Is Ultimate Fightg Gay?

Contents:

• THE FIGHT TO GET GAY VIO GAM
• GAYTALY: ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER KICKS SEVEN SHAS OUT OF THE RABOW
• IS ULTIMATE FIGHTG GAY?
• LIST OF GAY UFC FIGHTERS (OUT & PROUD MEN & WOMEN)
• “ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER” BRGS MORTAL KOMBAT-STYLE ACTN AND GAY STEREOTYP TO YOUR MOBILE DEVICE
• WATCH: LGBT CULTURE BE FIERCE ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER VIO GAME
• IS ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER FUNNY OR JT OFFENSIVE?
• ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER"IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE HATEFUL"
• ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER TO CHANGE NAME RPONSE TO LEGAL TANGLE
• DARLG, PREPARE TO PLAY ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER
• NEW TRAILER FOR ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER, THE "WORLD'S FIRST EVER GAY VIO GAME"

THE FIGHT TO GET GAY VIO GAM

Image: Ultimate Gay FighterLike a lot of guys growg up the 1980s, Michael Patrick started playg vio gam at a young age. "Patrick isn't an "avid gamer" anymore, but he was remd of his love of fightg gam last June around the time of New York's gay pri para. Seeg all the over-the-top stum and floats that make the para such a legendary event, he began to joke wh his iends about what would be like to have a fightg game—a genre long celebrated for s ridiculons and mp nature—featurg entirely gay characters.

GAYTALY: ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER KICKS SEVEN SHAS OUT OF THE RABOW

And fally, last month, he unveiled his visn to the general public: Ultimate Gay Fighter, scribed on s webse as "the world's first ever gay vio game…ever!!!! ”Dpe the game not even g out yet, Ultimate Gay Fighter urted a great al of ntroversy based on s trailer alone. Jt last week, UGF announced that had partnered wh the pennt mobile game veloper Beard Man Studs to brg a “bigger and better Ultimate Gay Fighter very soon.

IS ULTIMATE FIGHTG GAY?

Todd Harper, a postdoctoral rearcher at MIT's game lab and thor of the book The Culture of Digal Fightg Gam, told me that part of the challenge Ultimate Gay Fighter fac here is one that a lot of gam face on some level, pecially this genre.

LIST OF GAY UFC FIGHTERS (OUT & PROUD MEN & WOMEN)

To give an example, I asked Harper how he thought a game like StarCraft uld show s players that one character or another was openly and eely gay. How uld show that one of the anonymo space mar the game is gay, for stance, whout turng him to a ridiculo riture?

“ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER” BRGS MORTAL KOMBAT-STYLE ACTN AND GAY STEREOTYP TO YOUR MOBILE DEVICE

“But now that you mentn , part of me would really love to see the space mar StarCraft prancg around stiletto heels…”Toni Roc, CEO and print of the LGBT-foced vio game nventn GaymerX, don't thk that Patrick's loyalty to genre nventns is to blame here. "While Mass Effect players uld pursue lbian relatnships for the entire seri, wasn't until the third game they uld be a gay is right that there are now many posive exampl of LGBT voic vio gam.

In recent years, high-profile velopers like BWare have released blockbter gam such as Mass Effect, which lets players star their own space opera as openly gay characters who n pursue same-sex relatnships (though that didn't happen until the third game the trilogy) the right way, Dragon Age, another of Bware's gam, ntas a Brokeback Mounta-que subplot about one of s male characters abandong the player to marry a woman and honor his noble leage when he's required to assume the throne.

WATCH: LGBT CULTURE BE FIERCE ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER VIO GAME

And jt this month, Sony and veloper Nghty Dog released an expansn to 2013’s crilly acclaimed zombie epic The Last of Us which ntaed a surprisg revelatn that Ellie, a teenage girl who’s one of the two playable characters, had a brief and tragic romantic tryst wh another other words, there are enough game velopers who intify as gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer that the fluential gamg se Polygon announced the emergence of a "queer gamg scene” last pared to other pop culture anchors like mic and film, the vio game dtry is still remarkably homogeno.

IS ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER FUNNY OR JT OFFENSIVE?

Which gets to an important qutn: if billn dollar pani are havg such a hard time welg LGBT voic, is the work of one experienced gay man the real problem here?

"Maybe we shouldn’t be spendg so much time pickg on an die veloper who ma some poor choic when a mastream veloper is still makg the 40th stallment some seri that's horribly racist and vlent and misogynist, " Roc Age was one of the first AAA gam that allowed players to pursue same-sex relatnships, plete wh awkward, Enya-fueled sex scen like the one shown creative dilemma that Harper highlighted, however, shows jt how subtle and enmic this kd of stutnalized homophobia is. A recent article on the gamg webse Kill Screen, for stance, asked why there still isn’t a sgle easily intifiable “gay protagonist” mastream gam. Is “the world's first gay vio game” an affectnate homage to a vibrant muny or clumsy rercement of offensive stereotyp?

ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER"IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE HATEFUL"

Lookg to wa through this maelstrom is Ultimate Gay Fighter (UGF) a 2D beat ‘em up for mobile vic veloped by New York-based Handsome Woman Productns.

ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER TO CHANGE NAME RPONSE TO LEGAL TANGLE

Patrick noticed the same trend ic books, wh even those aimed at the gay muny always featurg an unrealistilly mascule hero. “And I thought, wouldn’t be fun to take a ‘stereotypil’ flamboyant gay man and have him kick everyone’s ass?

Some take as homage to a varied and lourful muny, an affectnate satire of the numero myths and stereotyp that persist around homosexualy. “When you have gays a new kd of media, whout any kd of background or precent, I thk people’s ial reactn is: who did this? The game’s roster is formed primarily of Amerin gay men, leadg to accatns that margalis the other letters that form LGBT.

The stereotyp seem more malic their sgulary, as if they are patg all bisexuals and gay Asians wh the same bsh. ’ It’s a ntent claim, as other gam exist that al meangfully wh facets of homosexualy, om smaller personal projects such as Mattie Brice’s Maichi, which puts you through a day the life of a transgenr person, to massive anchis like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. “There’s a huge saturatn of gam marketed to var mographics, but none that I uld see that were marketed specifilly towards gays.

DARLG, PREPARE TO PLAY ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER

There’s also the risk that, if the game is not well-received, uld be damagg to future gam that promently feature homosexualy. On the ntrary, he believ that, should UGF fail, uld help other gay vio gam by creatg a hunger for somethg better, and spire other velopers to top his effort. “The gay muny has huge enomic clout – you’re tellg me my game will prohib someone om targetg that fuckg wealth?

Whether Ultimate Gay Fighter succeeds or not, Patrick hop will reach s tend dience, an dience he believ will take the spir he tend. Spokmen for profsnal boxg, which has seen a large share of s fan base gravate toward MMA, have been quick to acce their rivals of promotg gay porn.

NEW TRAILER FOR ULTIMATE GAY FIGHTER, THE "WORLD'S FIRST EVER GAY VIO GAME"

Recently, gay bloggers, homophobic crics of MMA, and even straight fans have clared that one of the great appeals of the sport is s homoeroticism. They note the large number of gay men and straight women who have bee fans of MMA and attribute to the appeal of the nearly-naked hard bodi of the fighters and the timate, often pelvic techniqu of Brazilian Jiu-Jsu, the favored grapplg disciple the Buzski, the publisher of, a web se voted to gay sports fans and athlet that has unted NFL Network and ESPN Rad among s advertisers, lls MMA "trsilly homoerotic.