Video games & homophobia

[Manul 7,377]

I'm playing through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at the moment. The Witcher is one of my favorite video game franchises, I've played & re-played all of them. But while playing through 3, I can't help but think of how hardcore homophobic the games are. Slurs like cocksucker plague them, there are (to my knowledge) ONLY 2 gay men, a nuts mage that is into slavery-romance (if that is a thing, and this is in the second game) and a simple hunter in TW3, that calls himself a freak for being gay (and reveals that his boyfriend committed suicide when his parents found out) and imho the worst part, the games are full of lesbians or women willing to participate in lesbian action. and they are portrayed normally (depends on how normal you consider women being used like the ignorant straight gamer's sex eye candy).

The fans of the games (many, at least) are scum. If you bring this up, they either dismiss it, they gently tell you to **** off and play BioWare products, "no agendas here", or they straight up insult you.

When I think about it, moments like these make me appreciate BioWare so much. They've always known and cared enough about how to provide equality and most importantly, CHOICES, to their fanbase. And they get so much hate and accusations of pushing agendas from homophobic scumbags because of that. But they still keep at it, so kudos for that.

Which brings me to this, how many developers have been willing to include any kind of gay romance in their games? I can't think of anything other than the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series at the moment, which both provide extensive gay/lesbian romancing options, while I've read that there is same sex marriage in Skyrim, but I haven't tried that yet, so I can't confirm it.

Why are most gamers so dumb and developers so close minded? Is most of the gamer demographic really made of dude-bros or "manly" basement nerds that dream of "owning" chicks with over-sized breasts, butts, hips and whatnot and are afraid of being r-r-r-r-r-raped in-game by homos?

[Gohan 15,128]

That's why I love Nintendo

[Bradley 54,952]

They're designed to be masculine and their biggest market is probably straight male. It's like asking Eminem to say "I love my gay fans!"

I don't think they come from a bad place, it's more business than political, don't read too much into them.

[Bebe 16,562]

MattPat, a popular youtuber who deals with game theories, made an interesting video on this actually.

 

 

[iCpro 14,846]

This is one of the reasons why I love GTA V so much. I was really surprised at how well Rockstar handled the topic of sexuality. One scene that stuck with me is when one of the protagonists (franklin) drags a paparazzo for trying to expose a supposedly gay celeb, telling him it doesn't matter what he does in his own time 

For a game that has caused so much controversy and is the second best selling game in history to have such a positive stance on homosexuality was really amazing to me.

[Manul 7,377]

12 minutes ago, Bebe said:

MattPat, a popular youtuber who deals with game theories, made an interesting video on this actually.

 

 

I will check this as soon as I'm done with some witcher contracts. 

9 minutes ago, MANiKIWI said:

This is one of the reasons why I love GTA V so much. I was really surprised at how well Rockstar handled the topic of sexuality. One scene that stuck with me is when one of the protagonists (franklin) drags a paparazzo for trying to expose a supposedly gay celeb, telling him it doesn't matter what he does in his own time 

For a game that has caused so much controversy and is the second best selling game in history to have such a positive stance on homosexuality was really amazing to me.

Omg.  I had no idea. But then again i havent played the game yet. But Rockstar are amazing for this because their playerbase actually consists of tons of dude bros. They really do whatever the **** they want. 

[FATCAT 55,820]

I despise when people say something is homophobic, transphobic, or anti-LGBT because none/only a few characters in the game/movie/tv show are not straight.

Its a story with interactive gameplay. It doesn't have to fit your narritative of incluesiveness. 

[Redstreak 6,651]

Most of the gaming community is toxic. That's no longer shocking or surprising.

 

However thanks for reminding me that I need to restart my copy of Witcher 3

[Redstreak 6,651]

2 minutes ago, FATCAT said:

I despise when people say something is homophobic, transphobic, or anti-LGBT because none/only a few characters in the game/movie/tv show are not straight.

Its a story with interactive gameplay. It doesn't have to fit your narritative of incluesiveness. 

Ok but that's not what he/she said at all?

[Manul 7,377]

38 minutes ago, Tom Hardy said:

It's like asking Eminem to say "I love my gay fans!"

Not at all. GoT is pretty masculine as well and religion is widespread in that universe, yet gays and lesbians exist and they are portrayed as normal human beings. On the other hand, religion is not widespread in The Witcher universe yet there has only been two gay characters in the span of THREE games, and as I said, one is portrayed as a pervert, the other one is portrayed as being gravely ashamed of what he is.

Edit: Also I mentioned religion because it is one of the major reasons of why gay people have been/are hated, just some context.  Furthermore, Eminem and this game are totally unrelated. The one reason the devs would try to justify their decision of not including LGBT characters would be "medieval" realism, when in that case, as I explained above, it is bs. 

[Staryu 6,162]

Yeah, there is still a lack of LGBT+ representation in video games and it sucks. I think that some gaming companies are just too afraid to include LGBT+ characters since it could have a negative impact on their sales and/or image. Though, I do feel like there's more and more games that feature the option of having a same-sex relationship (hell, even Nintendo is making tiny steps in that direction) and I hope that we will continue to see an increase.

There are so few trans characters in video games and the majority of them are either used to insert cheap transphobic jokes or to create some kind of mystery about the character's genitalia. It's frustrating...

[Redstreak 6,651]

On a side note, the game Baldur's Gate had an expansion pack released for it the other day which included a trans NPC. Unsurprisingly, gamer(gater)s have flooded sites with negative user reviews, specifically decrying the game pushing an "SJW agenda".  

[ryanripley 86,575]

the Witcher has a medievil theme, are you honestly shocked the characters aren't accepting and open minded? 

[Redstreak 6,651]

5 minutes ago, ryanripley said:

the Witcher has a medievil theme, are you honestly shocked the characters aren't accepting and open minded? 

Maybe, but it's not like it's something that has to be done in a certain way simply because of it's setting. I mean with things like griffins, wraiths, and succubi, it's not like the game is strictly adhering to our medieval history realism. 

[ryanripley 86,575]

i just remembered Borderlands has LGBT characters in it too but i can't think of many more off the top of my head, most games i play don't involve relationships or sex at all so you never know 

personally, i think trans people do not get enough representation as oppossed to LGB people and i've also never been offended by a games use of LGBT characters so this really isn't an issue for me, i'm way more concerned about the high prices for lack of content epidemic right now 

"dude bros" aren't homophobic people either, you're generalizing a lot of people there