gamers LGBT characters in video games?

[Thorn Wilde]

There aren't an awful lot of them, it's true, but they do exist. Protagonists are even rarer, particularly unambiguous ones.

 

The only game I've played with an unambiguously LGBT protagonist is Dreamfall Chapters, where Kian Alvane is canonically gay and you can't choose not to be. Boy, did that ever piss off the cis-het dudebros... Wish he could have actually had a romance, though. Then you've got your gay love interests in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games. Literally the only trans character from a game I can think of off the top of my head is Krem from Dragon Age Inquisition.

 

Can you think of any? 

[Jdonley75]

1 hour ago, Thorn Wilde said:

There aren't an awful lot of them, it's true, but they do exist. Protagonists are even rarer, particularly unambiguous ones.

 

The only game I've played with an unambiguously LGBT protagonist is Dreamfall Chapters, where Kian Alvane is canonically gay and you can't choose not to be. Boy, did that ever piss off the cis-het dudebros... Wish he could have actually had a romance, though. Then you've got your gay love interests in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games. Literally the only trans character from a game I can think of off the top of my head is Krem from Dragon Age Inquisition.

 

Can you think of any? 

 

My only encounter with gay characters has been Dragon Age: Inquisition.  There are plenty of them if you know how to romance them.  Obviously, Dorian was available but so is Iron Bull.  But, other than those I haven't seen any.  Although, I'd swear Prompto from Final Fantasy XV has to be a little queer.

[Brayon]

Dragon Age 1 and 3. I didn't try two.

Star Wars the Old Republic.

Most MMOs have a gay guild that does stuff with and without role-play.

 

There are others, but they are not coming to me right now.

[Thorn Wilde]

2 hours ago, Jdonley75 said:

 

My only encounter with gay characters has been Dragon Age: Inquisition.  There are plenty of them if you know how to romance them.  Obviously, Dorian was available but so is Iron Bull.  But, other than those I haven't seen any.  Although, I'd swear Prompto from Final Fantasy XV has to be a little queer.

 

Dorian and Sera are gay. Iron Bull and Josephine are bi. If you romance neither Dorian or Bull they end up together, though, which is all kinds of adorable. So much good party banter.

 

18 minutes ago, BHopper2 said:

Dragon Age 1 and 3. I didn't try two.

Star Wars the Old Republic.

Most MMOs have a gay guild that does stuff with and without role-play.

 

There are others, but they are not coming to me right now.

 

In Dragon Age 2, all the romance options are bi. Though if you're male and romance Anders there's an extra bit of dialogue heavily indicating that he's actually gay.

 

EDIT: Forgot about Sebastian from the Exiled Prince DLC, who's straight, so there's one romance option in DA2 that isn't bi.

Edited November 18, 2018 by Thorn Wilde

[Jason Rimbaud]

Mass effect 2 and 3 has okay gay romance options.  So does Andromeda but it’s only better if you play female option.  

 

 

[Thorn Wilde]

2 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Mass effect 2 and 3 has okay gay romance options.  So does Andromeda but it’s only better if you play female option.  

 

 

 

Andromeda has Gil, though. And Reyes is bi, and hot. I think so, anyway. 2 doesn't have any male gay options, though. Not unless you mod it, anyway.

[Thorn Wilde]

Oh! I forgot about The Last of Us. The new one has a lesbian protagonist, doesn't it? What's really severely lacking is trans and non-binary characters in games, though.

Edited November 19, 2018 by Thorn Wilde

[D.K. Daniels]

From the top of my head,

 

- The Last Of Us 

- Fall Out New Vagas

- Fall Out 4

- The Borderland 2

- Gone Home

- Life Is Strange

- Life Is Strange - Before The Storm

- Mass Effect 3

- The Division 

- Assassins Creed Odessy 

- Dragon Age 2

- Dragon Age Inquisition 

- Saints Row 3 - Think

- Skyrim

- Fable 

- Final Fantasy IX

- GTA V - Trevor 

- The Sims 

- South Park

- Bully

- Coming Out On Top

 

.... Well, that's all I can think of, I not much of an RPG gamer. I tend to stick to simulation or plot driven games. 

[Krista]

Dragon Age Origins has Zeveran (spelling), who is bisexual and romance options for both male and female Wardens. Also Liliana is bisexual. Mass Effect 2 am I forgetting something - can't you romance Kaiden as a male in ME:2?  Or is That ME:3? I actually prefer playing as a Male in the ME series, I just think the romance options for the male are better thought out/written. Andromeda the characters are good.. too bad the rest of it (especially the character creation mechanics), are a bit bleh. 

 

I am in love with the Dragon Age franchise as a whole. I actually didn't like the romances in Dragon Age 2 where practically everyone was romance options for either gender. I do like there to be sexuality and limitations on what you can do based on which gender your inquisitor is. Also, maybe in the future we'll see a Transgender option for the protagonist, I mean Krem was a favorite character for a lot of people, but he wasn't a romance option. They do need a better dwarf romance... I don't play as a Dwarf because there literally are none in all three games so far. :P

[Thorn Wilde]

15 minutes ago, Krista said:

Dragon Age Origins has Zeveran (spelling), who is bisexual and romance options for both male and female Wardens. Also Liliana is bisexual. Mass Effect 2 am I forgetting something - can't you romance Kaiden as a male in ME:2?  Or is That ME:3? I actually prefer playing as a Male in the ME series, I just think the romance options for the male are better thought out/written. Andromeda the characters are good.. too bad the rest of it (especially the character creation mechanics), are a bit bleh. 

 

I am in love with the Dragon Age franchise as a whole. I actually didn't like the romances in Dragon Age 2 where practically everyone was romance options for either gender. I do like there to be sexuality and limitations on what you can do based on which gender your inquisitor is. Also, maybe in the future we'll see a Transgender option for the protagonist, I mean Krem was a favorite character for a lot of people, but he wasn't a romance option. They do need a better dwarf romance... I don't play as a Dwarf because there literally are none in all three games so far.

 

I romanced Sera as a female dwarf. That worked really well. She has individual dialogue based on race, so as a dwarf she gave me a pet name and fussed over me and told me how 'twee' I was. It was awesome. I know that if you're a Qunari, she goes utterly gaga or you.  The thing I liked about the DA2 romances was how you could either have a friendly romance or a rivalry one. Fenris is such an angry boy, I played as a male mage and did a rivalry romance and it worked so well. Super hot. I too really want a transgender option for the protagonist. If anyone will do it, it's BioWare, so here's hoping.

 

Kaidan goes bi in ME3. ME2 you barely see him, anyway. But I have a mod! My latest playthrough, I romanced Kaidan from the start with a male Shepard. The mods really work. Of course, in ME1 all the romance dialogue was recorded for both characters for both genders. They clearly intended to let you romance either regardless of gender, but I guess they chickened out or something.

 

On a different note, in The Sims 4 you are now perfectly free to create transgender sims, and it's really awesome. I just got the Get Famous expansion, so I've made a non-binary trans femme actor and youtube star. She's gorgeous.

[Jason Rimbaud]

On 11/19/2018 at 2:22 AM, Thorn Wilde said:

 

Andromeda has Gil, though. And Reyes is bi, and hot. I think so, anyway. 2 doesn't have any male gay options, though. Not unless you mod it, anyway.

 

That's right, Mass Effect 2 didn't have any gay romance. In Andromeda, I played the game four times, and I could only romance Reyes and the alien. I never could get Gil for some reason. Reyes romance is pretty short, unless I didn't play everything right.  The Alien lasted longer but meh for me. 

[Thorn Wilde]

8 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

 

That's right, Mass Effect 2 didn't have any gay romance. In Andromeda, I played the game four times, and I could only romance Reyes and the alien. I never could get Gil for some reason. Reyes romance is pretty short, unless I didn't play everything right.  The Alien lasted longer but meh for me. 

 

Yeah, I did Jaal for my first play through, with a female Ryder. Reyes's thing is pretty short, but I really love him as a character. 

[Israfil]

League of Legends is starting to do nicely in that regard. They released a champion recently that is unequivocally a lesbian, and they've had a few LGBT supporting characters in their lore. There's also another champion who's backstory is heavily connected to a gay couple. 

And of course, there's always a subset of players who whine about it. Ever notice how straight people can be almost eager to claim the status of repressed minority? It's adorable.

[David R. Ryan]

Gone Home is one of my favorite „games“ - it‘s basically an interactive short story about two girls in love and it‘s just really beautiful. 

That‘s the only game I‘ve played so far where it felt like the LGBTQ-angle was actually an integral part of the experience. In every other game the gay character(s) and gay romance options always seemed rather inconsequential to me and like something they only put in to cover all their bases. 

 

[Acid07]

On 6/11/2019 at 4:40 PM, David R. Ryan said:

Gone Home is one of my favorite „games“ - it‘s basically an interactive short story about two girls in love and it‘s just really beautiful. 

That‘s the only game I‘ve played so far where it felt like the LGBTQ-angle was actually an integral part of the experience. In every other game the gay character(s) and gay romance options always seemed rather inconsequential to me and like something they only put in to cover all their bases. 

 

I think I have Gone Home downloaded on a console.  Never actually played it though.

For the most part, I think most relationship elements in games are mostly in the form of "side quests".  Most of the time it feels like it's there to allow for a little depth, but isn't an essential focus (which is fine to me, as adding an inclusive element is better than not having it).  That isn't really the main reason I'm playing anyway, but to have the option to choose from a variety of "interests" is a nice touch.

[David R. Ryan]

15 hours ago, Acid07 said:

I think I have Gone Home downloaded on a console.  Never actually played it though.

For the most part, I think most relationship elements in games are mostly in the form of "side quests".  Most of the time it feels like it's there to allow for a little depth, but isn't an essential focus (which is fine to me, as adding an inclusive element is better than not having it).  That isn't really the main reason I'm playing anyway, but to have the option to choose from a variety of "interests" is a nice touch.

I'm not sure I agree that "anything is better than nothing", because tipping a pizza delivery guy only 5 cents is just undignified and shows disrespect, so I think in many cases too little can be worse than nothing and a lot of the LGBTQ-stuff in video games feels like a shoehorned in afterthought. That's why it's not really cutting it for me, but I guess it is a start, so maybe I shouldn't complain too much 😉

[Thorn Wilde]

CD Projekt Red has said that they want to include transgender and non-binary customisation options in character creation for Cyberpunk 2077. If they do, that would be awesome, though it's not confirmed that it'll actually be a thing... Hope it is. It would make a lot of sense for that kind of science fiction world to have that, given the direction we're moving in of trans and non-binary identities becoming more visible. So I hope they actually go for it and they're not just playing with it. I mean, it can't honestly be that difficult to do, can it?

In CD Projekt Red's The Witcher III there's the character of Mislav, a quest NPC early in the game, who's gay and tells the tragic story of how he was ostracised for it and his lover died. As much of a cliché as that is (medieval Europe based fantasy world or not), I liked the fact that there was no option for Geralt to be judgmental or disgusted by it, that he shows empathy and even seems to relate, which makes sense given the way Witchers are seen and treated.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Thorn Wilde

[Thorn Wilde]

On 5/24/2019 at 9:00 PM, Israfil said:

League of Legends is starting to do nicely in that regard. They released a champion recently that is unequivocally a lesbian, and they've had a few LGBT supporting characters in their lore. There's also another champion who's backstory is heavily connected to a gay couple. 

And of course, there's always a subset of players who whine about it. Ever notice how straight people can be almost eager to claim the status of repressed minority? It's adorable.

I admit to occasionally playing otome, or romance based visual interactive novels. It's a huge market, most of them straight with female protagonists, though some have male protagonists too, and a small subset allow for queer romance. I found one that was entirely gay and found, in a comment thread on Steam, some guy complaining that there were no female romance options. I was pretty stunned. His complete lack of self-insight, as he ranted about this in response to people who pointed out that if he wants a female romance option then this game just wasn't made for him, just floored me.

EDIT: Dream Daddy as a sweet, funny and rather excellent game like that (not the one that comment was made on) that I highly recommend, if you feel like playing a dad who gets to hook up with other dads. 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Thorn Wilde

[Acid07]

11 hours ago, David R. Ryan said:

I'm not sure I agree that "anything is better than nothing", because tipping a pizza delivery guy only 5 cents is just undignified and shows disrespect, so I think in many cases too little can be worse than nothing and a lot of the LGBTQ-stuff in video games feels like a shoehorned in afterthought. That's why it's not really cutting it for me, but I guess it is a start, so maybe I shouldn't complain too much 😉

I wouldn't say that they have gone to the extremes to throw in little bits just to act like they're conscientious about things (at least in what I play, although I'm sure there are plenty of examples that probably would fit that).  Most of the games I favor don't center around romance or these types of issues in general.  They provide options, have stories, and allow the player to choose who they're interested in (to a certain extent, as it's unrealistic to think that EVERYONE should be interested in romancing the main character).  In my experience it isn't the LGBTQ elements that are afterthoughts so much as the romance element to the game itself, which doesn't really bother me since that's not the primary reason I'm playing.

We all have different reasons and expectations for escaping into video games.  I guess I just don't see it as too much of a problem because I only think of that element as a small component of the game.  If I'm trying to save the planet/universe/kingdom/whatever, I might play some of the romance angles (or learn more about the lore that's shoved into games) along the way, but it's rarely more than a branch from the main story.  A step forward is better than a step backward at least haha.

[Acid07]

11 hours ago, Thorn Wilde said:

I admit to occasionally playing otome, or romance based visual interactive novels. It's a huge market, most of them straight with female protagonists, though some have male protagonists too, and a small subset allow for queer romance. I found one that was entirely gay and found, in a comment thread on Steam, some guy complaining that there were no female romance options. I was pretty stunned. His complete lack of self-insight, as he ranted about this in response to people who pointed out that if he wants a female romance option then this game just wasn't made for him, just floored me.

EDIT: Dream Daddy as a sweet, funny and rather excellent game like that (not the one that comment was made on) that I highly recommend, if you feel like playing a dad who gets to hook up with other dads. 

Learn something new everyday.  I'd never even heard of the genre.  Gotta love the digital era that allows for all sorts of forms of entertainment for different tastes. 

And you'll always find someone who decides to act as if they didn't know what they were playing.  Between general trolls and misguided individuals, you get to see some...interesting rants at times.  Guess that's one of the drawbacks of the digital era haha.

[Former Member]

This is only tangentially related, but…

Sony Playstation had a contingent in the 2019 SF Pride Parade!
;–)

[Thorn Wilde]

So this was announced on Thursday.

“Xbox Game Studios just published its latest game, Tell Me Why, the first mainstream game from a major publisher that features a transgender character as the playable lead hero. The game, which was developed with input from the LGBTQ media group GLAAD, was announced during Microsoft’s Xbox London event on November 14, 2019 and will be available on Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass in 2020.”

[Page Scrawler]

Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny starts out with two characters, a brother and sister. You can play as male or female, but thanks to a magical accident, the other sibling will co-habit their twin's body near the beginning of the story. Both siblings can date bachelor/ettes, but the system only corresponds to "hetero" relationships. I guess, technically, the host body could be considered polyamorous? I haven't played more than a chapter or two into the storyline, however, since the only copy available to me is a library rental.

I also enjoy interactive novels, the "choose your own adventure" stories. Usually, you can play as male, female, trans, non-binary, gay, straight, bi, or ace. However, the romantic interests in most of these games seem to be constrained to one or two character archetypes, which I find rather boring. Other than that, I don't know much more about LGBT representation in video games.

[BKWildenberg]

A couple games I've played recently: 

 

1. The Outer Wilds has a nicely written LGBT side-quest with one of your companions and the woman she falls in love with. It's very sweet, as your role is to basically guide them together. Parvati is also implied to be asexual, which is something I haven't seen in games very often. 
2. In GreedFall, a couple of your companions can be romances regardless of gender (like the foxy pirate!) 
3. Stardew Valley let's you romance and marry any of the bachelors/bachelorettes regardless of your gender. I romanced Alex, and there's a little coming out story and everything which is pretty cute. 

 

[Higster]

Birdo from Mario is trans, i heard theres a lot of lgbt Fire emblem Characters. I know in dragon quest 11 they have a very flamboyant character who is presumably gay, you can also marry men in the switch version of Dragon quest 11 too im pretty sure. You also have people like Gay Tony in Grand Theft Auto too. Borderlands has some lgbt characters too, it has a lesbian couple in it and one of the people you can play as in number 2 is bisexual.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Higster