I'm not going to lie, up until like a couple of weeks ago I had this same problem with myself, I got into an argument with a close friend of mine over it and then realised how fucking stupid I sounded, it made me realise that yeah, if I'm asking about why this character is anything but straight, then I have to apply that same questioning to why a character is straight or just accept that people are different and not be so silly about it.
Accepting that these things are all on the same level, they're all just as regular as each other, it's a good way of looking at it all.
Thanks for being thoughtful about it. It's not that cheap pandering doesn't exist, but people connect the idea that a character was written as a minority "for no reason" with the idea that characters NEED a reason to be a minority, when, really, Nathan Drake was written as white "for no reason", as were Solid Snake, Alan Wake, Chris Redfield, Gordon Freeman, and about 90% of characters out there
We've always written characters as being a certain race or gender "for no reason", that's most of them, easily, but when that character is black, or a woman, we demand an explanation.
You don't see people in real life walking into a dentist's waiting room like "Hey, I am Native-American, and my reason to exist is, helping this redneck go on a journey where he will learn to respect people and stop being racist"
People in real life, sometimes, just *happen* to be black, or mexican, or women, and they don't need a justification for being. Which doesn't mean that you can't talk shit about Ghostbusters 2016 for Sony's dumbass corporate politics
One extremely probable reason for the abundance of straight white male characters in games is that there are a lot of white men in games development and that one rule of thumb in writing being "Write what you know".
Of course one can write outside of their own denominator, but it takes a hell of a lot of work and even then you can easily botch it.
While what denominator you're born in happens by chance, it inadvertedly shapes a person in both strong and subtle ways.
And god forbid if one is born in a denominator that's in a "gray" area between two or several denominators, boy are you getting youself a weird can of worms when it comes to human tribalism.
mfw I'm subscribed to this guy.
See I think the real problem is how often the sexuality of characters (yes, particularly gay ones) are done ham-fistedly. What, you want an example? I got an example. So in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequal, the first character you meet in the open world is some mechanic who's a dyke. Fair enough. Problem? She never shuts up about it. And I think if any of you played this glorified expansion pack then you'll know what I mean.
It's to a point where I almost agree with Act here. Almost. Because the hard truth of it is that most writing for video games lacks any kind of subtlety. Mostly because you'd have to make concessions to the gameplay if you are focusing on a story. Some are able to pull it off - Kojima is infamous for this, and RDR2 is one of the best games with a deep plot in recent memory. But Gearbox and Ubisoft are not in that camp. The camp they are in happens to be writing that often at best lacks impact if you arn't able to casually invest yourself in it (Watchdogs 2!), and at worst is just kinda shit (Watchdogs 1...).
With this said, Watchdogs 2 did handle a black transgendered woman with a decent amount of grace better then Gearbox ever could...
I just want stories that, in the end, are competently written. A diverse cast of characters has great potential to explore themes and directions that are usually ignored because of the overabundance of gritty white dude action stories, but the fact of the matter is that those usually aren't shit because the main character is a gritty white dude. From my own experience, those games are usually creatively bankrupt Michael Bay simulators with laughable stories where the generic main character seems more of a symptom than the cause. However, if companies like Sony try to sell the new Ghostbusters movie on "but WOMEN" alone it just feels forced and it seems to imply that simply not falling into the pitfall of having an overrepresented main character will somehow salvage your trainwreck. It doesn't. Ghostbusters 2016 was garbage, but it wasn't because the main characters were women, it was because it was just a bad movie overall. For a lot of people, Overwatch is another example of this. The characters are cardboard cutouts and defined by a single character trait, and honestly don't have a lot going for them. Yet, Blizzard sometimes haphazardly reveals a character as being gay in a spinoff comic, as if that's going to fix the fact that the characters are bland as fuck. It doesn't. Now you have a gay carboard cutout that just treats sexuality as a prop to pretend you're not a fucking hack. I don't mind the low-profile way in which they introduce it, but the way they then continue to treat it as a selling point kinda rubs me the wrong way. In the end, it shouldn't have to matter in the grand scheme of things. It shouldn't have to be a big deal.
I think the main reason why people assume heterosexuality if the sexuality of a character isn't explicitly defined is that that's simply how society works. The majority of people are heterosexual, after all. In the end, I just wish it didn't have to matter if a character is male, female, gay, trans or whatever. Just have characters who are not defined by a single trait, but just exist like an actual person with everything that makes them who they are. It shouldn't have to matter unless the character feels like it matters. I just want the vocal extremes to stop starting infinite shitstorms about random shit like this. I wish that any of these factors didn't have to be things to be applauded, but simply facts of life that everyone is (and should be) fine with. What we get now is one side ree-ing about "muh SJWs" for anything even slightly out of the norm, while the other side is looking for pats on the back by simply saying "look, black/gay/trans people exist, isn't that novel?".
Why can't we just get along and accept that people can be inherently different from another and not jump at eachother's throats over it? Why can't writers just create people instead of characters? I get that we can't just magically get there instantly, but goddamn do I wish we were at that point already.
How many games is it actually hamfisted like Borderlands The Presequel? That game is notoriously just shit writing.
Id say most games/movies that have some sort of inclusiveness are just there and people still freak the fuck out.
You're arguing about better representation, then just throw out dyke. Thats some good shit.
This isn't the correct word?!?! OH FUUUUUUUUUU-
Poor choice of wording on my part. It's aside the point - she's the equivalent of that annoying mascot in a lot of kids cartoons who never shuts up. I'd want to say that she'd be a better character in the hands of a writer that isn't Anthony Burch, but even then she's incredibly hollow as-is - her sexuality really is the only thing that defines her. And I woulden't mind either, except it's coupled with the fact that she's still annoying by design.
On a personal level, if you want an example of characters who put their sexuality to the forefront yet are still characters instead of cardboard cutouts then I'll point to the examples of Shore Leave and especially the Alchemist from The Venture Bros. These two characters do put their homosexuality to the forefront of who they are, sure. I actually know some people who do that in real life (although less blatantly, mind). But there's a bit more to who they are besides this. The Alchemist is a gay monk who's paunchy attitude and seeking of knowledge has assisted the Venture family on at least two occasions. Shore Leave has a quite bit less depth but his story was that he was thrown out of the OSI for reasons unknown (but can be speculated to be about don't-ask-don't-tell, which was a thing at the time) only to go undercover with Holy Diver and join a splinter group when a former OSI lieutenant was going on the lam. Both characters are incredibly endearing, and Burch should really take note.
Maybe i'm in the same pratfalls, but the way I see it, the sexuality doesn't matter to me until the game or developer decides to suddenly drag it out into a conversation or reveal and make a big deal about it. I still find myself complaining when I see stuff like the Last of Us 2 trailer because it feels.. really tonedeaf, but this might be the very same problem you found yourself in.
That is a problem with bad writing in general, not with lgbt representation in games. Every character in the borderlands games are badly written , you're glossing over the rest of the awful two dimensional characters and unfairly focusing on the gay ones.
Here's a fun game - replace the lesbian kiss with a straight kiss. Is it still 'hamfisted' or 'tonedeaf'? (No)
Would you be able to give me an example where you did think it was good? Or do you happen to think it's 'hamfisted' every time?
They bleed into one another, with the end result being people like the Act Man shoving cotton in his ears going "LALA SHUT UP ABOUT POLITICS IN GAMES". Fucks sake, *my* favorite game of all time is Deus Ex - you can't get much more political then that game, fucks sake it's about government conspiracies. And yet there's part of me that actually agrees with Act here because a lot of games that try to break ground by being political in their writing end up being written by hacks, as not every game is Deus Ex or RDR2. Even Deus Ex's sequels (prequels, whatever) are nowhere as thought out over OG DX itself.
White male heterosexual characters are also 'safe'. You can have a white character do pretty much anything without anyone saying that it's a racist/discriminatory representation of some demographic.
So it still boils down to a list of acceptable political discussions that games are allowed to have? Government conspiracies are okay but LGBT and racism are not?
No.
Just make sure that you're tacking the topic with a degree of severity if this is a topic you are writing about. RDR2 for instance does not shy away from the topic of racism, and as a bonus uses the KKK as a punching bag should you find Klansmen in the open world.
What was tone deaf about it? We already knew Ellie was a lesbian from previous games. If it was a straight character kiss would you feel so uncomfortable.
The scene is literally juxtaposition her humanity against her violent nature. A big theme in the games about trying to find human meaning in a world that’s been desecrated.
I don't mind politics in video games as long as it's not "UNSOLICITED OPINIONS ON ISRAEL???" tier takes. Also I prefer if it's at least somewhat appropriate for the type of game it's in (like if a Kirby game suddenly interrupted the player to have a ridiculously long discussion of modern politics it'd feel incredibly out of place).
kirby is the epitome of gender politics in games. Kirby is gender fluid as fuck
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/248995/3f5a367a-36da-433b-b7e0-9435f692bd4e/DC2097FF-6B94-4515-AEB7-B350A79E4511.jpeg
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/248995/c28ca68a-cdcb-4860-8393-1c2cc4f3d8f4/C048B731-90E6-4274-BE84-81D6264810C7.jpeg
To be honest, i've probably got a troubled perception of things and fully acknowledge it. Seeing homosexual content actually causes an internal wince or extreme discomfort from my prior mental conditioning even though i'm perfectly fine with gay characters and people. I don't know if it's how I was raised or just getting pre-dispositioned against this sort of thing. I don't even find girl-on-girl hot.
It's probably a horrible mindset to have, and I can see why my perspective might be considered offensive or harmful towards other people's perspectives, but it's not something I can get over just by thinking about it differently.
I'm all for character creators, not usually the case though
http://i.4cdn.org/v/1551934701214.png
After playing Tetris I have vowed to overthrow the capitalist system.
That might be true, but a little bit of self reflection/awareness can allow you to take a step back and consider if your opinions make sense.
Maybe you feel uncomfortable seeing the lesbian kiss in the Last of Us 2 Trailer. I don’t think you should, but I understand that you have been mentally conditioned to feel that way.
If you are aware of these feelings then surely you can take a step back from these feelings, recognizing while you feel uncomfortable it doesn’t mean that developers are shoving it in your face. You can still feel uncomfortable, but you might reconsider your opinions about topics when posting them to forums or wherever.
I think eventually you’ll get over it if you care to. Being uncomfortable can be good for you, so maybe you should sit with it. If it’s something that is irrational and can’t really hurt you then you can overcome it.
The biggest issue with that kiss was that the guy Ellie was talking to was lamenting that he and the other girl weren't together anymore and Ellie told him she thought they'd get back together. Then he walks away and Ellie starts macking on her.
That's ice cold.
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