The 'gay button' gamg: LGBTQ+ reprentatn viogam is often hidn – shouldn't be

Contents:

• MEET THE GAYMERS: WHY QUEER REPRENTATN IS EXPLODG VIO GAM
• GAY PORN GAM: FREE GAY SEX GAM ONLE
• VIO GAME PLAYERS AVOID GAY CHARACTERS
• BALDUR’S GATE 3 HAS A GAY BEAR SEX SCENE AND PEOPLE ARE LOVG

MEET THE GAYMERS: WHY QUEER REPRENTATN IS EXPLODG VIO GAM

Gam for those terted gay characters, storyl, and player optns. “A lightfully wholome story-driven game wh a GameBoy-spired style, about a teen 2007 wh a gay csh on his bt iend.

5D platformer about a gay garner on a qut to save his boyiend atop a tall tower. “A fightg game wh a gay male playable character, Maxi, whose male lover was killed by another playable character.

GGP is a leadg anizatn of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr game dtry profsnals and enthiasts om around the world.

GAY PORN GAM: FREE GAY SEX GAM ONLE

But this is the first -person Gaymg awards, an event that celebrat queer reprentatn vio gam, and the huge and ever-growg queer muny that plays might not be what some people would thk of as the gamg dience, but the fact is that jt about everybody plays gam now – two-thirds of all Amerins, to pluck jt one stat – and of urse, queer people have always been part of that muny. A seri like Mae Mart’s Feel Good, about a formerly straight-prentg bi woman her first relatnship wh a non-bary queer person, did not exist 1999; neher did a game like Life is Strange: Te Colors, a small-town mystery about a bisexual psychic, which picked up three aclas at the Gaymg awards.

The cisn was ma durg the origal Sims’ velopment the late 90s to remove same-sex romantic teractns between characters, but they were restated by a programmer named Patrick J Barrett III – himself a gay man – who was workg om an old sign document that ma no mentn of that cisn. After two female Sims went off-script at a weddg durg a live mo of the game 1999 and started passnately makg out ont of a roomful of journalists, velopers at Maxis were wag for the sus at publisher EA to mand a change – but never happened, and so The Sims beme one of the first gam to portray homosexualy and days, the velopers workg on The Sims 4 at Maxis are much more liberately queer- and trans-clive, terg to one of the most diverse player muni vio gam.

VIO GAME PLAYERS AVOID GAY CHARACTERS

“I’m an openly gay man workg the gam dtry, so for me I have a vted tert greater cln not jt the gam we play, but those who make gam, ” says John Faciane, associate producer at Maxis, the Sims’ veloper.

BALDUR’S GATE 3 HAS A GAY BEAR SEX SCENE AND PEOPLE ARE LOVG

“It is an art form that speaks to a lot of different people and backgrounds, and the more we clu all those people, the better is … A big reason that I felt fortable to e out when I did, even though I have a wonrful, supportive, lovg fay, was seeg reprentatn of gay men wh gam – knowg that there were other people out there like me.

”Asi om reprentatn wh gam themselv, the way that muni gather around gam has also been a drivg factor changg the state of play: queer gamers – or gaymers, as many playfully intify – are more visible too. “Weirdly, when I started streamg, I never advertised that I was gay, nor mentned on stream … I quickly realised this was foolish. ”As Ben pots out, though, gamg’s general reputatn for toxicy is not entirely unjtified, and outsi explicly LGBTQ+-iendly spac there is still a lot of homophobia around.

“I don’t believe ’s an overstatement to say that the gamg sector has a huge problem wh homophobia, transphobia and other forms of bigotry, but is beg tackled at all stag by publishers and velopers who don’t want their gam tated by , which is hearteng to see.