video games LGBT Romance in Video Games

[Superpride]

I always love playing video games that offer the player the ability to make their own decisions like the customization of their character’s appearance and skills. I especially love it when that choosability extends to romancing different characters. The best example I can think of right now is the video-game series called Mass Effect. I loved romancing Kaiden Alenko during the third game, and a fun fact is the face model for this character is an openly gay man. It’s a shame the player couldn’t romance him in the first game of trilogy if they played as a male Shepard. Rumors have been spreading that a remastered version of the trilogy is in the works. If that’s true, I hope they allow male Shepard to romance Kaiden at the very beginning because there is direct evidence that shows Kaiden and another character Ashley Williams could’ve been romanced regardless of Shepard’s gender.

I’m really looking forward to playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it’s released on November. From what I watched and read, the game will allow players to romance characters of the same gender. You’re even allowed to choose who your character hookups with at the beginning of the game haha. I’m in desperate need for a video game that allows the player to have an in-depth, gay romance since other games that have this feature that I’ve played didn’t satisfy my romantic itch. Mass Effect as well as the Dragon Age series are great examples of romance done right, with other games like Fallout 4 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey feeling like it was more of an afterthought than an integral part of the game.

Do you know of any video-game romances that you remembered and loved, particularly in the LGBT department?

[Myr]

Dragon Age, also from Bioware, had a number of gay romance options, like you mentioned.  Though they also liked their surprises on that in both Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age 3 (inquisition). (seriously, two games in a row the gay romance character I played ended up doing a blaze of glory/disappearing act).  Also agree that Mass Effect handled it well for its time.  Looking forward to the remaster and what they'll do with it.  A next gen release for Mass Effect Remastered would be cool, even worth paying for again, if they do it right.

Greedfall has the options as well apparently, though I'm not far enough in there to see them all out... but that ship captain is a real stud. lol

Coming Out on Top is a gay adventure game.  But that's a great deal less romance and more... um.. adventure.

 

[Gene Splicer PHD]

Oh, those days with the Sims. My two hot "roommates" getting down to some good old fashioned woohoo in their fashionable houses with the very gay decor.

I had straight housemates and a couple of awkward moments of "uh, I don't know why they're doing that...

[Superpride]

9 hours ago, Myr said:

Dragon Age, also from Bioware, had a number of gay romance options, like you mentioned.  Though they also liked their surprises on that in both Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age 3 (inquisition). (seriously, two games in a row the gay romance character I played ended up doing a blaze of glory/disappearing act).  Also agree that Mass Effect handled it well for its time.  Looking forward to the remaster and what they'll do with it.  A next gen release for Mass Effect Remastered would be cool, even worth paying for again, if they do it right.

Greedfall has the options as well apparently, though I'm not far enough in there to see them all out... but that ship captain is a real stud. lol

Coming Out on Top is a gay adventure game.  But that's a great deal less romance and more... um.. adventure.

 

I also loved Dorian from Dragon Age Inquisition. I flirted with him every chance I could and chose him to be in my party almost all the time haha! I played the beginning of Greedfall, and I really liked the gameplay so far. I actually want to romance Kurt, but unfortunately you can only romance him if you play a female character. Though Vasco isn't bad on the eyes either. And Coming Out on Top is great in terms of a visual novel. I mostly experienced it by watching Youtubers play the game which has a censored and uncensored version as well as an option to use protection or not 😆

[Superpride]

On 7/5/2020 at 12:35 PM, Gene Splicer PHD said:

Oh, those days with the Sims. My two hot "roommates" getting down to some good old fashioned woohoo in their fashionable houses with the very gay decor.

I had straight housemates and a couple of awkward moments of "uh, I don't know why they're doing that...

I remembered the moment when I was playing The Sims 2 and found out that I could have two male characters woohoo together and even marry. That was one of the best moments of my gaming experience which happened during middle school. I'm so happy the Sims series has become even more inclusive following the third and fourth installment. I also sometimes like to spice it up by having one of the Sims be an alien or robot and have them woohoo together haha!

Edited July 6, 2020 by Superpride

[astone2292]

I always wanted to romance the guards in Fable 1 and 2, especially the chiefs. None of the other NPCs caught my personal eye, but dang, I really wanted one of those big buff guards in my character's bed! They never gave them a romance meter in game, and that's just a darn shame.

[Wayne Gray]

Baldur's Gate 3 has straight and gay romance options. Upon character creation you pick your "perfect" love interest (you actually create them). If you're male and you create a guy, then the game tilts toward gay romances. It's still in Early Access, but damn ... it's a great game if you like strategy and if you wanna have mad crazy sex with vampire spawn, a confused wizard, and whatever else happens across your path.

[Wencic]

It seems to me that the implementation of such functions in the fallout, as well as Assassin's Creed Odyssey, serves only to ensure that the developers protect themselves from various accusations. From the series of mass effect games, I played only in andromeda, but as far as I remember, it was impossible to start an affair there (In general, not only with a man). After your comment, I really wanted to go through the earlier mass effect series. Could you tell me which part you played? I rarely play games, but I think it's a great place to start. I used to get the "gay dose" from the film industry. Various films, TV series and even anime. There are some jobs that can make even the most brutal man cry. In general, if you want a hardcore gay game, then I can advise you one ... Excellent graphics, an unpredictable plot, the level of passing is very difficult, you can also choose absolutely any guy you like, but for this you first have to achieve him ... This game is called real life :). You can even marry him if you use services like this https://daenemarkheiraten.de/en/lgbt-wedding-in-denmark/. But I will remind you again that the difficulty level of this game is "ULTRA-MEGA-SUPER-HARDCORE". Good luck.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Wencic

[Page Scrawler]

I wrote about this one particular game on another forum. 

 

 

[LJCC]

I only wished Mass Effect 1 had a proper introduction to Kaiden and male Shepard's relationship. I remember hearing from a tweet that male shep could be spec'd to romance Kaiden, and I was like, peeing my pants whilst in a meeting, looking very very eager to get home to mod my PC game and see what the buzz was about.

I was not disappointed; except for the mangled arm and, er, positioning when male Shepard would go through the motions of being underneath Kaiden (supposedly with the female Shepard's animation) and contorting his upper torso in the process while they're in the heat of making out.

And the fact they made male Shepard the bottom only made this romance, the icing on the cake.

[Krista]

On 3/20/2022 at 6:36 AM, LJCC said:

I only wished Mass Effect 1 had a proper introduction to Kaiden and male Shepard's relationship. I remember hearing from a tweet that male shep could be spec'd to romance Kaiden, and I was like, peeing my pants whilst in a meeting, looking very very eager to get home to mod my PC game and see what the buzz was about.

I was not disappointed; except for the mangled arm and, er, positioning when male Shepard would go through the motions of being underneath Kaiden (supposedly with the female Shepard's animation) and contorting his upper torso in the process while they're in the heat of making out.

And the fact they made male Shepard the bottom only made this romance, the icing on the cake.

Yeah, mods are good for PC gaming, not so much console. I don't play enough to really warrant a PC gaming set-up, I don't think.  Also, if I did break down and buy it, I doubt the brats and the husband would let me on it anyway. You can M/M Romance Alistaire with Mods for Dragon Age: Origins too. As well as Cullen in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Mods are really nice for a lot of games of that nature, especially older when creators and studios were a bit hesitant to include the options. Kaiden as a Romance option later games doesn't really do it for me as far as M/M, if I play a male character in Mass Effect, I always gravitate towards Tali. You spend the majority of the game after ME:1 at odds with Kaiden as well.

Spoiler

I still choose him over Ashley pretty much every playthrough though, so there's still that.  

 

[LJCC]

15 hours ago, Krista said:

You spend the majority of the game after ME:1 at odds with Kaiden as well.

 

I have a thing for my character's love interest, butting heads with each other. Plus it's really all about the steamy sex scenes for me and how they made, er, Male Shepard, the passive one which made me discover his kink of letting someone in control for a change--makes sense for a character destined to take charge in saving the universe. He has to find someone who'll take charge of other things, in the, er, bedroom department.

As for Ashley, the writers seem to really hate her. I'm not fond of her xenophobic tendencies given it's 200'ish years into the future and she's sounding like she lives in the midwest. She really gave me space-Karen vibes, that one.

As for Kaiden, I feel like he's one-sided on things that have affected him on a personal level, which contradicts his upbringing on being open to things. So there's a disconnect with some of the shit he'd said on ME:1 over his actions on ME:3 that leaned more towards Shepard's ideology.  

Spoiler

There's a scene near the end of ME:3 where he says to male Shepard, "Don't leave me behind," and Shepard answers, "No matter what happens, know that I love you, always," then proceeds to cup his cheeks and my insides are twisted and I vomit rainbows with a game boner. It made so much sense given they shagged the night before and that romp scene was so intimate.

 

Quote

You can M/M Romance Alistaire with Mods for Dragon Age: Origins too. As well as Cullen in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

 

I've always had a game boner for Alistair when I found out you can mod him, a few years after the game was released. I think I discovered this from a YT vid and I was like, "What is this sorcery! He's too spunky, just how I like 'em. I have to play this." 

Also, Cullen looks like a cousin so, I kind of steered away from him. Haha. Dragon Age 2 male Hawke though, chef's kiss.

[Krista]

5 hours ago, LJCC said:

I have a thing for my character's love interest, butting heads with each other. Plus it's really all about the steamy sex scenes for me and how they made, er, Male Shepard, the passive one which made me discover his kink of letting someone in control for a change--makes sense for a character destined to take charge in saving the universe. He has to find someone who'll take charge of other things, in the, er, bedroom department.

As for Ashley, the writers seem to really hate her. I'm not fond of her xenophobic tendencies given it's 200'ish years into the future and she's sounding like she lives in the midwest. She really gave me space-Karen vibes, that one.

As for Kaiden, I feel like he's one-sided on things that have affected him on a personal level, which contradicts his upbringing on being open to things. So there's a disconnect with some of the shit he'd said on ME:1 over his actions on ME:3 that leaned more towards Shepard's ideology.  

  Reveal hidden contents

There's a scene near the end of ME:3 where he says to male Shepard, "Don't leave me behind," and Shepard answers, "No matter what happens, know that I love you, always," then proceeds to cup his cheeks and my insides are twisted and I vomit rainbows with a game boner. It made so much sense given they shagged the night before and that romp scene was so intimate.

 

I've always had a game boner for Alistair when I found out you can mod him, a few years after the game was released. I think I discovered this from a YT vid and I was like, "What is this sorcery! He's too spunky, just how I like 'em. I have to play this." 

Also, Cullen looks like a cousin so, I kind of steered away from him. Haha. Dragon Age 2 male Hawke though, chef's kiss.

All I got from your post is that you have a cousin that looks like Cullen? You say? Lol.  

Dragon Age 2 was a big letdown for me. It sucks because I really liked Fenris and some of the characters and their stories. I didn't like how they didn't restrict romance options as well. The main plot was awful, it should have been a series of DLCs, that's what the entire game felt like. It did introduce Varric and Cassandra though, so at least something good came from it. I'm probably also one of the rare people that didn't like that we had pre-made Hawkes as well. I was more forgiving with Mass Effect, mostly because their character creation tools were so touchy and it took me ages. I use a blog to find attractive original Shepards now.  None of the games are as bad as Andromeda though, where I happily took the premade characters. 

Ashley was meant to be xenophobic, but I agree it felt too dated for something that was so into the future. If they were going to do it, it should have been done with a more modern take on racism and xenophobia. A bit difficult to do, but they just made her so stereotypical and loud. It would have been better if the writing was more subtle, so that it is there, but not in your face. It would have layered her better, for better or for worst. I would still not be able to like her, but in all honesty, the whole basis of a lot of trouble within the Mass Effect universe was based on that dynamic. It just felt different coming from a human, I guess.

Mass Effect 3 for the M/M romance is the reason I like the game best out of the three. It brought more story out of Kaiden and it did feel like there was a history and a connection between them, if it came completely out of nowhere, I wouldn't have liked it. The Mod probably added to that and enhanced the other games, which leaves me feeling a little left out. Consoles... 

They butchered Alistair in Dragon Age: Inquisition and I am still pissed about that. lol His character looked awful. Zeveran being the only M/M option in Origins was a bit of a letdown as well. I was very slow to warm to him and he was so easy to get romantic with, but not loyalty out of, story-wise. It made the romance end up feeling more physical and casual than actually romantic. It has been a very long time since I played Origins though, so I may be misremembering. 

[spike382]

So wow, this is an interesting and old topic, but I feel I must contribute to it.   Generally I don't care too much about romancing at all in most games, though it can be fun.   I, like @Krista thought the Zeveran romance in Dragon Age Origins was way too superficial and based more on physical fun than actual romance and emotion.  Though the dude does get genuinely jealous and breaks it off it you sleep with someone else.  Which oddly enough didn't seem like something he'd be that bothered about.  

Anyway, for being quite the romantic at heart, I somehow spent the better part of my young adulthood avoiding romance stories in general, even though Get Real and Beautiful Thing always touched me and kinda made me want more of that.  But whatever that's beside the point.  I will say that the story of Dorian in Dragon Age Inquisition really touched me.  He was one of my favorite characters in the game, and his romance felt more emotional than the other m/m choice in the game.  I really wanted more romance with his character and I kept bringing my character up to him hoping for more chances to keep our story going.  

It's actually kinda funny to look back on this, because it is for this reason that I started to search out a lot more romantic gay fiction.  If I look back it pretty much directly led to me becoming a member of this community just like a month or so after that game released.    

[Page Scrawler]

Dinosaur anthro's?!! 

The purple Triceratops character, named Fang, is non-binary. Not sure yet about other rep. The game is scheduled to be released sometime later this year, for PS4, PS5, and Windows.

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Page Scrawler