Hello! I’m currently working on a research paper for my English composition course, and we were given free reign on the topic. I decided to do my topic on the history of queerness in gaming, and I’m not only talking about queer characters, but also the gaming community too. So far, my major sources focus on things like:
- Demographics of games with queer characters (which identities, created in what country, what year was the game made, etc.)
- I want to try to find more stuff about trans, enby, and ace characters as I feel their representation is a little underepresented
- Opinions of queer and non-queer gamers on queer representation in games
- How fan interpretations, fanon, and external content (like social media posts) is important to gaming too
- What games do right and wrong with representation, especially when it comes to “non-gendered” character creators
- How localizations/translations are sometimes used to censor queerness. Also about how queerness can be seen differently around the world.
- Some info on Gamergate, but that’s not a major focus of the paper
- A pinch of info about feminist gaming, but not necessarily lesbian-women-only gaming
I want to make sure I’m hitting what people find important to explain and teach to others, as the goal of this paper is to be read by anyone who’s curious to learn. So if there’s any topic you deem extremely important that shouldn’t be missed, please tell me! Also, I’m a little more knowledgeable about JRPGs compared to popular western games, so character recommendations to bring up are appreciated greatly.
I plan to promote a survey about this stuff later on, I just need to get my questions together :). I will crosspost this to other gaming or queer communities, so you might see me there too!
This post is also on Reddit, although due to it being a new account I’m going to struggle to gain traction there with the low karma bans :(
I get the feeling that there should be something about queer gaming communities and their dichotomies with non-queer focused gaming communities as I’ve found the vibes are starkly different between the two.
Thank you for your input! I’ll see if I can tie that into my topics.
The effects of moderation in multiplayer games and how it does/doesn’t effect queer population numbers
i’d love to have some numbers on how much the toxicity in esports titles has pushed people away from the games overall. especially counter-strike where valve won’t issue bans for communications, literally ever.
I do plan to talk about some online gaming, as many of the sources I found talk about World of Warcraft’s issues with LGBTQ+ players and how they struggled to make a space for themselves. Thank you for your input!
It might just be my experience, but I’ve seen the cozy game genre be very lgbt friendly. Would be interesting to explore the reasons for that.
Also, of note is the way some games have been updated to be inclusive. The Sims 4 allows basically any combination of produces milk/impregantes/become pregnant/masc body type/femme body type/pronouns/voice/clothes. It also allows poly relationships and different romantic and sexual interests. The interesting thing to me is the fact that gendered language was still used in certain places for a long time after those updates. “Birthday boy/girl” was a particularly egregious one for nonbinary sims. It is interesting to see all this effort put in on one end and then when they dropped the ball elsewhere, there was no change for a long time. Is this indicative of just performative behavior or oversight? Looking into the community response etc might be interesting. It always struck me as so strange to basically have this super inclusive framework completely undermined by something that could take a jr dev less than a minute to fix.
I can try to look at some cozy games, although I think that the reason why these types of games appeals to LGBTQ+ gamers is because they’re typically indie games, which have a higher chance of having queer chracters or the creators themselves are queer. I do plan to note how games will have diverse gender options, but then forget to change things that you mentioned.
Yea, I wonder how much actual gameplay loop affects LGBT people. I remember being able to play a game as a kid (long long ago lol) where you could romance a same sex character. It was my first intro to same sex relationships and I was baffled that there was this cute npc and my female character could tell her she’s pretty and it’d give us the option to date. Like legit blew my mind. I just kept playing it again and again until it became normal to me that I could date a same sex person. I dropped like all other games just to keep living in a world where I could date this cute girl and people would tell me how cute we were together. I wonder if cozy games give that validation and that’s more important than a gameplay loop that otherwise would be more exciting.
There seems to have been plenty of interesting points in the thread. I’m sure we’d love to read what you come up with if you feel comfortable sharing once you’re done! Good luck!
Some more specific sources on games representing marginalized identities. A continuation on that list of games I showed you.
Splatoon 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW4V3sVdigU Hair style is no longer decided by gender, unlike in earlier entries of the game.
Spyro 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1V8HZPPoaI Spyro represents ace vibes in one part of the ending cutscenes for the game. For a PS1 game particularly this is important. After seeing Mario saving Peach in another castle for how many so times.
I have a few things, along with specific examples.
- There was a glad study on LGBTQ+ representation in games.
Studies indicate a significant presence of LGBTQ+ individuals within the gaming community. Notably, GLAAD’s research, based on Nielsen surveys, highlights that a considerable percentage of active gamers identify as LGBTQ+. Specifically, the GLAAD report shows that 17% of active gamers are LGBTQ+.
- There is LGBTQ+ representation in games you probably wouldn’t expect.
a. In Splatoon 3 on the Nintendo Switch, you have your inkling and Octoling avatars, but they are not gender locked meaning you can have voices of the opposite gender, despite the hair style. Could also be looked at as representing feminism.
b. In a Spyro 3 Year of the Dragon, Spyro the dragon originally released on the PS1, shows some asexual aspects when hunter and bianca kiss in an ending cutscene. Ace vibes. Tells Sparx to look away,
- Fan posts, allow marginialled queer and LGBTQ fans of a franchise to have their side represented, even if in an uncannon way. Very important for representation.
I know about Splatoon 3, as I play the games myself! Acht is also nonbinary (or uses they/them), so there’s that too. Thank you for the Spryo input, I’ll check it out as I don’t often see people talking about asexual characters in games. Same for the GLAAD study, I have to look at that now.
