On the screen we see two combat-hardened soldiers, men who have fought alongside each other, who have become comrades and friends, and who are now lovers. The moments in which the two finally open up to each other and admit their feelings are played in a simple and tender way. This isn't about two men being gay, it is about two people who realise they love each other. The interaction is so gentle, it is one of the most touching and beautiful depictions of a gay relationship I’ve ever known in modern media.
So where did this exchange of feelings take place? On television in some late night Channel 4 drama? In a cool art house movie? No, it was in a video game – the science fiction adventure, Mass Effect 3 by Bioware.
Over the past couple of years games have crept ever closer toward mainstream culture. Once perceived as the brain rotting preserve of teenage boys and socially inept adults, they are now viewed as just another modern artform. Bafta has accepted games into its remit, Moma displays them in its galleries, the NFTS teaches game design at its hallowed Beaconsfield campus. And as games become more authentic and expressive, developers are starting to explore meaningful social issues.
Most notably perhaps, aspects of LGBT life have begun to enjoy more prominence. There was the heartbreaking side-story in The Last of Us, with apocalypse survivor Bill mourning the loss of his partner Frank during the game's devastating plague. He was later named as one of the most intriguing characters of 2013 by GLAAD. There's also Sir Hammerlock in Borderlands 2 and the Peter Gatien-like night club owner Gay Tony, in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV: hardly a rounded character, but then, in GTA, who is? The larger representation of other lifestyles and choices is a good thing, and can only lead to more acceptance.
Meaningful choices
In the aforementioned Mass Effect 3, players have the option of starting relationships with both gay male and female characters. “I believe that by the 22nd century, declaring your gender preference will be about as profound as saying, 'I like blondes' – it will just be an accepted part of who we are," says Dusty Everman, the writer given the task of penning the relationships in ME3. "So I tried to write a meaningful human relationship that just happens to be between two men… When Cortez says, 'I lost my husband', every player knows his sexuality, so precious word budgets aren’t spent to establish that fact.”
Bioware's determination to reflect a variety of sexual identities has, not surprisingly, met with some resistance. In 2011, after the release of the studio's fantasy adventure game Dragon Age 2, a particularly irate fan took to the official forum to complain that straight male gamers were being neglected. The missive was in response to a sequence in the game where a male character makes amorous advances towards the player’s avatar. Bioware’s response was wonderfully cutting. “We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male," wrote designer David Gaider. "They deserve no less attention...”
Certainly, Bioware is one of the companies leading the charge with LGBT relationships in their games. But tellingly, in the earlier games, they limited this to lesbian encounters. In a straight male dominated world, relationships between women characters can, and have been, misused as titillation – yet because they are less threatening to male viewers, they have also been used as a way of showing same sex couples without instigating a storm of negative backlash. In the past year, two game companies at opposite ends of the design spectrum, have managed to weave female homosexuality into their titles in beautifully nuanced ways: Naughty Dog with the DLC for its blockbusting action adventure, The Last of Us, and The Fullbright Company, with its debut release, Gone Home.
Feeling at home
Why did these very different studios choose to tell stories of self-discovery and burgeoning sexuality? “The scope of Gone Home called for it to take place within a single, non-supernatural or fantastical American family home, so any conflict in the story would have to stem from the family dynamics within," explains Kate Craig, one of four members of the FullBright Company. "Seeing someone your family disapproves of is one sure fire way to start that ball rolling, and in the 1990s, during the 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' years in the US, a story about the relationship of two teenage girls was a really interesting answer to that.”
Unfortunately, as with Dragon Age and Mass Effect, Gone Home has faced criticism and prejudice from those who do not want to see homosexuality depicted in games. “There’s been some negative feedback," says Craig. "Some of that may be valid or worth considering – mom’s story feels undeveloped, for example – and some of it less so – anything aggressively against the idea of a game with women or LGBTQ characters as leads. Part of making a game is learning to recognise when there’s something to a piece of negative criticism, and when, perhaps, it’s better to keep scrolling.”
As Craig says, the aggression of those who are against any progress in the depiction of LGBT themes, often manifests itself in the comments sections of the large gaming websites, or in the official forums of offending titles. But homophobic insults also erupt into the games themselves. When I put out a question on twitter about receiving bigoted abuse while playing games, a large majority of the responders singled out games like Call of Duty, Battlefield and Halo where words like "Faggot" and "homo" are routinely used by players to insult each other, and to round on anyone who may seem different.
Dealing with abuse
Nick Rego, an Editor for IGN in Dubai, has come across abuse in a game that is usually considered to be more welcoming: World of Warcraft. "I joined a guild and signed up on their forums to learn more about WoW and pick up tips," he explains. "In my forum bio I added a few of my hobbies and used the word 'gaymer'. During one of the early dungeon raids, I wasn't doing too great and in the voice chat one guy said, 'Why did we let this f**king gay f**got join our guild?' He went on a little mini rant about how shit I was at the game and that I needed to be kicked out of the guild. I messaged one of the mods but they didn't seem to really care that much and said I should just ignore the guy and keep on playing."
Ignore the comments, carry on playing, disable voice chat, or simply don’t load up multiplayer. These are often the options suggested to LGBT gamers when dealing with a stream of homophobic abuse online. But as the games themselves are starting to embrace LGBT themes, players and developers are feeling ever more emboldened to fight back. For the last couple of years, the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco has run an Advocacy track where industry insiders have been able to voice concerns, ideas and hopes around LGBT representation in the industry, culminating this year with Manveer Heir from Bioware Montreal, giving a talk entitles, "Misogyny, Racism and Homophobia: Where Do Video Games Stand?".
Gaymers strike back
Matt Conn, is the CEO and Creative Director of Gaymer X, the first ever gaming and geek convention dedicated to the LGBT Community. The inaugural event took place last year in August, and a second is planned for this year in San Francisco. Gaymer X is the result of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign that received widespread acknowledgment and support from the gaming press as well as companies like EA and Microsoft.
But has enough is being done to combat the hostility "gaymers" face? “Honestly? I don't feel like the gaming public as a whole has made that societal shift towards true acceptance," says Conn. "I see the press and game companies beginning to come around – realising that if everyone can play, there's much more money and market in the gaming world for them to be a part of. But the general 'gamer' population has been slow to truly accept that diversity is going to be a larger part of gaming moving forward.”
If it's up to the game makers to guide their audiences, the first steps towards creating that environment are now being taken. Last year, Electronic Arts, one of the biggest game development and publishing companies in the world, organised Full Spectrum, the first ever event focused on LGBT issues within gaming. “EA has a long history in supporting the [LGBT] community, both as an employer and in our games," says Sandy Goldberg, a corporate communications manager at EA who was part of the team that set up Full Spectrum. "For our customers and employees that are part of or support the community, we have a commitment to foster a safe and friendly gaming environment, a place to have fun.”
A future together
The Full Spectrum event is groundbreaking. The first time a major player in the gaming industry has come forward and started a discussion on issues that games companies will often try and side step. “The event was designed to trigger a conversation around the issues facing the LGBT community in games – from the development of content, to creating an inclusive work environment to hate speech inside of game forums” says Goldberg. “These are very broad topics, so the event was designed to address and discuss a myriad of issues and inspire those attending to share their thoughts and experiences outside of the event so we can start to look at solutions to these issues”
Change doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time, momentum and often a little nudge from the right people. With events like Gaymer X and Full Spectrum, as well as games like Gone Home, The Last of Us and Mass Effect, and the support of companies like EA, Naughty Dog, and Bioware, the changes will happen.
As Matt Conn says, “I think it's important for people to know that we're not trying to come and tell them how to live or game, but that everyone, whether straight, gay, female, trans, or disabled, deserves a seat at the table when it comes to games and creating a fun, safe environment for everyone.”
• Gone Home – and how games can tell stories about everyday lives
• LGBT content in video games: here come the old bullies
• Are gamers really sexist?
