Oh boy, this is going to be a doozy. I feel kind of bad, the last one was a bit heavy but it came up. I?m actually a bit excited about this topic, not so much because of the controversy itself but because of what the controversy can represent: An opportunity to learn. I am a firm believer in the ?everything is a lesson? idea, and I think that how we view the issue of homosexuality in gaming is beneficial to all involved. To get a bit of perspective, the recent issue of this is the outcry over the possibility (I say possibility because I haven?t played it yet) of Commander Shephard of the Mass Effect series having a homosexual relationship in the third game. I?ve seen the clip that has gotten everyone?s panties in a bunch, and I?ve got to say it wasn?t that big of a deal. I was actually pretty impressed with it, I thought it was better than all the other representations of sex and romance shown so far in the series. It?s not so much a criticism of the game, it?s just that?how to put this?sex is really hard to show genuinely in video gaming (so far, not discounting it in the future). It?s either a quick-time event or a dating sim, to put it bluntly, and Mass Effect was no different in that regard. Besides, the virtual bum didn?t really add anything to the relationship or story. I think just to make it clear, I?ll make it point form like I usually do. And the main two games I?m going to reference are Mass Effect (all of them) and Dragon Age 2 (another Bioware game, would ya look at that eh?). Let?s get into this sucka!
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- Continuity issue
The first issue that people had with a gay Shepard (man that is weird to type for some reason) is that ?he wasn?t gay in the other ones, he was with women. The continuity is ruined if you make him gay now?. Now, I usually like to kind of start by saying that I can understand or they have a point or that there is some reason to this BUT not here. I will not allow any ground when it comes to this topic, I take the treatment of gay and lesbian people very seriously, and I will not allow for excuses (just a heads up). Firstly, those two things aren?t at odds. I?ve seen other critics around the web discuss this predominantly, and I generally agree with them: There are a lot of gay people that have had straight relationships. It?s one of those things, where gay and lesbian people do have these conflicts and issues and questions of sexuality. There are plenty of gays and lesbians that have had straight relationship, even being married and having children, either because they were hiding their true feelings or that they themselves had not come to terms with it yet. I want to say that it is normal, and to an extent it is, but it is also a product of a society that ostracizes and punishes homosexuality, causing a lot of this internal conflict to exist in the first place. Secondly, continuity is a bitch anyways. I mean, we already went down this road with that Deception novel didn?t we? I?ve never been a big fan of continuity as a whole. In small doses its great and keeps the story cohesive but in most instances, especially in comics (calling you out guys!), it just makes the whole thing a big mess. Thirdly, I just want to say: I. Don?t. Care. If there is a way to improve a story and to make it more representative of the culture as a whole and to be more inclusive, then I am all for it. Continuity to me is not a good enough excuse to improve the story by allowing a gay option for gay people that want it. You should be more open if you have a problem with that.
- You don?t have to have a gay Shepard
This really is the big one in terms of reasons for the option, isn?t it. If you don?t want Shepard to be gay, then don?t. They aren?t replacing the straight choices with gay ones, they are having both for everyone that wants to tailor their experience to themselves. I haven?t played as a gay character yet on these games, not out of bigotry or homophobia but simply because it wasn?t my cup of tea. I had no problem with it being there and I was more than happy that it was, knowing that it allowed others to have a more engaging and rich experience because of its inclusion. Overall this really speaks to the issue of gay rights as a whole and the opposition it faces. To all those that are against gay rights such as marriage you can really use this game example in the real world as well: You don?t want gay marriage? Then don?t have a gay marriage yourself! It?s really that simple.
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And now my big personal reason, the reason I started this article. Haven?t heard this one at all, but I think it is just as important as all of the other reasons:
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- Even straight people benefit from gay representation
Now, I?m going to keep this strictly in the context of video games for this one. I could write pages and pages or real-world examples of this, but for now I?ll stick this one to games. Now I want to make this clear:
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Just because you are straight, and won?t use the option, does not mean that you do not learn or benefit from its existence in the story!
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I?ll go with Dragon Age 2 for this one. I played a straight Hawke, doing my adventuring thang and looting (oh, the looting?). I had all my companions with me, and having heard this controversy play out with this game before I played it, I had viewed the character of Fenris as a gay character (even though I was a straight male and did not pursue the option. More on my reasoning further down). I did this because I knew the option to be a gay character existed for me, and that relationships were not one-dimensional and were more representative of the relationships we have in real life. Now, I was wooing Isabella, but considered Fenris a good friend and always made an effort to converse with the guy. I had had him discuss certain things about him that I viewed through my perceptions of him: Isolation, loneliness, confusion about his sense of self. And because I had considered him as a gay man (which sounds bad I know, I shouldn?t make that assumption but I?ll explain in a bit) these feelings he had were all the more potent to me. Now, it was a coupling of the controversy I had heard as well as I had gotten too friendly with the speech-wheel which led to him proposing a romantic relationship that led me to conclude him as a gay man. I want to clarify that this was not concluded through bigotry. The proposal I had politely refused, which he was fine with. He didn?t do what all these homophobic people think gay people do, which is just go after gay sex from everyone. But we did have a relationship that was beyond a romantic one. I had said no, and to me personally it was not because of my revulsion. I did not, in the simplest of terms, view my relationship with him in that way. He was a friend, and I cherished that friendship; and so did he. And it was a friendship that was unique to me and him. It was not a cookie-cutter friendship that I had with all the characters that you would have with your typical game or what have you, since I saw them all differently. Isabela was my awkward romantic interest, awkward in that there was a conflict between both our desires for freedom and the growing experiences we had together. Merrill was like a niece that I protected and helped. Varric was my bro, my homeboy that had my back and that I could hang out with at the bar and watch the hockey game with (uh?yeah?). But I learned a lot from the struggles and conversations I had with Fenris. It paralleled a friendship I had in real life before we went our separate ways to follow our dreams. I had had a friend who was gay, and who the concept of his sexuality was always on his mind and always a source of conflict for him. Like Fenris, he also had trouble about his own concept of who he was. He struggled with what made him different in the eyes of others, and how he began not only to despise those that treated him that was but also began to hate himself for being different in the first place. I learned not only about my friend and how the world treats others but also about myself and how I treated others. I had not been one to combat this hate when I was younger, but seeing a friend that I truly cared about and how much it hurt both him and me, I had a revelation of sorts. From that day forward I never viewed bullying and homosexuality in the same way again, and I will do everything in my power to see that hate gone. And it is because of these experiences in real life that I could truly learn from Dragon Age 2 and my friendship with Fenris. I made sure to talk to him all the time, not only to learn more about him but in a weird way to let this fictional character that had programmed responses know that I was there for him and I supported him. It was the strangest thing, but I truly felt that my support was important. I stood up for him when people would shout hate and bigotry at him being different, I went out of my way to help him find out who he was, and it was not the romance option that the game had created that fostered this respect and friendship. That is why video games are such an amazing medium, and that is why we must do everything we can to make this medium more accessible and more welcoming to others. Because it is not just them that benefits, it?s us as well. We learn more about ourselves and others, and we learn about our actions and consequences. It is these real world and fictional experiences outside of our comfort zone, outside of what we know, that are what truly defines us in the end. So we must not give in to this cloaked bigotry and hate, with people trying to justify these actions behind flimsy reasoning. We must welcome the unknown, the different, and accept others with open arms. Only then will we grow as human beings and as a society.
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Source: http://gameaucracy.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/whatever-wednesday-homosexuality-in-video-games/
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