What would a queer Silent Hill look like?
It’s probably a pretty odd question, but it’s one I kept brushing up against while I was brushing up on my Francis Bacon know-how for a previous article on Silent Hill right here on GayGamer.Net. ...
And we’re off to the races. Tuesday Microsoft unveiled their new console, the Xbox One. While Microsoft’s big reveal focused mainly on hardware and multimedia, with most major game announcements being saved for E3, it’s still all th...
As should be evident by now, your humble and obedient servant is a creature of spite – yet few things inspire greater loathing than those who prey on others. Said loathing finds its form in the dream of a new world – a bright and beautiful one – in w...
UK based rapper and YouTube personality Dan Bull has been rapping about the internet, politics, gaming, and more since 2006. Over this time he’s earned quite the following in the nerd core realm, with some of his most popular tracks being gamin...
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The Wii U is available for purchase, the PS4 is well on its way, and now it’s Microsoft’s turn to show us what they’ve got in store for the oncoming next console generation. After months of rumors about always-online func...
Animal Crossing isn’t the only game that has real staying power in my Wii/Wii U… five years now after the release of Wii Fit (Seriously? Five years? That’s insane!), I still use it nearly every day. And as you can see from the chart...
So, if you’ve been on the internet recently, you’ve probably heard some of the controversy surrounding certain design choices made regarding the soon-to-be-released 2d fantasy action RPG from Vanillaware entitled Dragon’s Crown. And for those preciou...
It’s been a while since there’s been much talk about GaymerX (formerly Gaymercon). The first ever LGBT-centric video game convention taking place in San Francisco this August was mired in controversy from the onset. Many in the industry were supportive, but others questioned the necessity of such an event. “Doesn’t this encourage more segregation?” “There isn’t a straight gamer con, so why do we need this?” and other such riveting questions were asked. Even gaymers were some of the event’s early detractors. But the answer to the biggest question, “Do we need LGBT video game convention?”, seemed to come on its own when the Gaymercon Kickstarter ovwehelmingly reached nearly four times its original goal.
And then the circus of craziness known as the Westboro Baptist Church showed up and completely validated this event in one fell swoop by simply commenting on it.
I personally love the idea that Master Chief walks around in a pink bathrobe (with the armor still on of course).
I know for a fact that many of our readers (not to mention staff) are big fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and now we can all put the bass in our walk with the soon to be released RuPaul’s Drag Race: Dragopolis. Dropping on Monday May 6th to coincide with the Season 5 finale of the show, Dragopolis comes to us from the aptly named So Much Drama Studios. Via the game’s official press release:
“RuPaul’s Drag Race: Dragopolis is a fantabulous adventure starring a drag queen fighting for RuPaul. The evil drag queen Apocalypstyk has broken into the workroom on day one of RuPaul’s Drag Race in order to sabotage the show and kidnap the sexy men in the pit crew. Players control our drag queen heroine, and can customize this ferocious character with sickening wigs, outfits and even their own face. In order to save the day, she races to the main stage, jumping and clawing her way past Apocalypstyk’s increasingly fierce minions, all while serving up new looks for the photo shoots! There is no RuPaulogizing in this game!”
They had me at “no RuPaulogizing.” Actually, let’s be real: They had me at RuPaul anything!
I was able to get in touch with So Much Drama’s Jeff Meador, who spilled plenty of tea on the new app.
We’ve posted some of gay gamer Rantasmo’s Needs More Gay series in the past, but he’s just posted another gaming-centered one where he explores how ATLUS’s Persona 4 tackles LGBT issues with one of its main characters, Kanji. As you might know, in Persona 4, the characters must do battle against their inner shadow selves, which reflect their innermost fears. And Kanji’s clearly indicates that he has some issues with his sexuality. Of course, the game softens things a bit at the end, but is that the developer treating the issue with kid gloves, afraid to offend? Or is it simply a matter of the English localization self-censoring as the text is translated? At least Persona 4 the game still explores Kanji’s sexuality with a little more sensitivity than the anime. I haven’t seen it myself, but what Rantasmo shows in his video is kind of horrifying and a bit sad. Watch Persona 4 Needs More Gay right here:
How did you feel about Kanji’s story? Did he need more gay? Sound off in the comments.
A little while ago, as part of my series on gay portrayals on the community blogs for Destructoid, I wrote a post lamenting the fact that developers seem all too content to provide plenty of reasoning and justification for who the player character might kill or wish to kill, but very rarely seem interested in actually providing reasoning or justification for whom the player might love. Gaming protagonists commit murder for reasons reaching from self-defense, to bloodlust, to revenge. They can be conflicted or gleeful in the violence they commit. But if the playable character has a love interest, it’s usually brushed away with “they are your love interest. You love them. Now save them from a monster or something, shit.” If the game includes some sort of romance mechanic, wherein the player chooses someone to love, the means of courtship and bonding will rarely extend beyond “buy them gifts and maybe let them follow you around if you want.” It invariably feels weightless, pointless, tacked on – which is a shame, as who we love and why tends to be such a large part of human identity. Not just that, but a lackluster romance system can negatively impact the way we view the rest of the story, our characters, or their place within it. Which brings me to the subject of Dragon’s Dogma.
In honor of the release of Dark Arisen, I’d like to share a story with all of you. A story about how half-assed game mechanics lead to the creation of something terrible. A cautionary tale about how freedom of romantic choice, without any substance to back up that freedom, made me into a monster. The story of how Dragon’s Dogma turned me into a pedophile.
I gotta say, I didn’t think I’d ever be paying attention to Dragon’s Crown again, but for better or for worse – mostly for worse – it’s staying in the news. A couple of weeks ago I did a write-up on the the game’s trailer and the utterly absurd hypersexualization of two of the female protagonists and a few other NPCs visible in the trailer. Kotaku’s Jason Schreier got word of the trailer and wrote his own condemnation as well, and because they’re a more notorious website the artist behind the game, George Kamitani actually took note of the criticism. His response was to pretty much call Schreier gay and draw a naked dwarf three-way for him.
A few years ago, Rockstar made a big splash with The Ballad of Gay Tony. It may be the first time that a character’s not being straight was trumpeted in the title of a major studio’s release, but the game’s eponymous character was not the first gay Tony in a game from a big-name developer. He was about fifteen years late to that party… MORE >>
“I mean, it’s not like I want to have sex with the guy. There’s just…something there, you know?”
The above is the paraphrased conclusion of many a conversation that started out normally with me and friends or acquaintances at conventions, conferences, or local area developer meet ups. The “guy” in question is the long running big bad of Nintendo’s trademarked plumber adventures, a reptile saurian with a penchant for abstract world construction and – apparently – a possessor of a subtle sexual prowess in the eyes of gay human dudes.
I don’t pretend to have enough of a sample size to venture into a scientifically valid study on the theory, but the sheer regularity of this two-drink-minimum confession is excuse enough for some unauthorized reverse engineering on a character that has more to him than eight world’s worth of contract negotiations. And to be clear, this character’s clout in the furry community is thoroughly established, but not our subject for today. I checked, re-affirmed the depths of Rule 34, and can no longer play Super Mario RPG because of it.
No, herein we shall dare to answer the question no one thought needed to be asked: why do so many people consider Bowser a sexualized character?
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