she needed a man to impregnate her so she could give birth so you could get the kid as a party member

[Formalhaut]

Fire Emblem Fates is a step in the right direction, but it is barely a step. I mean, there's one female and one male option. In the entire game. I was curious and looked them up, and one is... well, here's an excerpt:

"Sadistic and callous, Niles derives pleasure from watching the suffering of others, a fact made plainly evident throughout his supports, where he visibly becomes excited when bearing witness to the pain and discomfort of his conversational partners."

The other character isn't much better:

"Rhajat is extremely prejudiced and stalks those she deems "compatible" with her. She thinks her father is childish. She often spends her days researching dubious spells."

So Rhajat is a predatory gay, and Niles is a sadistic gay. Such progress! Maybe they get meaningful development during the game, who knows. But from the surface, they seem like terrible representations of LGBT people.

[DMKA]

I had a blast having dude on dude romance in Dragon Age Inquisition and would love for more RPGs to have the option.

But aside of that I don't particularly care.

[FFNut]

I chose the only if it's optional choice. That goes for same sex relationships too. I like how BioWare does it where if you romance them correctly they will fall in love with you.

In in that I think every one should be romancable for either sex. Guys have a crush on Allistar, they should be allowed to romance him.

[Kalevala]

Yeah I think so. But not like forcing them in to force them in. Like let's not fill it with gay couples to just have gay couples. I like how Mass Effect 3 did it. You had you NPC guy who flew you places. He was in a relationship but it wasn't like overt and they didn't make it stand out that that was who he was, it was just part of his character. I liked that. I want it casually in the games. Same with more female characters. Don't make it like "OH HERE'S THE LADY!" Just have them in there like it's natural because it IS.

I like variety in my games. More gay couples = more variety. Life isn't full of straight people or males or whites or whatever. Specially in fantasy or scifi stuff because at that point, you were the ones who created the world, you could have literally anything in it.

Pretty much exactly what I came here to say.

[Fox]

Yeah, totally. And not just in Bioware RPGs where the player character has homosexual 'options' (options I fully took up with Liara). I'd like to see a Zidane/Dagger or Tidus/Yuna kind of story, but between two men or two women. And I think creating a gay relationship "for the sake of it" is in fact exactly what writers should be doing. It's very easy to slip into your default setting when coming up with a story; I'm a straight white man, so I tend to write straight white men by default. So far I've not encountered a situation in my own stories where the straightness, whiteness, or man-ness of these characters were critical to the plot in some way.

So, why not make some of them gay? Or a different ethnicity? Or women? It's good to get into the habit of creating diversity.

I mean, think about it - what if in FFIX, Dagger was a man? How would that have changed the story in any way?

[Formalhaut]

In in that I think every one should be romancable for either sex. Guys have a crush on Allistar, they should be allowed to romance him.

Actually, I'm not sure I agree with this. While I'm all for bisexuality (heck, I'm bisexual myself), I don't think it'd be realistic. I like that some characters are straight, some are gay and some are bi or pansexual. Some others just aren't interested. I dislike it when modders tinker around the coding to make a straight character available for a gay romance, and vice versa.

How I see it, they were written as that sexuality. Forcibly changing their sexuality just doesn't sit right.

[Fynn]

Fire Emblem Fates is a step in the right direction, but it is barely a step. I mean, there's one female and one male option. In the entire game. I was curious and looked them up, and one is... well, here's an excerpt:

"Sadistic and callous, Niles derives pleasure from watching the suffering of others, a fact made plainly evident throughout his supports, where he visibly becomes excited when bearing witness to the pain and discomfort of his conversational partners."

The other character isn't much better:

"Rhajat is extremely prejudiced and stalks those she deems "compatible" with her. She thinks her father is childish. She often spends her days researching dubious spells."

So Rhajat is a predatory gay, and Niles is a sadistic gay. Such progress! Maybe they get meaningful development during the game, who knows. But from the surface, they seem like terrible representations of LGBT people.


To be fair, if Awakening is anything to go by, this is how all the characters are written. Over-the-top caricature bordering on psychopath is a thing for a lot of them. Played for laughs.

It's kind of similar to the new gay options added to the Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate, in that it seems like unfortunate implications on paper, but actually works in the context of the game. In BG EE we get a bisexual half-orc and lesbian vampire who are both evil. But not only are both of them compelling characters and okay to use in neutral or good parties, but their sexuality is completely incidental to their alignment and only really comes up in the romances, so it's not like they invoke the All Gays Are Depraved trope

Also, yeah, we totally need more main gay couples and beta gay couples, like if Sephie was a guy in FFVIII and still developed a relationship with Irvine, or if Balthier was a girl. Seriously, the beta couples are sometimes way more compelling than the main ones (looking at you, the Last Story).

[Midgar Mist]

I like that some characters are straight, some are gay and some are bi or pansexual.

I agree with this. I like to see equality. Based on my expert knowledge of The Sims 2 I find that Life Sims such as these are good at giving you the option of being diverse with sexuality.

I'm a bit disappointed that Alter Ego does not do the same, its a much more traditional values game.

And yes to Pumpkin's question, there should be more same sex relationships in games, so that it is more equal.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I'm just fine with more romance options in video games, so it doesn't really bother me.

I'm also not gay, so while I might choose to have a same sex relationship in a game and I'm not offended by them or anything, I'm not as excited or adamant for it as others. It comes from a place of wanting better representation for others instead of just wanting it because I find it better or more desirable.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I would actually prefer if romance was left out of more games completely. And I fail to see why games should be representative of life.

[Rez09]

I'm completely indifferent to the issue itself; more homosexual relationships are the same to me as more heterosexual relationships. I generally find it one of the least important aspects of a character. That said, whenever I encounter questions like this my ultimate answer is less about my actual opinion on the matter and more about WHY a person wants more or less of something in their game worlds.

For instance, my answer is an emphatic 'no' if the primary reason a person wants more gay couples in their games is because they believe some people and their views are antiquated and see this as a way to combat those people and opinions. This is effectively weaponizing a concept and stuffing it into a game to push a political position and contributes nothing positive to the world itself.

Conversely, if someone wants more gay couples in a game because they feel they can tell a good story with them, or because they have written a good character and this element is a part of who they are, like Fiona in The Longest Journey, then my answer is a resounding 'yes' -- I like seeing more of any kind of relationship that makes people seem real and fleshed out.

Considering a third angle, if the person wants more homosexual couples in games just to have more homosexual couples in games, my answer here is ultimately 'no'; I don't see particular value in placing more homosexual couples in games just to have homosexual couples, just as I don't see value in placing more heterosexual couples in games just to have more heterosexual couples. Forcing character development in certain directions like this 'just to have something', while potentially interesting, strikes me as a generally poor development philosophy.

[KarlMay]

Yes, why not?

[rhophiehalul78]

Mass Effect, Fallout, Dragon Age and other games are already implementing this and I am personally OK with them.

[Laddy]

Romance in games bores me; I'm indifferent.

[Fynn]

I'm completely indifferent to the issue itself; more homosexual relationships are the same to me as more heterosexual relationships. I generally find it one of the least important aspects of a character. That said, whenever I encounter questions like this my ultimate answer is less about my actual opinion on the matter and more about WHY a person wants more or less of something in their game worlds.

For instance, my answer is an emphatic 'no' if the primary reason a person wants more gay couples in their games is because they believe some people and their views are antiquated and see this as a way to combat those people and opinions. This is effectively weaponizing a concept and stuffing it into a game to push a political position and contributes nothing positive to the world itself.

Conversely, if someone wants more gay couples in a game because they feel they can tell a good story with them, or because they have written a good character and this element is a part of who they are, like Fiona in The Longest Journey, then my answer is a resounding 'yes' -- I like seeing more of any kind of relationship that makes people seem real and fleshed out.

Considering a third angle, if the person wants more homosexual couples in games just to have more homosexual couples in games, my answer here is ultimately 'no'; I don't see particular value in placing more homosexual couples in games just to have homosexual couples, just as I don't see value in placing more heterosexual couples in games just to have more heterosexual couples. Forcing character development in certain directions like this 'just to have something', while potentially interesting, strikes me as a generally poor development philosophy.

I mean, I kinda get what you mean, but I'm also kind of miffed by this attitude.

If you're a creator and want to write in queer characters and couples, you can very well do so and always find a compelling reason for them to be there. If it's meant to bring a marginalized group more visibility and representation and you as a creator care about that group, you will find a good way to implement them in a believable way. But then, you can be a lazy creator and decide that you don't want to risk getting labeled as someone who "gave us the gays just because that's the PC thing to do".

It's not about weaponizing - it's about addressing current issues. Video games are now also a narrative tool, much like books and movies, and those will always touch upon social issues in one form or another. It's pretty much an inevitability and there is no wonder that certain groups wish they were represented better. And I always give writers props for trying