#videogames are queer

[talershan]

I got banned on here for Part 1 of my History of Queerness in Videogames article series. So now, 3 weeks later and with both the series having completed over on my Substack and with my account reactivated, here's part 2!

Part 2 has to do with the 2000s, goes over a lot of great games that had a mix of different types of portrayals. I also go over some of the groundwork laid in the decade for the 2010s GamerGate reactionary BS. If you weren't around the gaming sphere in the 2000s, there's probably some stuff in here you didn't know about.

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

The reasons I love the bug where Zevran can rock up in DA2 and DAI's war table mission despite the player having chosen to kill him in DAO is because I remember the unbridled glee gamers had at killing him for flirting with their male Warden.

The reason I dream of Fenris, Anders, and Isabela receiving equitable consideration and dignity in discourse is because I remember the response to their characters outside progressive bubbles.

Anders had a whole homophobic manifesto written about him and sent to DA2's head writer (who's gay btw). Gamers would be proud of handing Fenris back to his slave owner because Fenris was 'difficult'. (Of course the recently escaped slave is prickly and angry). Certain fans still enjoy telling you how they kill 'the terrorist' on every Anders post, evidently because of his actions, transparently because he's a mentally unwell queer "SJW" they feel vindicated in killing. Any mention of Isabela must also apparently include slut-shaming when promiscuity is a fine response to being a former child bride who's free of their cruel and possessive husband. Isabela fearing commitment and being sexually open is not an invitation for dehumanization. I play DA2 with the polyam mod, so I could be wrong, but I always felt Isabela and PurpleHawke were well matched there anyway.

We've come far in terms of accepting diversity in videogame storytelling, but cycles of controversy around queer romance, diversity, and sex in videogames is an old one. The difference being that the industry has mostly stopped catering to conservative and contemptuous discourse now and for that I'm glad.

[deathlywounded]

“Hunt” part 2

Previous caption: Rev is a spore Druid/urchin wood elf (my favorite kind of Druid) they have horns due to spending the last years of their life living in isolation away from civilization, adopting the likeness of goats and cervines in the heart of the forested mountains. Such is their love for these animals they decided to keep the horns and the singularly colored eyes (also, they miss the weight on their head when not wearing them) Decided to make them a genderless beast because, hear me out, a shapeshifter being connected to nature n’ living away from human costumes studying fungal behavior. What would a being like that need a damn gender for? Nothing, the answer is nothing.

Here is my art Instagram, I´m far more active there. And do NOT use/repost my work without consent or credit, dammit.

[rpgchoices]

One queer protagonist a day (Pride Month)

01. HARRY DU BOIS (Disco Elysium)

Drunk, amnesiac detective and protagonist of Disco Elysium, Harry can be controlled by the player to investigate a murder but he is very much his own character. His repressed bisexuality can be discovered accidentally in so many different ways, my favorite being the absolute enraptured and dreamy way Harry reacts to the Smoker on the Balcony, which happens indipendently from players' choices!

RPG isometric detective game

Canonically queer protagonist

Queerness does not depend on player's choice

No romance

The rules For something different I wanted to add queer protagonists in videogames (excluding romance simlators). To end up in the list the only criteria were: named protagonist, the protagonist has a story that cannot be customized by the player (so for example the Inquisitor from Dragon Age did not fit!), and ideally the protagonist is their own character not customisable at all.

[grovesnail]

tumblr, twitter and tiktok has a chronic condition of mischaracterizing and headcanoning characters as gay and autistic and then acting as if those headcanons were canon all along, but what i find beautiful is that with metal gear solid (and disco elysium tbh) LITERALLY EVERYBODY is gay and/or autistic. Beautiful. like the big bad guy of mgs is a gay catboy who spent 60 years triple-crossing malicious international organizations just because he was so in love with somebody called NAKED SNAKE. said naked snake has a special interest in guns and is also a war criminal but dont worry too much about that

[thelensart]

🎵 Enola Gay

You should have stayed at home yesterday Ah-ha, words can't describe The feeling and the way you lied 🎵

[rawliverandgoronspice]

re: last reblog, but to me A Link Between Worlds is kind of the nail of the coffin of my "Ganondorf does have a point in his attempt to seize the Triforce, because that's literally the only fucking option you have if you want to change the natural world, given it's been demonstrated that trying to function outside of these parameters will make the world implode on itself" perspective

I'm not saying world domination is a particularly worthy goal, but literally what else can one aspire to beyond this given the unbelievably restrictive rules of that universe? this is a world conceived to be a hierarchy, and stay one, by design!! Nayru's domain, Wisdom's domain, is literally Natural Rules, and Farore's, Courage, is to create life that can abide by these rules. It's in the very cutscene that introduces them as a mythological concept!!

So if you're unlucky enough to be casted as "one of the bad ones that aren't blessed sorry :/" either you wall yourself in a cave and live your life lowly and miserable, hoping no hero will come break all of your pots while you're out picking up wood, or you take your only reasonable shot at making significant change for yourself. Like what else do you do in such a conservative world??? attempt to build diplomacy, when your entire race is being considered evil thieves inherently, and when you're incredibly underpowered and with nothing of worth to offer your neighbors?? like what is one poor poor gerudo king meant to do :(((((

(caveat in case this leaves the usual circle: no I'm not saying this to undermine that Ganon is a maniac and gleefully violent and egotisical and willing to put others in harm's way in the name of his own hype, nor that he is a worthy ruler with any sort of long-term political vision that would look terribly different from hyrule's --tho giving Ingo the ranch in OoT was kind of an ideological W imo even if Ingo is not a great dude once in charge (which in itself is so interesting ideologically, it's once again a case of You Were Assigned Subordinate And If You Try To Swap Places The Natural World Will Collapse Yes Even If You Are Suffering And Treated Poorly Your Suffering Is Natural While The Suffering Of Those In Charge Is Unnatural)-- but, yeah. One does certainly not prevent the other from also being true)

[phospadparadscha]

the best thing about persona 4 is that kanji and naoto are there. unfortunately the worst thing also about persona 4 is that kanji and naoto are there.

[talershan]

Here's Part 4 of my 4 part series on the History of Queerness in videogames. Today (technically a month ago) we go over the first half of the 2020s, as the second half hasn't happened yet. In the first half of this decade a whole lot of queer games and just games with queer representation have come out. Most of them fantastic.

I talk about what "woke" actually means and then discuss some of the backlash to queer representation as well, but just remember, there's always good queer games and always will be. No matter what the people who freak out about it think or say.

[lunaxio]

Hi, I'm Lunaxio. Some random gamedev (cannot disclose game yet, musician ain't ready) who is also bisexual.

✨fard✨

I have several OCs (most of which are part of my game in some way.) I am PRO ENDO i cannot donate and i am afraid of being responsible for a scam

I have both autism and ADHD (diagnosed)

pronouns mothafucka

strawpage

dni list: Exclusionists, Pedos, Zoophiles, any bigot, mfs ive blocked in general, discord raiders (yall fucked up like 2 years of my online life), radfems, radqueers, conservatives, anti endo, transmedicalists, and people who have "men dni" or "cishet men dni" or some bullshit like that in their dni list.

✨Userboxes✨

[b0y-wh0r3]

I will obsess over you if we share even a single interest

[maigetheplatypus57]

ok ok so my professor came up to me before class a few weeks ago and i was a little worried when she brought up the short writing assignment I did the day before on Unpacking but after I confirmed that I wrote it she smiled and told me how a guest lecturer was going to take up that exact game as part of their lectures on LGBTQ+ videogames and I shit you not I was so excited.

SO flash forward to now and that guest prof just finished their intro lecture, mentioning how their next one will actually focus on the game. After the lecture I walk up to them in all my youtuber merch glory, introduce myself, mention the writing assignment (which apparently the guest prof already knew about bc my prof told them??? crazy) and the prof asks me what I think about the game, and I think they were kinda hinting about the ex-boyfriend's room and how they were going to discuss the story implications of it???

but apparently I was one step ahead of them and told the prof about how I was inspired from a "streamer I watched" (cough RTGame cough) and how I've found that level 100% more enjoyable when I stopped giving a shit and just messed with the boyfriend's shit, inconveniencing him however possible and guys. GUYS.

the way the professor's eyes LIT UP dude, they even giggled when I told them about folding the boyfriend's fancy suits and placing his coffee shit on the highest shelf, and they told me that they were going to open their game just to replay that level and try what I did and man. MAN.

this lecturer has no involvement with my actual grade, but I definitely feel like I just got an A+ in making that prof's DAY.

[thelensart]

Last goodbye.

[moskafleurart]

"JOB-DYING" | Un cómic sobre Lethal Company

Inspirado en una de esas partidas que te echas con los colegas

[itz-pandora]

I assume you:

Like indie music

Need a therapist

Would play ukulele if given the option to learn any instrument

Like stickers

Kin Maria

Are blonde or brunette

Have never dyed your hair

Consume media you know has queer characters, and when they come around to it during said media go "omfg i had no clue they'd end up together..."

Don't like Knuckles (mainly cuz I've only seen you post him once. ever.)

Don't know that you're the first blog I ever followed on Tumblr

Saying you think I don't like knuckles is so sad.... He's just too cool for me.... (He's so hard to draw bc snoot)

[joplays]

I've been playing Mad Maggie this season, and when she says "Open wide" while using her drill, it got me feeling like:

Whatever you want miss.