Gay Rights In Video Games: A Brief History (PICTURE)

From Madatoms' Ben Siemon and David Hwang comes a tongue-in-cheek infographic presenting a brief "history" of gay rights in video games.

The timeline is part serious, part comic, and comes just two months after Xbox LIVE began allowing gamers to use terms like "gay,""straight," "lesbian," "bi," and "transgender" in their nicknames and profiles (this new policy is not included in the Madatoms chart, however).

See the infographic below, then check out some of the most controversial video games ever.

Comments

[SickHippie]

09:41 PM on 05/12/2010

All of that and not a single mention of Cho Aniki? Shame!

[Andre Roux]

02:10 PM on 05/12/2010

I don't get the sadly Gay Tony ...part. In the GTA series all the characters, straight or gay are sleazy drug pushers, murderers etc.

[xstex]

07:21 PM on 05/12/2010

Exactly!

[garystartswithg]

11:22 AM on 05/12/2010

There are dozens of gay characters in japanese games, practically required to have one or two in rpgs. The united states really needs to get with the 21st century -- we are woefully behind. There is a guy that does a comedic leatherman in japan and he plays with kids while wearing leather thongs and harnesses. Can you imagine our intolerant rightwing bigots fuming?
I think everyone in any grand theft auto game is a drug addicted criminal, why should gay tony be a shining beacon of morality? I mean seriously -- you run around committing grand theft auto for the whole game -- jeez.

[SickHippie]

09:51 PM on 05/12/2010

Are you referring to Hard Gay, by any chance? Love that guy! More pro wrestlers should turn their shtick into comedy shows after they retire, IMO.

Also, japanese games... Cho Aniki anyone?

[rawresolve]

10:27 AM on 05/12/2010

The most awesome Xbox game ever, Fable & Fable II allow gay sex and marriage. You can play as male or female in Fable II. Your character can have protected or unprotected sex (you buy condoms at the market). Depending on your sex choices your character profile will indicate if you are straight, bi or gay.

[SickHippie]

09:58 PM on 05/12/2010

While I have to disagree with the "most awesome Xbox game ever" part, you're right - there was a LOT more to that game than "the male brides don't come with a dowry".

Still, at least you didn't say "Halo" as the best Xbox game ever... We all know KotOR was the best Xbox game ever.

[Cribbychris]

04:59 PM on 05/13/2010

Actually, the correct answer to the question of best Xbox game is Dead Rising.

[hubbahubba77]

10:13 AM on 05/12/2010

If we don't have the rights in real life...WHO CARES?

[WhatTheHolyHeck]

10:23 AM on 05/12/2010

Sometimes you have to chip away at deeply held social mores. It sucks, but it's easier to gently move someone toward acceptance than to expect them to suddenly drop all their biases and a lifetime of learning from all the wrong people. If video games can play their part (as does TV, film, literature, etc.), each piece can have a greater impact than if they were acting alone.

Although I agree that it's all just lip service if no real changes result from it.

[anastasialyrae]

10:43 AM on 05/12/2010

Gay video gamers who might like to play their game character like they are themselves? Like me. There are actually a lot more games than those listed that have this kind of content.

[Cribbychris]

05:00 PM on 05/13/2010

Or straight players may play Bisexual or homosexual characters in games as well. I am straight, but my dwarf in Dragon Age Origins got busy with the elf guy.

[xtiangodloki]

10:12 AM on 05/12/2010

BIOWare's games featured gay romance choices far before Dragon Age. I remember in Jade Empire you can go the lesbian route and that game was out years ago. Mass Effect 1 had a race where all members are female and the main character (female) can romance another female member of the team. Mass Effect 2 toned this down quite a bit after complaints.

Dragon Age does feature an overt male bi character though. In the past bioware games the bi-characters are female.

[Cafergot]

09:59 AM on 05/12/2010

Not that funny.

[rbryanh]

09:44 PM on 05/11/2010

The down side of LGBTQ rights is the more we're accepted, the more our sexuality is just something else to buy. In a few years, we'll be indistinguishable from straights.

I know nostalgia is an awful vice, but I remember when I could have all the kinky interspecies human/elf gay sex I wanted for the price of a beer, using no more hardware than I was born with.

[Rachel OBrien]

11:49 PM on 05/11/2010

Wait, so you're complaining because you're -not- as ostracized as you used to be?

[rbryanh]

12:46 AM on 05/12/2010

I'm not complaining and I wouldn't have it any other way, but there's a downside to everything. Near as I can tell, irony is built into the universe at some fundamental level, along with subatomic particles and stupidity.

That I wouldn't return to a ghettoized culture doesn't make me blind to the fact that it had significant advantages. There are any number of studies showing that members of ghettoized cultures often believe they're superior to society at large, and behave accordingly. It's a marvelously subtle placebo effect, further complicated by the fact, in terms of culture, to behave better is in fact to be better.

The upside of defining one's identity in defiance of the macroculture is that the result - sexually and otherwise - is personal in a way no mass market product ever can be. The downside is, for example, an atypical rate of suicide and drug addiction.

Male sexuality and gay male sexuality are now every bit as commoditized as that of hetero women. Perhaps this was inevitable, but that's no excuse for mistaking it for progress.

[Cannibal Femme]

10:46 AM on 05/12/2010

No--but this process is called 'mainstreaming', and it stinks. Homonormativity necessarily requires the sacrifice of very important pieces of queer culture--something we shouldn't give up, IMHO. The ideal would be *not* to be ostracized, with the understanding that queer culture is extant and valid--whether or not it 'makes sense' to straights, or makes straights 'comfortable'.

[CFAmick]

11:55 AM on 05/12/2010

Wasn't that a South Park episode?

[rbryanh]

09:40 PM on 05/11/2010

ME: Hey... Do you wanna have kinky gay interspecies elf sex tonight?

HIM: How will that be different from last night?

ME: I'll wear boots, eye makeup, and a sword?

HIM: You don't have a sword.

ME: Wanna bet? I'll dissolve two xanax in a nice cabernet, and you can pretend it's a spell.

HIM: Ok. Just as long as I don't have to wear tights.

[EcnelisDoogod]

08:13 PM on 05/11/2010

Valet Hustle an iPhone app.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc_kL_ZUbvA

[bluewolfca]

08:10 PM on 05/11/2010

You forgot to mention SimCopter (1996) where kissing men were put into the code on the sly and the guy responsible got fired.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCopter#Controversy

[maxben]

08:31 PM on 05/11/2010

No, its up there.

[bluewolfca]

08:33 PM on 05/11/2010

Oh man, I skipped right over it! My eyes aren't doing to well this evening. ;) lol

[SebKus]

06:57 PM on 05/11/2010

Persona 4 featured a questioning teen with a compelling storyline to follow. At one point the player get's to fight a camp, over-sexualized version of him. It was very therapeutic for both me and the character in question. In the same game there's a young woman who desperately wants to become a man, she ends up being nearly involved in a "body-alteration operation" with her repressed self.

[Joseph Guarino]

06:50 PM on 05/11/2010

What about the time Cloud dressed up in drag to infiltrate the mob in FF7? That was awesome. Not to mention the final boss of FF9, Kuja...

[SickHippie]

09:46 PM on 05/12/2010

Dressing in drag is not necessarily for gay men only. Quite a few transvestites are actually straight, believe it or not.

Also, FF5 was the first Final Fantasy to feature crossdressing - captain Feris was actually a girl the whole time! Still, Cloud sneaking into the Don's mansion and the Don wanting him over the other girls was hilarious, for sure.

[FantasticFourFan]

06:28 PM on 05/11/2010

Wish I could marry my robot servant!

[darkwingnut]

05:32 PM on 05/11/2010

Waiting on the HP story of the history of gay rights in Hip Hop

[mbaty]

06:09 PM on 05/11/2010

Keep waiting.