Sexuality in Videogames

[RivaOni]

Before, I start, I really hope I don't offend anybody with this, everything I've put down isn't meant to be offensive to anyone who could take either side of the argument and I'd also like to say that I personally am open minded about peoples sexuality and love them for the person that they are and not what their sexual preference is.

Anyway, I wrote this for bitparade but think its something that alot of people may want to comment on that just don't read my mostly ignored website

_

I love a good debate me, provided I’m certain I can back my own corner, so recently, whilst browsing a forum for a particular popular multiformat magazine I came across somebody attack Bioware’s most recent release, Mass Effect, for its lack of male homosexual story arch despite the fact it has a lesbian one. Now bare in mind, I’ve not reached this part of the game yet, but I do believe this is entirely optional, and that the relatioship arch goes as following:

Using a male Shepard (the lead characters surname) you can form a relationship with a human female or alien female.

Using a female Shepard, you can form a relation ship with a human male or alien female.

Now to me, that just sounds a bit like Bioware just changed the human relationship option, leaving the relationship between two species of female gendre if you choose to follow the relationship story archs of the game. Now, this I understand where the original creator of the discussion is coming from, if you’re going to try and offer free choice, why limit any homosexual relationship to just the female character, but what they failed to recognise was that the relationship is between two different species, this kind of avoids the homosexuality all together, or at least in a round about way.

Secondly, I think its perfectly easy to understand why Bioware left the option of a male homosexual, or indeed female human to human homosexual relationship out of the game, although I will state that I disagree with the option not being in there.

So lets start with the games demographic shall we. Mass Effect bares a huge resemblence to the Star Wars style universe, and you could be forgiven for getting the impression that it was supposed to be a new Star Wars RPG with shooter elements (maybe with you taking the role of a Storm Trooper or Clone Trooper) not only that, its on a system that has a reportedly core demographic of the American “frat” variety, the whooping and a-hollering type that infest the servers for games such as Halo 3. Thats all without looking at the consoles current catalogue of Triple A titles (not nessecerily exclusives, but the titles that are most popular on the system), which Mass Effect is a part of, you’re looking at Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas, Ghost Recon, Halo 3. All very macho games with men that you could imagine carrying a woman in one arm or over their shoulder whilst saving the day, despite some of them attempting to be more about squad tactics than gunplay. Just looking at that it doesn’t look like a console thats likely to have a game on it that may just challenge the lack of homosexuality in the industry, and its these type of games that attract that stereotype of players that the XBox 360 has, and I can hardly see them buying into a game that I wouldn’t put past them calling “Ass Effect” if it had a gay men in it.

Thats not to say there hasn’t been gay characters in videogames, or that there hasn’t been the option to have a gay character within more “open” games. Canis Canem Edit (or Bully to those in America) on PlayStation 2 and set for re-release on XBox 360 and Wii, for one allows you to kiss boys, albeit it requires a bit more work on the relationship aspects of the game than it does to woo one of the games many female roles. Fable also allows you to choose to partake in a gay relationship, however, this may have been down to coding failing to properly differentiate between the two genders. There are also other characters within videogaming that you could argue the sexual orientation of, although these appear to pander more towards stereotypes than they do anything else. For example, Tingle from the Legend of Zelda games, appears rather limp wristed and camply dressed is widely regarded to be gay whilst The King of All Cosmos from the Katamari series is believed to be bi-sexual due to his extravogance and campness.

But if you look at any of these titles, homosexuality hasn’t been approached in a mature or respectable way. This could be forgiven of Canis Canem Edit as it has a school setting, therefore every within the game screams of adolescence. Plus its by Rockstar North, so no doubt it was put in there to cause some kind of controversy. But if you look at the others, it either feels by accident, stereotyped or just not done to the standards that such a plot device could potentially deserve, and that last statement wasn’t just in response to a gay relationship, but I personally believe that videogames haven’t reached the point where they can tell a true tale of love and romance between two characters outside of the early footsteps Squaresoft made 10 years ago with Final Fantasy VII.

Also, I still don’t believe its commercially viable to have that sort of relationship in videogames at this point in the industries life. Videogames are still, for the most part, seen as a kids toy despite games carrying ratings that show they’re for teenagers or adults, plus with the strength of Christian beliefs in Middle America, plus the likes of Jack Thompson and Hiliary Clinton sniffing around waiting for the industry to push its way through any kind of taboo, its more of a risk to a development studio working in a time that is believed to be the most expensive era of videogames history to develop in.

You only have to look at entertainment outside of videogames to see that the world isn’t ready for out industry to start tackling something as touchy as racism or sexuality when you have the likes of TV using very heavy stereotypes in productions for something like Will & Grace or Hollywood initially trying its hardest to stop Brokeback Mountain being released. Also, when you add the fuel of how the media outside that of specialist videogame media see’s our past-time, and how the entertainment is often used as an excuse for a young persons actions and its easy to see that Bioware may not have been happy to have had any kind of finger pointed at them from so overtly-zealous religious type who believes their son has “been turned gay because of a videogame”.

I’m not saying for one second that this is good, it isn’t, entertainment should be able to tackle anything thats in real life, and as an artform it should be allowed to have a strong voice without being lynched at every opportunity. But sadly, that is the way of our world, and whilst Hollywood has slowly begun to break down the barrier surrounding homosexuality as a taboo (remember, sodomy is illegal in 14 US states, even though this isn’t directly related to a homosexual relationship) it will take some time before it will become an every day thing in our entertainment choices, and I’m afraid to say I really do believe that videogames will be the last place that it is accepted due to the communities inherent immaturity.

[ScrumYummy]

I have no argument; I agree with you completely. Especially about the king of all Cosmos being camp. (but in all seriousness, I think you have a very good point here.)

[Silver Adept]

When it becomes acceptable in society for male homosexual relationships to be displayed or pursued, it will become acceptable in video games to explore those options.

[Al the DLOE]

well i will be the "brutish" and "boorish" one here and say this: Why the hell was someone fussing about the lack of male-male relationship in what is essentially a blaster game? It is a propagated "fantasy" of men to have 2 women (species be damned) going at it in either simulated or implied scenarios. This comment/complaint that opened this topic for Riva is just an outsider to the genre or is an advocate who would have complained still if it had been all male avail for the female. It is the creator's fault for opening the door introducing relationship options.

on the American law issue, it was until 1994 that oral sex and incest were specifically banned in the Georgia 40 codes of state law. We are stuck in a Victorian based lag from the vocal religious people. That is not necessarily bad since thanks to culture advocates who try to deny our heritage as being judeo-christian but not religious in our openness. that is why it affronts most americans on this issue of relationships. the concept attacks a core standard of many's upbringing and understand of nature's order. I am trying to adress this as openly as i can here but i think i will quit now since personal convictions will only cloud this.

Good Article Riva!

[Blackmage]

even in the first sims you could have gay relationships :p

[RivaOni]

[Shurikane]

Short answer: the world is not ready for weird stuff.

The average gamer is relentlessly stupid, fearful, and supersticious. He is deathly afraid of getting cooties if he does so much as think about man-on-man relationships. By the usual double standard, however, anything involving two hot girls doing the nasty is incredibly hot.

BW, like any other company, wants the game to appeal to as many people as possible. That means, the kids aged 12 to 16 (who all have a working copy of GTA III) need to feel like there's something hot in the game that they can watch. Put in a gay male scene and you've just locked yourself out of the teenager crowd. It's stupid, it's senseless and it's not even remotely logical, but that's what a teenager does. A teenager needs to simply call something gay and that something in question will become instantly radioactive.

[feign]

[SirGunslinger]

[Silver Adept]

Shuri: I'd say the world is ready for weird stuff, they just don't like it when the weird stuff looks too familiar. If it becomes obvious or gets bashed over the heads of gamers "Hay guyz! This is a(n analogy for a) homosexual relationship!" then people will squick. If there could be some tact and subtlety applied, then people might not even notice.

Of course, for some demographics, tact and subtlety is the last thing they want in their games, so you win some, you lose some, I guess.