Talk:LGBTQ themes in video games

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 January 2019 and 10 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Evpjones. Peer reviewers: Mmyosef.

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 August 2019 and 20 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kenneth Brown02.

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Elizabethlives, Kcafarel, Xjnguyen5x, Jannacorsetti.

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Changes: LGBT themes in video games)

There should be a list of what is the exact themes that LGBT characters depict. Tabs should be renamed and reorganized so that there wouldn’t be a confusion. Should add more examples of video game companies and their policies. Change the section title “ Gay characters in adventures” to avoid confusion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.231.199.170 (talk) 04:54, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Sections 3.1 (Company Policies) - 3.2 (Entertainment Software Rating Board [ESRB])

Section 3.1.1 (Nintendo) -Many claims are not sourced -Removed phrase "per se" within last paragraph to eliminate slightly biased language

Section 3.1.1 -Many claims are not sourced

Section 3.2 -Some claims are not sourced

While these sections quite a bit in these sections, there is still the issue that many of these claims are not backed by sources, and some areas contained slightly biased language. (Xjnguyen5x (talk) 04:49, 16 December 2016 (UTC))

Sections 3.3 (Asian Games) - 4.1 (Criticism)

All sections looked at require citations throughout. Many claims made that seem to be from a basis of personal experience or belief; not valid enough. Section 3.3 - Makes many claims that are not backed up by sources. -Wording of article sounds a tad biased, but I am looking into how to edit such language out. - I do not understand the link to "gay male" and "gay female". Perhaps adjust? - Edited basic grammar issues

Section 4 - direct quotations without a citation - Most information in this section sounds like it comes from a basis of personal experience instead of cited information, especially with the statements about the Sims games

Section 4.1 - mentions different studies done on the topic but continues to offer no citations - potentially add more specific examples of how to increase LGBTQ content in video games

Really awesome overall, just needs A LOT more citation and careful, unbiased language. 19:51, 13 December 2016 (UTC)Jannacorsetti (talk)

@Jannacorsetti: I had to revert your changes, because it appears you did a copy and paste of content that removed most of the references and pasted the output of templates into the article directly. Both of the sections you mention above as lacking citations have them, and in fact they were removed by your edit. -- ferret (talk) 20:11, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Sections 1.1 (Comical gender confusion) - 1.2 (Transgender characters in video games)

• Some citations needed to back-up claims in Section 1.1 (Comical gender confusion), such as the point about the "underlying assumption".
• 1.1: Changed the word "handling" to "introducing" to avoid potentially uncomfortable language.
• 1.2: Provided a Wikilink for "indeterminate" (links to "undefined").
• 1.2: Provided a Wikilink for "transphobic".

These sections provide a lot of great, informational points and examples of transgender characters and is overall very interesting.

--Kcafarel (talk) 20:46, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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Addition of The Legend of Zelda Franchise

Hello fellow Wikipedians! I have added information about a couple characters from The Legend of Zelda franchise and the possibility of their queerness. I have added this information in section 1.2: Transgender characters in video games. Although Nintendo is often very vague about the official queerness or non-queerness of their characters, I think that these characters deserve to be on this page. The fact that people have questioned (with good reason) the queerness of the characters is good enough reason for them to appear on this page.

Hannahsnesil (talk) 04:42, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

LGBT Themes In Video Games

Gay Characters in Adventure Games

The 2013 first person indie adventure game, "Gone Home", contains a strong LGBT narrative as the plot of the game. The game takes place in rural Oregon in 1995, the player plays as Katie Greenbriar a twenty-one year old that is returning home from over seas. During the game the player finds pieces of information around the house that triggers narration of Katie's younger sister Samantha. Each piece of information tells the story of Samantha getting romantically involved with a girl at her new school along with the realization of her homosexuality. Samantha tells her story to her sister through these notes of how her parents were in denial of their daughter being a lesbian. The LGBT themes in this game were praised by many in a the LGBT community for depicting an accurate representation of an LGBT issue many LGBT players have faced.

Awards In 2013 Polygon named Gone Home their Game of the Year. Gone Home won the 2013 British Academy Games Awards for best "Debut Game" while nominated for "Best Story".

LGBT Characters in Action Games

The free to play battle royal shooter game Apex Legends have two LGBT playable characters confirmed by the games developers. Makoa Gibralter, more often referred to as "Gibralter" in game, was said to have had a past boyfriend in a small biography about the character released February 6th of 2019. Another character whose biography revealed them to be a part of the LGBT community was Bloodhound. In Bloodhound's short biography, they are addressed in they/them pronouns and reveals that the character is gender non-binary. This decision to reveal these characters as members of the LGBT community was both praised and criticized by the public. Most people in or allies of the LGBT community were happy to see more LGBT representation in video games. However, those outside of the LGBT community felt that it was unnecessary to know about these characters gender identity/ sexual preferences.

References 1. Onyett, Charles (15 November 2012). "Gone Home is Undiluted Adventure". IGN. Retrieved 15 January 2013. 2. Haley, Brendan. “'Apex Legends' Officially Has Queer Characters!” Gay Pride - LGBT & Queer Voices, 8 Feb. 2019, www.pride.com/geek/2019/2/08/apex-legends-officially-has-queer-characters. 3. "BAFTA Video Game Awards - Nominations" (PDF). BAFTA. 12 February 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Evpjones (talk • contribs) 03:52, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

Some more material for the article

In 2018, the International Journal of Computer Game Research had a special issue on Queerness and Video Games, so maybe people can find some references here. There is also a 2017 book on the topic, Queer Game Studies (ISBN 978-1-4529-5462-2).

Unsourced claims removed

I saw recently that 6000+ characters were removed because they were unsourced. I wanted to put the information in the talk page as a reference in case any editors can find sources for this info and put any back in. I just didn't want the work to be lost if citations are able to be found (but I don't have the time at the moment to go through all of this content).

Transgender characters in video games

The Super Mario Bros. 2 character Birdo, who was described as thinking he was a girl and wanting to be called "Birdetta" in early editions of the English instruction manual (the Japanese one simply stating that Catherine, as the character is known in Japan, wishes to be called "Cassie" because it sounds cuter), was changed to a more definite female until Super Smash Bros. Brawl introduced the concept of Birdo's gender being "indeterminate". Similarly, the Infocom game Circuit's Edge features several transgender characters.

The character Vivian in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is hinted at being transgender, but Nintendo removed all references to this in the English translation.

Krem in Dragon Age Inquisition is openly transgender and is fully accepted by peers. Iron Bull, his close friend, will leave the party if the player character acts transphobic.

Gay characters in adventure games

In the 1995 game The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery, an interactive movie point and click adventure, the main character meets more than one homosexual character (amongst them his "antagonist"), some of whom express romantic feelings. A semi-historical-subplot about the romantic feelings of Ludwig II is also an important part of the storyline.

Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle featured a futuristic beauty contest that featured oddly-dressed humans. One person with whom the player can interact is Harold, who is dressed like a woman but is referred to as a man by other characters as well as referring to himself as one. Harold has a very overstated French accent and is effeminate—he could be read as gay, although cross-dressing does not necessarily have a connection to sexuality or gender. The sprite of the character is based on that of George Washington, who also appears in the game.

Gay characters in fighting games

In 1994, Sega of America made various changes to the fighting game Streets of Rage 3 from its original Japanese counterpart Bare Knuckle 3. Among the changes was the removal of the boss named Ash (with a straight character named Shiva replacing him) who was suspected to be gay due to his attire. Ash was removed from the western edition of the game, but remained a playable character with the aid of the Game Genie. Thus, Sega unintentionally became the first major video game company in the west to give the player the option of choosing a gay character.

The Street Fighter character Zangief has long been thought of as being homosexual, since large hairy men are in fact a common stereotypical image of male homosexuals in Japan, although this was disputed in Capcom Fighting Evolution, where he was seen dreaming about women in his ending, though the game is non-canon. Another Street Fighter character, Eagle, who appears in the original Street Fighter, as well as in Capcom vs. SNK 2, has been confirmed to be gay, as a tribute to Queen singer Freddie Mercury, whom Eagle is also modelled after, although several of Eagle's quotes clearly displaying his orientation were censored in the North American version of the game. In the more recent Super Street Fighter IV, the female fighter Juri Han is hinted at possibly being a lesbian, especially evident in Chun-Li and Cammy's rival cutscenes where Juri seems to flirt with them before proceeding to trying to kill them. When Juri Han's official profile was first released, it mentioned that she loves large breasts. However, Juri has also been known to flirt with male characters indiscriminately during combat, which could at least indicate bisexuality.

In the Guilty Gear series, the character Venom is clearly in love with his deceased leader, Zato-1, although his feelings do not seem to have been returned.

Lilith Aensland and Morrigan Aensland, Succubi in Capcom's Darkstalkers series, have been portrayed bisexual, while Q-Bee has suggested the same through her dialogue.

An obscure game Groove on Fight is currently the only known fighting game featuring an openly gay couple, the somewhat stereotypical characters Rudolph Gartheimer and Damian Shade.

The character Rasputin in the World Heroes series is implied to be homosexual. One of his win poses has him trying to hold his robes down while wind blows them up, reminiscent of the famous Marilyn Monroe pose. He has a special move in World Heroes Perfect called "The Secret Garden", in which he pulls characters into bushes and presumably has his way with them while hearts float skyward, a move that only works on male characters.

In the Blazblue series, the character Amane Nishiki is a man who wears effeminate Japanese attire, with a fighting style that is both graceful and resembles a dance. He has an apparent attraction to the veteran character, Carl Clover, and wishes for him to join his dance troupe that he is putting together. Another character Makoto Nanaya is openly bisexual and kisses the female character Mai Natsume without a second thought.

Gay characters in action games

In 2001, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty featured a bisexual character, Vamp. Solid Snake reveals Vamp's bisexuality in a conversation in which he explains that he was the lover of Scott Dolph, a bisexual Navy commander. The game does not dwell on this point, however, and accepts it as a factor of the character.

The 2004 prequel Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater featured male bisexuality (Volgin and Major Raikov), as well as other sexual topics rarely touched upon in popular entertainment, such as sexual sadism (Volgin) and polyamory.

Perhaps one of the most flagrant uses of gay or homoerotic imagery in a comedic manner is the Cho Aniki series, an unusual group of games that uses these themes in such an exaggerated way that players regard it as a parody. The series is best known for its homoerotic overtones, wacky humor and vivid, surreal imagery. In Japan, they are regarded as examples of the kuso-ge or "shit game" genre, which are enjoyed for their kitsch.

- Whisperjanes (talk) 18:36, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

A subsection to consider

The situation around Boyfriend Dungeon as documented in PC Gamer may provide a basis (with more sources) related to the development and difficulties in developing LGBT-themed games (how far do you take the characters, etc.) I haven't had a chance to look for more but this seems very apropos to include if more sources in this line can be found. --Masem (t) 13:36, 23 August 2021 (UTC)