Meet the gaymers: why queer reprentatn is explodg vio gam | Gam | The Guardian

Contents:

• MEET THE GAYMERS: WHY QUEER REPRENTATN IS EXPLODG VIO GAM
• PRI MONTH VIO GAM ROUNDUP: QUEER GAM BUNDLE; GAYMERX; QUEER WOMEN OF ESPORTS; XBOX; RT GAM
• WH SO MANY VELOPERS EMBRACG QUEER CHARACTERS, IS THERE STILL A PLACE FOR GAY DG GAMG?
• GAY THE GAME INDTRY: REARCH OM THE FIELD

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.

PRI MONTH VIO GAM ROUNDUP: QUEER GAM BUNDLE; GAYMERX; QUEER WOMEN OF ESPORTS; XBOX; RT GAM

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.

WH SO MANY VELOPERS EMBRACG QUEER CHARACTERS, IS THERE STILL A PLACE FOR GAY DG GAMG?

“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.

Lookg around the room at the Gaymg awards, I’m surround by people whose queerns and love for vio gam are both important parts of who they are – and nowadays, they are no longer at odds. Inclus gay, lbian, bi, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, transgenr, polyamoro, non-bary, and others. Inclus gam that you n play both as a gay man and a gay woman.

GAY THE GAME INDTRY: REARCH OM THE FIELD

In 2014, Gair published a post on his now-removed Tumblr blog about his experience as an openly gay veloper wh the vio game dtry.

The post, which outled his reer as a game veloper who happened to be gay (opposed to llg himself a “gay veloper”) brought some much-need sight to issu surroundg sexualy, genr inty, and cln wh the dtry.