As a female gamer, I am often seen as a minority in
the gaming world. While these demographics are constantly changing, the game
content seems to lag (haha) behind. This, of course, includes LGBT content. My
shelf has quite a few video games on it. The overwhelming majority include
playable male characters or half naked playable female characters, which
clearly signifies a hole in the gaming community already. But if I think about
the games I own that includes LGBT content, I can only come up with two: The Sims
and Dragon Age Origins.
Dragon Age Origins was created by Bioware in 2009
and received the Role Playing Game (RPG) of the Year award. This video
game was different from previous RPGs. Why? The fact that male and female
characters seemed more balanced in the game is overshadowed by the ability for
the main character to have heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual relationships
with others in their traveling party. This, of course, is not mandatory; it is
simply an option available to players.
One player apparently had an issue with these
options, and posted so in the discussion boards saying:
And of course he had more to say,
but I won’t make you read it. You get the gist of it. Seems like an instance of
Shaw’s stereotypical gamer market to me.
Bioware’s David Gaider respondedback in a rather passionate post saying that “The majority has no inherent"right" to get more options than anyone else” and that “…the personwho says that the only way to please them is to restrict options for others is,if you ask me, the one who deserves it least.” And while he seems to be taking
a stance for equality in the gaming industry’s content, he doesn’t shy away
from saying that it was just simply more cost effective to have the romances
available the way they were in the game.
Obviously, the gaming industry,
along with the media industry, are constantly disrupted by these new identities
within these technological communities, however, that is only because they have
not yet caught up with the “real” world. Straight male gamers around the world
may be angry at these changes, but they are necessary and will come no matter
what because the line between reality and technology is only fading with time.
The boundaries are constantly being tested and pushed. Once this line is gone,
for good or bad, media will begin to resemble the diverse reality that
surrounds us.
There's a significant problem that inhibits the corporate acceptance of the LBGT community, and that is the fact that corporations have a duty to maximize profits above all. Shareholders can and do sue to enforce this duty on senior management.
ReplyDeleteIf the shareholders can show that senior managers could have made greater profits by throwing the LBGT community under a bus, then the courts can intervene to enforce the seniors' ouster- and the new management team will do just that. (It is rumored that such a coup occurred at BioWare recently; word about Dragon Age III is that character choice will be more restricted than DA2 was- it's now confirmed as being Human Only again, so it's not impossible that it could be White Guy Only.)
I also would not be so certain that things will go towards greater diversity. Power determines such things, and corporate power is hardly on the decline; it's so strong, and so tied to the Dudebros (who comprise the recruiting pool for the Corporate Management world, and have various forms around the world) that I would not count victory as assured or inevitable.
Remember the words of Edward Bernays: "In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons [...] who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world." (Propaganda, p.37-38)
Eddies knows first-hand. He did just that for the whole of his life.