queervideogameculture-blog

[queervideogameculture-blog]

Queer Video Game Pop Culture: A New Medium For Inter-sectional Research and LGBTQ Representation

by Jesse Jacobs

If the above video is any indication, video games have become a source of representation for the LGBTQ community. When one thinks of modern video games, the thing they probably don’t think very much of is the representation of LGBTQ people in them, unless you identity as such. You probably also don’t have the ability to properly recollect when and how a proper, meaningful representation even took place in a modern video game. Well, the queer video game culture blog attempts to shatter the ice for those in the dark on the topic, as well as enlighten those who are simply unsure about how intricate LGBTQ representation goes in video games. In today’s world, video games are a viable source of entertainment for countless millions, and that’s only growing. It makes complete sense why visibility for all demographics and inclusion of virtually every kind of person should be part of this genre of incredible, ever growing and changing entertainment. The most important topic when discussing LGBTQ representation in video games and why it’s a viable area for study is the intersectional approach that can be applied to discuss why race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability are all topics that aren’t discussed nearly enough. While there is a dime a dozen game that may go over some element of any of these topics, it’s often sparse. However, it’s important when you see them because inclusion at all is inclusion enough to notice and analyze.

The idea of pop culture has been around for as long as there have been humans, in one way shape or form, and it’s only grown and evolved with the times. Things such as the printing press, magazines, theater, radio, TV all have played pivotal roles in evolving our vision of pop culture. The internet especially has changed how we both learn about and consume pop culture. And yes, even video games fall into this category. In fact, any sort of mass media is considered pop culture, and yet not many pop cultural studies explore video games as of yet (Ziesler, 2008). That’s curious, because it’s a billion dollar industry with gaming projects that can take 5 years or more to finish. They commission and hire larger teams than some triple-A movie projects to create games larger than life, and each subsequent gaming “generation” (generally when technology changes), we see a major change in the look, feel, and the very capability of the games. In this way, video games are a reflection of modern culture. Culture itself is a social behavior as much as it is what we create. Everything around us that humans have created, whether it’s tangible or in our minds as pre-existing perceptions and beliefs of society, have a capacity to influence us, and they do, every day in fact. We’re constantly being shaped and reshaped by culture. And the culture changes with us as much as we ourselves change it. Change may seem miniscule from day to day to individuals, even year to year, but over the course of a couple decades or a generation change is enormous. Culture and pop culture specifically, has to evolve, or die. As society grows and matures it makes total sense why more and more people within it want inclusion and representation, and thus people seek popular culture to consume that they can relate to and resonate with (Sardar, 1997).

Gone are the days of isolated lives, and in are the days of constant bombardment of pop culture. Of course, many of us today simply don’t think without it. Pop culture has been so wired into us that it’s simply part of us. We’re consuming it as much as it’s consuming us. The importance to queer pop culture research is very important, in all its facets. It gives layers of credibility to the past, the present, and where the future may go. It also helps forge identities, for better or worse, and that in itself is a very important aspect of why pop culture is so important. It has the capacity to influence us in our day to day lives that we may not even think about it very deeply, and yet, there it is. Your cell phone alerts. Your homepage; your favorite YouTube video ; that one show you tune into on TV or your premium on-demand streaming channel; prime time news (Ott, Robert, 2010).

But media also has the power to manipulate us, and no we’re not talking conspiracy theory and paranoia. We’re talking about the fact that media can toy with us in ways that we won’t even notice. Most importantly and on topic, it gives us mass marketed images of LGBTQ people. While TV and film, and written material for that matter, have evolve tremendously in recent years, the inclusion of LGBTQ people, stories, and premises in video games is still hard to come by. It’s not hard to imagine why queer youth culture studies is important to consider, as it notices the reality that many people, whether they be gay, lesbian, or otherwise, try to even fill in story gaps to fictional characters in pop culture, regardless of what medium it may be, in order to relate to the characters more. Where one lacks representation, you create it. Writers aren’t perfect, so they will often leave loopholes open that give ability for someone to create a level of background story, on their own, to rationalize why a character is in fact gay or lesbian for instance. It sounds silly to some perhaps, rationalized a gay or lesbian character where it’s not clear that there is any, but it continues to be a viable way for someone to find representation where they feel it’s missing (Driver, 2008).

Modern video games have begun to show signs of change in the past few years. Game series by notable developer Bioware have often been inclusive of different sexualities, as well as races, and romantic relationships are available, even same-sex ones. Whether it’s the Dragon Age series or Mass Effect, the options have you choose your character, in many cases both gender and race, and let you make choices throughout the set-up narrative to “click” with one person or another. Herein lays the fact that these are personal stories that you choose, and that’s very important. But not many games dare have a character be anyone LGBTQ by default. Though there are a few notable ones. One in particular is Ellie, from The Last of Us, the mega hit from 2013 and released originally on Playstation 3. It was good enough to get a remaster on Playstation 4 years later, and for good reason. The game is amazing all on its own, but perhaps the most important aspect of the game is the fact they made Ellie, a young girl support character, an official lesbian. She even has her own personal story that touches on this bit, which was originally available as an add-on to the game. Other notable gay characters from modern games include Kung Jin from Mortal Kombat X, Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2, Sam from Gone Home, Dorian from Dragon Age: Inquisition, Juhani from Knights of the Old Republic, Dr. Jessica Kendel from The Division, and of course any sort of personally created character in games that make you create your own story and tailor that persons sexuality and/or gender whichever way you please. In Mass Effect 3, Steve Cortez was one of the permanently gay characters of the series that was introduced, even if one of the few. What made this character notable was the well-known “mass effect gay sex scene”, which was, basically shirtless cuddling. In any case it was a positive step forward for the series, and the gaming industry (Tassi, 2016).

 The thing about modern gaming and LGBTQ representation is that many of the characters are given background stories and plots all their own, so they aren’t just shallow gay or lesbian personas with no personality. They are given a level of depth that brings them to life. It’s up to you if you pursue any sort of relationship with them, at least in the case of open ended games like these and anything Bioware. In the case of characters, now legendary, such as Ellie (above photo, right), is that the story arc that was implemented when her lesbian relationship was made public came as a surprise by some, and a welcome one by many more. The story itself centers on a teenage girl growing up and struggling with life issues, only during an apocalypse about 20 years in. It’s very emotional at parts and also, very much so, is very personal and relatable to reality. This story addition to an already incredible narrative, fleshing out personal life of one of it’s important female characters, is a watershed of a moment for the gaming industry. It’s confusing at parts, conflicting, and even troubling, but that’s just what being a teenager is all about, and The Last of Us: Left Behind, is something that has the chance to blossom new narratives that are both similar and different, as it’s creating a style of play and mixed with story and character depth that very (if any) video games had attempted before this (MacDonald, 2014).

There are in fact transgender characters in video games as well, even if they don’t get as much exposure as even lesbian or gay characters. In Super Mario, first debuting in 1988, we have Birdo, a pink yoshi-like character (top right in image below).  Poison (left, below), is a transgender character from the Final Fight/Street Fighter arcade and video game series and one of the most well-known transgender characters all together in gaming. Chrono Trigger’s Flea (middle, below) is another one of note. Bridget (bottom, right), from Guilty Gear, is yet another. Leo from Tekken, Guillow from Baten Kaitos, and Quina Quen from Final Fantasy 9 are all also considered prominent transgender characters (7 Transgender, N.D.).

Video games continue to evolve to include more diversity and less cliché when it comes to sexuality, but the representation itself has only been growing steadily, albeit slowly. The video below was filmed about four years ago, when interviewers asked visitors to those years PAX Prime what they thought about LGBTQ representation in games. Some were able to come up with various titles, while others weren’t able to recollect any memorable ones. But while this is about four years old, it’s a good representation of how the industry is today as not many other titles, aside from the aforementioned ones above, have legitimate LGBTQ relationships. 

It’s important to note that up until now, there hasn’t been a good framework to really study LGBTQ people in games. Queer theory is a theory system that first gained prominence decades ago, and it was meant to study anything and all queer related. But it often only focused on white, especially male, queerness and never really addressed different races and genders. Quare studies is a slightly newer approach that focuses on everything other than the white male norm that queer theory sought out to cover, thus covering information about blacks, Hispanics, and others who fell through queer theories cracks. Future models of both queer theory and quare studies will have to evolve and incorporate newer aspects of culture, especially video games that have already been prominent for decades, even if the idea of LGBTQ representational research games feels like a shallow pool of study. In fact, because it’s still in its earl years, with some of the most notable characters mentioned in this writing, it’s safe to say it’s the best time to look into and research LGBTQ representation in video games (Johnson, n.d.).

           The future of LGBTQ representation in video games is an exciting one, and this is coming from a completely heterosexual male. The idea of seeing more people not isolated and able sees both social and cultural acceptance in games means that the industry has come a long way. Just as movies and TV are still evolving the medium and expressing more varied styles of relationships, so are video games. The future prospect of more equality may hold true, but the future will be more clearly seen when more research is done. As a medium created solely for a project in a queer pop culture college course, the information provided here is simply a gateway to newer fields of understanding and acceptance.

References:

7 Badass Transgender Video Game Characters. Retrieved on 8-13-2017, from: https://lgbtqbusinesses.com/transgender-video-game-characters/

Driver, S. (2008) Queer Youth Cultures. Albany: SUNY Press. PDF.

Johnson, P. (n.d.) Quare Studies. Retrieved on 7-16-2017. PDF.

MacDonald, K. (2014). The Significance of The Last of Us: Left Behind. Retrieved August 14, 2017, from http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/19/the-significance-of-the-last-of-us-left-behind

Ott, Brian L., and Robert L. Mack. Critical Media Studies: An Introduction. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. PDF.