Lesbian Spider-Queens from Mars

[irixith]

I would love to see transvestites, shemales, hermaphrodites, etc. That would be awesome.

Never really thought about it that way... what would be the point of this, exactly?

The world isn't just white people and young emo oddly proportioned boys that look like girls tasked with saving the world. There are lots of forms of gender expression, and lots of different types of people. Video games are a great medium in which to give those different people some inclusion.

Really the proper question is: Why not?

[Ivo]

Really the proper question is: Why not?

From the developer point of view (even if they may not admit it)? Because it may actually lose them sales and it is extra development time.

Check some reactions to Dragon Age 2 (I think that is the correct game, I haven't played it but I read some bits about this in Penny Arcade).

On a less cynical note, I am in favour of diversity, but one has to admit that when you transfer the majority in the real world to a virtual representation, it is quite acceptable and understandable that in a reduced population of Characters with actual character development (including NPCs) there is not enough space to showcase all minorities.

In real life you don't go around and always know if person X is this or that and that is even when you interact in quite different ways from what you usually see in games.
Most characters in a given game simply have no defined sexual preference, so it is not surprising that those few who do happen to have the majority preference.

Maybe you can just feel free to project a desired sexual preference into those who do not have it defined?

I agree that it should be positive to have more diversity going forward to have once in a while you see that kind of difference as well.
However, I don't think games should strive for a "Power Rangers" where you have 5 or 6 of them and there are "token" representatives of this and that.

Personally I didn't care either way for the theme of LSQFM (honestly I never got why lesbians are automatically a "plus" for many men!). The plot is ridiculous and over the top. The gameplay is very good and that is really what counts.

Ivo.

[brunoafh]

The world isn't just white people and young emo oddly proportioned boys that look like girls tasked with saving the world. There are lots of forms of gender expression, and lots of different types of people. Video games are a great medium in which to give those different people some inclusion.

Really the proper question is: Why not?

I just don't think a game's enjoyment factor would benefit that much from being like "oh, this female character actually has a dick". Gender expression is fine and all, I just dunno if it's really necessary for it to be thrown into video games. Like in Nier, when they say that Kaine is a hermaphrodite, it didn't really add anything to her character (for me) or seem to serve any real purpose at all, other than to throw in some random twist for the hell of it. It was just... there. It's the same way I felt about the gay character in Enchanted Arms.

I guess I just miss when it didn't even matter if a video game character had a gender, let alone a sexual orientation or a sex change.

[J T]

Well, even in the early days we had Birdo, the transgendered bird of the Super Mario Bros games.

I like diversity in games, whether it be ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation diversity. These are usually the characters I pick when given the choice because I am interested in videogaming's ability to let me be someone or something I am not.

I do agree that it usually doesn't add that much to the game though, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't. Because of videogame's innate ability to have you role play the life of another person, they have the potential to be a particularly good method for helping players build empathy for minority groups. I don't think much of anything has done a very good job of that yet, but there's potential. The gay character in Persona 4 was somewhat interesting largely because he was gay, but he seemed unrealistic too. But, I have similar complaints about uni-dimensional or cliched straight characters as well. I think games have a lot of growing up to do in general when it comes to telling highly personal character stories without relying on established and well-loved archetypes.

[Inazuma]

I would love to see transvestites, shemales, hermaphrodites, etc. That would be awesome.

Never really thought about it that way... what would be the point of this, exactly?

It's hot. (^_^);

And also people need to be more open minded. These types of people actually exist, so why not have them in video games? You see all kinds of different people in movies. Video games have a lot of catching up to do.

On the rare occasion that there actually is a transvestite or transgendered character in a video game, it's usually only in Japan. In the USA, we tend to cover up the truth because it's bad to be anything but regular male or female.

Off the top of my head, I can think of Poison from Final Fight (shemale), Catherine (Birdo) from Mario games (transvestite I think), Kaine from Nier (futanari) and Bon Clay from the One Piece games (transvestite). Oh, and there is a futanari in Steam Hearts.

I want to say that we have gotten a bit more tolerant of minorities recently but there are still a ton of ignorant close minded people out there who think less of people like this. If we have more minorities in video games, hopefully it could help raise awareness. It could also make things more interesting instead of having the same boring characters every time.

[Hatta]

I agree 100% with Ivo. Throwing in gay characters just for the sake of gayness is silly. I care whether my video game characters are gay about as much as I care whether my neighbors or co-workers are gay. That is not at all. It's not being closed minded if you just don't give a shit. Gay, straight, whatever. It doesn't matter and it shouldn't matter. Do people really need their lifestyle validated by video games?

FWIW, throw as many gay characters as you want in video games as long as it doesn't seem contrived. Bad writing is a much bigger problem than non-diverse characterization.

[t0yrobo]

Off the top of my head, I can think of Poison from Final Fight (shemale), Catherine (Birdo) from Mario games (transvestite I think), Kaine from Nier (futanari) and Bon Clay from the One Piece games (transvestite). Oh, and there is a futanari in Steam Hearts.

The thing is, with how many of these characters does their sexuality have any bearing on their personality and character. Sexuality is a pretty important thing to peoples character, just picking a random character and going, "Hay guys this chick is hot but she's got a dick hurrhurrhurr! Isn't that edgy and like progressive and shit?" isn't good enough. If it doesn't matter to the character and the story being told then there's no point in doing it.

[brunoafh]

The thing is, with how many of these characters does their sexuality have any bearing on their personality and character. Sexuality is a pretty important thing to peoples character, just picking a random character and going, "Hay guys this chick is hot but she's got a dick hurrhurrhurr! Isn't that edgy and like progressive and shit?" isn't good enough. If it doesn't matter to the character and the story being told then there's no point in doing it.

This is pretty much what my post says.

[t0yrobo]

lol you're right. That's what I get for browsing .

I dunno if anyone here pays attention to Extra Credits, but they did a couple pretty good episodes about this topic.

[wootcube]

I can see the point of both sides, but I'm going to have to go with not throwing diversity in just for the sake of diversity because it usually takes away from the rest of the story.

I'm not really a Harry Potter fan, but I have read the books and I think the writer did the best job so far of bringing in gay characters without having them trivialized by just being there because they're gay (I'm talking about Dumbledore) I mean, just reading the book, they don't mention it outright but the author later revealed that she always wrote him as a gay character. And it makes a lot of sense - most gay people that I know don't go around being stereotypically gay. They're just kinda there and they happen to be gay, just like everybody else is just kinda there but happens to not be gay.

Sooo, I guess my point is, I don't think that there should be random minority characters just for the sake of them being there. I also don't think that they should be totally omitted. In my opinion the solution is better writing in general, which would fix a LOT more problems than just representation....