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On Gay Characters In Videogames
Thanks to Armchair Arcade for its feature discussing the portrayal of gay characters in videogames past and present. The article starts by pointing out: "In Troika Games' computer role playing game The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003)... the player is asked to rescue, and given the option to marry, an openly gay character", and ends by arguing: "Gay avatars are an inevitable development in the evolution of the videogame that will take place with or without this article. If we already see such possibilities opening up in even mainstream titles like The Temple of Elemental Evil, I doubt it will be long before even the idea of a fantasy role-playing game featuring only one white male avatar will seem a strange, misguided aspect of our distant past."
I believe in a live and let live approach to the whole thing, but I'd damn well better not have any of that stuff as a necessary part of a plot. If I wanted to spend my free time having gay adventures, let me tell you, I'd be doing it. Quite frankly, if a video game required the PC to be gay, or even think about it, I wouldn't buy it, no matter what it was. The video game market caters to the white teenage upper-middle class male, that's what I am, and I like it. Diversity's all well and good, but I want what I want and I don't want what I don't want. If I don't get it, I'll vote with my pocketbook. That shit just makes me uncomfortable.
Quite frankly, I don't see why everyone's so keen on diversifying the video game industry, trying to be all revolutionary and shit. The last thing I want is having lessons in Gayness or Feminism or Tolerance or whatever shoved down my throat when I'm trying to just relax and play a game. I want to strap some armor on my cracker ass, get a sword, hack some shit up, and get a girl.
Straight guys don't want anything bigger than the tip of a feminine pinky near their pooper!
If by some chance their attempts to prevent this from happening fail, the status of the situation is in fact "Seriously uncool, and in need of an immediate and significant change."
Don't feel bad. It is simply a recognition that some behavior is seriously offensive, because not only aren't they playing on the same team, but they're not playing by the same rules, because they're into a whole different game. It's a statement about an individuals place in the hierarchy and their objectives that run counter to those of "the group." In one word it offers a very complete description of a person, their objectives, their behavior, how it reflects upon them, and how the individual making the comment thinks the group should feel. One word, a ton of information. It will never go away until gay people start dominating team sports. Outside of Rugby, I don't see this happening.
Don't be a prissy little bitch. Suck it up. Essentially you're against analogies. Or are only homosexuals allowed to use them?
Besides, if you're cracking open a tall cold 40oz can of whoop-ass and people call you gay, embrace it. It's slightly more humiliating if the snappy comment du jour involves ones father as opposed to ones mother. Or so I would imagine. What man could live down losing a slap fight?
You know, I'll bet that the person who modded that as redundant was an emacs user. Smarter, wiser folks would have seen the humor. You know -- vi users. Next thing you know, this post will be modded as flaimbait. Stupid moderators... :)
But I must admit, the humor of the moderation is not lost on me.