Putting the gay back in gaming

Interesting read. Personally, the gaymer convention thing has zero effect on me, if people want a convention that combines two of their lifestyles, why not? It's not going to have any effect on me at all.

I think games are making a start in telling a more diverse story. Early stages, but still.

Spoiler: show
Ellie from The Last of Us (in Left Behind DLC) turning out to be gay

... was a fantastic bit of character development in my opinion

In Mass Effect, they leave the preferences and taste of your character to be whatever you choose, which is cool for an RPG because it doesn't force you into a pre-specified role.

Then there's always R* style

The_Ballad_of_Gay_Tony_cover.jpg
 
As a gaymer I really don't mind whether the protagonist I'm playing as is gay or straight or asexual or whatever. I can't really recall many games other than rpg's that had heavy relationship-based storylines. If games and their characters are good, I'll become invested in it regardless of sexual orientation. We all play games to escape reality anyway. I wouldn't mind a well developed gay character, and would in fact be very happy to have one, if only because I will admire the fact that the developers took the time and the risk to create them, but it's not something I'm really craving for. If I want to build gay relationships in my games, there's always The Sims :p
 
Great column, Quinton.

To pick a bone (heh) for the sake of discussion, I disagree on one point in particular:

Quin-tone said:
First of all, straight gamers don’t need a straight gaming convention because game conventions – as well as the games we play – cater to straight people as a norm.
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My experience here is limited, but if I think of local conventions I've attended such as rAge and Free Comic Book Day at Readers Den, I wouldn't say they cater to straight people as a norm. They cater to gamers/geeks without focusing on any particular aspect of the medium.

Where something like GaymerX comes in is to say that "we would like to talk about/explore this part of our culture because we think it's important". As you so eloquently put it a few sentences down:

Q-ball said:
It’s about having a “safe” environment for diversity. Why do we need a safe environment? Go read some more reaction comments. That’s why.
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So I guess I'm nitpicking more than I am disagreeing.
 
Jan said:
My experience here is limited, but if I think of local conventions I've attended such as rAge and Free Comic Book Day at Readers Den, I wouldn't say they cater to straight people as a norm. They cater to gamers/geeks without focusing on any particular aspect of the medium.

Where something like GaymerX comes in is to say that "we would like to talk about/explore this part of our culture because we think it's important".
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Fair enough - but I don't go to gamer events and have hot guys trying to sell me stuff.

I'm not saying that game cons are specifically targeted at straight people as a goal - you're right, they are, too, for everyone. But they do reflect straight interest in the sense of them existing in a world where straight interest is considered "the norm". It's not overt, it's just tied to general society. Gaming isn't immune to that.

I think it may seem neutral to you because you don't see it through the eyes of a minority group - you wouldn't see the nuance.

GaymerX exists because there are enough people out there who do see the nuance.
 
He is right in that expos don't necessarily cater to straight people. Go have a look at E3 and you'll see that instead they actually just cater to straight men. The amount of female flesh on display is staggering and it sends one message - this is a convention for heterosexual men.
 
Graal said:
He is right in that expos don't necessarily cater to straight people. Go have a look at E3 and you'll see that instead they actually just cater to straight men. The amount of female flesh on display is staggering and it sends one message - this is a convention for heterosexual men.
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And lesbians :D
 
Wow, it's a little shocking how full of hate and vitriol the comments section on this article has become. I didn't know a part of the MyGaming community was still this bad. It's like we have two completely separate communities - one residing in the forums and one in the comments section.
 
Graal said:
Wow, it's a little shocking how full of hate and vitriol the comments section on this article has become. I didn't know a part of the MyGaming community was still this bad. It's like we have two completely separate communities - one residing in the forums and one in the comments section.
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Personally I think the comments section is for one hit wonders,personally I wouldn't read to far into it. I don't support the comments from those assholes but I try not to lose sleep over it either.
 
Graal said:
Wow, it's a little shocking how full of hate and vitriol the comments section on this article has become. I didn't know a part of the MyGaming community was still this bad. It's like we have two completely separate communities - one residing in the forums and one in the comments section.
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Ike_009 said:
Personally I think the comments section is for one hit wonders,personally I wouldn't read to far into it. I don't support the comments from those assholes but I try not to lose sleep over it either.
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Yeah I'm also not sure I would count most of them as part of our community. That's the double-edged sword Disqus offers: it's a service just about everyone has an account for, but it's a service just about everyone has an account for.

It's telling that the truly horrible comments came a day or so after the article was originally published.
 
Just to clarify, I'm not the same Eugene that posted in the comment section. I agree with his comment, though.
 
The sad part is that the more negative comments were expected. I have no problem with open debate and discussing the topic at hand - but the direct abuse stuff is really not on.
 
Had to go read the comments section for once to see what's going on. People can be assholes
 
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