Sexuality and representation in video games.

This is actually really cool- to both you and SirSourpuss for roleplaying this way. It is rare straight men will have anything to do with gay stuff, let alone play as a gay character romancing other men, or even in your case go out of your way to play a gay game that's not well known. You win good person award. Also, Robert off Dream Daddy is like a burnt marshmallow and I love it. Big swoon.

I do think AAA games need more screen-time of other sexualities, disabilities and cultures regardless of whether there's a big or small amount of people that fit those categories in the player-base. People everywhere need to see asexuals, among other minorities, and playing one or having a squaddie as one helps all of us learn and, hopefully if done right, understand these people better. Games are fun and entertaining, but hopefully educational and fulfilling too. 

I was being sarcastic about the good person thing. It actually makes me faintly nauseous that someone would think that way. But thank you anyway. And yeah, Robert is a sad, beautiful trainwreck that one could spend a lifetime slowly fixing. My virtual heart belongs to Hugo though. Cheese, wine, wrestling and literature... he'd be the perfect man if someone threw out his action figures and took a scissor to his manbun. And his son's balls.

The thing that makes Dream Daddy magical is that it's dialogue and characters are insanely good, funny, sweet and human, gay or not. You can tell it was written by someone who was really passionate about their idea of a funny and sweet and down-to-earth gay dad dating sim, rather than someone condescendingly hoping to teach people a lesson about gay dads also being people. It's completely non-preachy, just time well-spent in good company, which is something universally appealing.

And I didn't go out of my way to play it like I was donating to some charity. I watched someone else give it a try because I thought it sounded like a weirdly niche dating game with a good artstyle, and less than a minute into the let's play - after the hilarious character creation - I knew I had to play it myself because the dialogue and narration and art were just that lovely.

I'm sure the potential exists for a great game featuring asexual characters, and every other conceivable minority, but then the focus should be on creating those great games about that, not on showing off those minorities just for the sake of it. People play video games to enjoy them and feel invested, not to be educated about other people's sexual preferences or personal challenges.

I don't need a special video game NPC awkwardly foisted on me to understand that someone belonging to a minority is a human being, and I seriously resent the assumption that I or anyone else would. And I find the idea that video game developers should feel compelled to spend resources to make it happen even more ludicrous. Spend your own money on spreading awareness for minorities if you think it's so important. Don't pretend it's other people's moral responsibility.

Oh? I said diversity of behavior is mot accurate, not race or gender. For example, I've had my "gay card" taken away because I don't fit the perceived norms. That's diversity is behavior. Another example is that I fit in well here while other gays ran for the hills.  Seriously, they left for another forum and ended up booting me for having different behavior/thinking.  That's diversity of behavior, even if - especially if - it excludes me.

I have very little interest in romance (and therefore also sexuality) in video game left in me. Once I found romances a great addition to story based games, back when I played Baldur's Gate II and such, but after Dragon Age Origins my interest began to decline steadily. Once in a great while a romance I actually enjoy comes along (like Panam's in Cyberpunk), but some are so boring that I at least temporarily forget that I'm in a romance at all (Cora in MEA).

I play games to unwind from work and whatever other problems show up in my life. I don't mind at all if there's sexuality or representation or diversity and whatnot in a game because I don't pay much attention to it anyway while I'm casually purging the heretic with my Godwyn pattern bolter. I would just prefer to not being preached to. If I wanted to be preached to, I'd join a cult.

I Present to You, a Story, in gif...


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Okay, now that that's out of my system...


Honestly, I think representation does in fact matter. I'm a straight white guy, it doesn't effect me at all. The problem is that almost acts like camouflage. I see homophobia tossed around my extended pentecostal family all the time. They get offended when two women kiss on the screen. Genuine disgust. What a monumental waste of effort and blood pressure.

I give no fucks what other people do in the bedroom but that homophobia festers. Representation helps combat it.

Conan Exiles.

I don't find them to be very common, either. Most of the time, there will be three body types to choose from, usually with about the same chest proportions, but sometimes with small differences.

Off the top of my head, Star Trek Online, Conan Exiles, Dragon's Dogma and Fallout 4 all have separate sliders for breasts.

Mind you, I can also think of several games with "dong sliders." Saint's Row 3 and Day Z both had them (though I believe Day Z removed theirs at Microsoft's insistence before it was released on Xbox) and of course the infamous Conan Exiles.

I don't think it has much to do with anything except practicality. The truth is that a female character's breasts have a far more visually significant impact on how they look in different clothing outfits than a dong does for male characters, so it wouldn't make as much sense to dedicate resources to it. In Conan it made sense because the original version of the game had full nudity available by default.

But not in North America. We get a "censored" version, so I've never experienced the joy of being chased through the night by a wave of barbarians with their dongs flapping in the breeze.

Heh. I've worked at construction sites for years, and known more than a few really cool guys who I could honestly never imagine disrespecting anyone to their faces, who might suddenly go off on a tangent about the evil homos or the exploitative immigrants just because something came on the radio and they were having a bad day, had had too much coffee or were spending the lunch break trying to dig splinters out of their hands with a boxcutter. What you're describing just sounds like an awkward moment at Thanksgiving to me. Or it might if I was American and celebrated Thanksgiving.

To my mind, people can be disgusted with whatever they want. Just because you think it's ignorant and dumb doesn't mean it isn't their right to feel that way for whatever reason, or that they need to be reprogrammed somehow. Having a frank conversation about something that you think might help them feel more compassion is totally normal, but trying to manipulate them into changing their thinking just because you don't like it is something else.

Running your mouth about some group or other in a safe atmosphere and looking someone in the eye and trying to hurt them are two completely different things, and if someone isn't hurting anyone then I don't care who they think they have a problem with. I simply don't believe we're ever going to get society to a point where people's frustrations and fears and insecurities and competitive natures won't sometimes compel them to resent each other for arbitrary and irrational reasons.

If there's something I've noticed over the past few years, it's that making a big effort to dispel certain prejudices does nothing to lower the overall level of prejudice in our cultures. The tensions and pigheadedness just go elsewhere.


Indeed, the cis male patriarchy is truly out of control. The boob options and lack of adjustable dicks I could forgive, but what really pisses me off is all the butt sliders. How are those not unisex? It's disgustingly sexist. What is even the point of video games if that's the world we're escaping to?

Someone really should do something. I think I'll raise my daughters to become video game developers so they can help clean up this pigsty. It's for a worthy cause. I'm sure their own dreams wouldn't have amounted to anything anyway.

I honestly don’t get why people compare women boobs (Especially people that are for free the nips) and butts to men penis size or bulges. Wouldn’t a better argument be for more male butt shots and more shirtless scenes involving men? I feel like if we ever get a game or film that focuses on the male private era, people on the other side will cry and complain about a lack of camel toe or something. Also how are we defining “straight male gamers” because as a straight black male gamer I’ll argued I haven’t been catered to that much (Still waiting for BioWare to give me one black woman as a romance option).

This human is alright.

With presets ranging from "I've yet to hit puberty" to "this isn't a sweater".

Hey, I'm in the "this isn't a sweater" category. And I wear it proud.