Contents:
MEET THE GAYMERS: WHY QUEER REPRENTATN IS EXPLODG VIO GAM
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. “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.
THEGAYGAMER
“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.
DONATN GOAL FOR GAY GAM 11
“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.