Probably the worst thing about playing video games is how difficult it is to find a video game where the protagonist is exactly like you in every way. We've all struggled while scrolling through Steam looking for that one game that is about someone who is identical to us in every possible way, and it makes actually being able to unwind by playing video games a real challenge. Who, after all, wants to play games that are about people who aren't exactly like us? That sounds so boring!
Wait, you don't think we should only play games that are about people who aren't exactly like you? Well you'd apparently have some persuading to do on that point if you said that to The Hill or the LGBTQ (etc) people they interviewed for this piece, because to them it's such a drag having to put themselves in someone else's shoes for the span of a video game!
A new report says 1 in 5 active gamers identify as LGBTQ, but the community is underrepresented in video games. https://t.co/6Ckfp0ka2N
— The Hill (@thehill) February 13, 2024
The story is one discussing a report by GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, hardly an objective observer) that claims that '68 percent of LGBTQ gamers “wish there were more prominent LGBTQ storylines in games' and that 'as LGBTQ people exist in our world, they must be included in these imagined or recreated worlds.' Now never mind that the article notes that the global number of people who identify as LGBTQ is 9%, with a full 4% identifying as bisexual, 0.9% as 'pansexual' and 0.9% as 'asexual', according to a cited Ipsos poll from last June. Seems like someone who's bisexual, pansexual or asexual shouldn't have any problem here, since all of those encompass potential opposite sex attraction as part of them (or lack of any in the case of asexuality), so you know, just go with that. But still there must be wailing and gnashing of teeth about 'representation'! That's what we do now, right? About literally everything!
The game I’m currently working on is one where you design a character and then walk around Rainbow Town stopping people and telling them about your sexuality. I think it’ll be a huge hit.
— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) February 13, 2024
Oooooo, they’re really gonna be mad when they discover the characters in video games, all of them, are made of the binary numbers 0 and 1.
— Kent Moore (@kentrmoore) February 13, 2024
We just want games that are good. We don't want politics injected into them. Leave games alone. Seriously 🤨
— Jon (@pay_attn) February 13, 2024
Nothing will be left alone! Everything will be 'inclusive', whether it makes things substantially worse or not! EVERYTHING!!!
Who cares? Make good games without the politicized nonsense.
— JT (@JT100431) February 13, 2024
Grand Theft Auto IV
— Version Six Runs Better (@my_compound) February 13, 2024
Set it in a San Francisco bathhouse in 1980, and that should fix that representation problem.
'And The Band Played On' would be an interesting video game choice, although it might end up as more of a Sim City clone with significant elements of Plague, Inc. thrown in.
Of course there's also the awkward fact that there are a bunch of games that have come out in the last few years that have LGBTQ (etc) representation.
I really don’t see that as being the case, tbh. There are LGBT characters in many video games.
— Will, the Teruo Nakamura of Burgum stans (@spudhawg) February 13, 2024
Pretty sure Hogwart's Legacy specifically allowed you to create a trans-gendered character.
— Brently𝕏 (@kopopoulous) February 13, 2024
Have you never seen “The Last Of Us?” Jesus. Woke overload. And parts 1 and 2 were Games Of The Year in their respective year. Unrepresented? Gimme a break.
— Dirk Ramscooter (@ramscooter) February 13, 2024
But you know, other than those extremely well known and highly selling (for better or for worse) games. We need gay Tetris! Gaytris!
As to the nuts and bolts of the report, how useful is it? This useful:
This is a GLAAD report based on a limited Nielsen survey with a sample size of 1,452. https://t.co/zl9y9Wqwzv
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) February 13, 2024
Yeah...
Absolute clownery. As a whole they're a single-digit percentage of the population. But that's irrelevant because NO ONE CARES ABOUT THIS stop pushing this crap on gamers https://t.co/6k16qVvYEA
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) February 13, 2024
Embarrassing.
— Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) February 13, 2024
"...72 percent of LGBTQ gamers saying that seeing characters with the same sexual orientation or gender identity “represented well makes them feel better about themselves,” ...higher among younger age groups, at 78 percent for those ages 13 to 17." https://t.co/cyZ5Lkr2MS
The kids are not all right, but then again we already knew that.
Can we just knock it off with this stuff? Make media products that are good. If there's a compelling reason to have an LGBTQ (etc) character in there plot wise or something great, put one in! But inclusion for the sake of inclusion has led nowhere but to artistic rot and decay across a huge swath of our culture and the entertainment output being produced, don't do this to video games too.
At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
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