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| Ignoring the LGBT characters that hurt your argument by skip 07/24/2014, 6:53pm PDT | ||||
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Only an idiot would argue that video games don't have any flaws when it comes to depicting anything other than space marines, elves, or Mario, but it's always worth keeping it in perspective. Largely because most video games are such trash that having a crappy depiction of women or gays really just saves everyone the effort of playing them. As Worm once put it "Why all the outrage over a game company that sucks so fucking much?" Fuck, I wish games were sometimes more regressive so it would be easier to write some of them off. There's so much entertainment these days that writing off a franchise or writer/director/arist/whatever is more a relief than anything else. I don't know if Woody Allen fucked his daughter, but I haven't even finished exploring Hitchcock's ouvre so not adding him to my Netflix queue is not a big of deal.
While there is no modern Hays Code equivalent in contemporary American video games (the ESRB rates but does not censor) the manner that LGBT characters are being introduced to a broader audience in major games is through this same blowback-wary method of diligent self-policing. The writers allow space for an audience member to overlook or deny the homosexuality of a particular character if that’s the way they would prefer to see things. What? Games have had overtly gay characters since back in the time of Infocom. And yes, RPG's let you choose if your character is gay, but why doesn't that count? You're basically limiting yourself to action-adventure or adventure games, but adventure games especially have had various gay NPCs for years. But no, none of them count. He just wants the industry to admit that Lara Croft and some AC character are lesbians. Fuck dude. Why would you want the main character of some shitty Assassin's Creed to be gay? It just makes the game seem more interesting than it likely is. Leave these dull knock-offs to the straights and find a character whose orientation is worth arguing about. Fuck, I'm sympathetic to complaints about depictions but to argue there haven't been any (that fit your narrow definition) is disingenuous. Phantasmagoria II had an explicitly bisexual protagonist back in 1996 and don't try to sell me on the idea that it wasn't a major release to a broader audience or whatever his moving goalpost is. Why would you write an article like this without at least mentioning this? Oh right, because you have an agenda and fuck actually knowing anything about past LGBT characters. Bonus content: Over at Kill Screen, Jess Joho has penned this analysis of games’ perpetuation of social taboos regarding menstruation, in particular BioShock: Infinite. While it’s a little cisnormative, the general points are good. An article. . . about menstruation. . . is cis-fucking-normative. This may be one of the dumbest comments I've ever read in my life. This isn't linkbait, a rant, a Tumblr teenager, or even an essay trying to change hearts and minds. All that is excusable or understandable to some degree. It's a genuine look into the mind of the writer. They genuinely think that any woman who bitches about cramps or whatever has cis privelige or some bullshit. I hope this person never has kids. 13 year old daughter: Mom . . . it happened. I'm sorry I made a mess of my underwear. Mom: . . . It's time we had a talk. 13 year old daughter: No. It's fine. They talked about this in biology a bit. That it's because of hormones and uterus and stuff. Mom: Young lady, do not flaunt your privilege around here!! 13 year old daughter: . . . Privilege? Mom: You have it so much easier than women who don't have uteruses. I want you to go around asking each male classmate if they have the urge to become women and if they say yes, I expect you to grovel and beg for forgiveness for using a tampon while they suffer so. 13 year old daughter: Dad, mom's doing that thing again. Gamer Dad: Gone Home and Bioshock Infinite didn't teach me the parenting skills for this situation. Listen to your mother. |
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