We’re well into 2014 at this point, but who says end of the year lists have to be released before the end of the year? (To be fair: probably everyone)
From controversies to conventions, 2013 was a wonderful year to be a gaymer. The discussion surrounding queer issues in gaming took over the industry. Samantha Allen took gaming journalism to task with her open letter to the industry, inspiring outlets like Kotaku and Polygon to address their community standards. Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games series finally launched, and was met with the unfortunately expected push back though also plenty of support. AAA publishers joined in with EA hosting their Full Spectrum event in NYC, an open forum on LGBT issues in video games. Even NFL players got in on the action, with Brendon Abayandejo leading Full Spectrum, and former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe even doing an interview with us here at GayGamer.
It wasn’t all positive, though. Same sex marriage (and more specifically the lack of it) was by far the year’s hottest button. Games like Saints Row 4 didn’t even shrug at the notion of same-sex marriage, making no big fuss over its inclusion. But many games weren’t so quick to include equality. Fire Emblem: Awakening was a massive hit for the Nintendo 3DS, but despite featuring marriage as a key gameplay feature (not to mention past entries in the series allowing for same-sex, non-married, pairs) same-sex marriage was not featured. In fact it was specifically denied in the game’s manual. Nintendo took more flack by patching a glitch in Japan-only release Tomodachi Collection: New Life that allowed players to bind their same-sex Mii couples. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn saw massive controversy when same-sex marriage was not only left out of the game’s re-release (despite developers claiming they would look into its possibility) but was not even allowed to be discussed on the game’s official beta forums.
We can’t talk about 2013 queer gaming controversies without talking about the entirety of the PAX debacle, sparked this time around by Mike Krahulik’s transphobic tweets and his later apology. Then there’s the newly announced Diversity Lounges that have everybody all a twitter.
There was also plenty of controversy within the gay gaming community itself, as the battle between r/gaymers and gaymer.org finally came to a head. The latter, one of the first of many gay-centric gaming communities, shut down earlier this year alongside an emotional note from its founder Chris Vizzini.
And of course, you can’t talk about gay gaming in 2013 without talking about the first ever queer-centric LGBT gaming convention GaymerX, founded by Matt Conn. Following its massive Kickstarter success in 2012 the gay gaming convention packed the halls of Hotel Kabuki to capacity. With gender neutral bathrooms, panels ranging from indie game devs to BioWare, and an entire sensitivity trained staff keeping watch, the attendees of GaymerX found themselves in a safe space where the focus was on one thing and one thing only: gaming.
GaymerX wasn’t even the *only* queer gaming con in 2013, as Mattie Brice followed it up with QGCon, the Queerness and Games Conference, in Berkeley last October.
But the biggest moments in gay gaming weren’t just in the community, they were happening in games as well. Whether they featured prominent queer characters (playable or not), created opportunities for gamers to express themselves outside of heteronormative gender roles, or otherwise explored non-traditional themes, here is a collection of 2013’s gayest games.
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