According to Bethesda same-sex marriage in game isn’t a big deal, so they’ve not really thought to mention it before someone on Twitter asked them directly. The question was posed: “Is same sex marriage in Skyrim? I know the option to get married to ppl is in. The subject seems like hush hush”, to which VP of PR and Marketing at Bethesda Pete Hines responded: “Not hush hush, just not making a huge deal out of it. You can marry anyone”. Hines then added: “Sorry, should clarify. Not any NPC, just mean any male or female. Doesn’t matter what you’re playing.” Well who’s all happy now huh? Good news.. Thanks Bethesda.

We’ve been checking out Fallout New Vegas female character Veronica Renata Santangelo, a Brotherhood of Steel Scribe who can be found at the 188 Trading Post in 2281. What’s interesting about veronica is, we’re told she’s a lesbian (though the wiki suggests she’s could be bi). Her sexuality is alluded to via conversational pointers, When she’s asked if she’s ever been in love she responds that she and a girl were in love, but due to her parents belief that lovers should procreate things didn’t work out with them. She also alludes to the fact her parents probably prefer her not to be home, but rather out in the wastes, which suggests they have issue with her. If playing a male character Veronica will also state: “This is as close as I get until you turn into a leggy brunette.” How awesome is that? On a side note of geek girl awesome, Veronica is also voiced by none other than Felicia Day.

Thanks to Misajingles and Fallout Wiki xx

That’s Fort Gay, which is a real town in West Virginia. The gamer, 26 year old Josh Moore, not gay himself, just innocently put he lived in Fort Gay and before he knew it had his account suspended. Moore contact Microsoft Xbox ‘customer services’ to explain he really did live in Fort Gay and the helpful Representative should just Google the postcode which Moore supplied, customer support replied with “I can’t help you”.

Moore stated he was angry and although not being gay himself felt that Microsoft were definitely discriminating. Moore said he was met with non help and even a warning that if he replaced the information in his bio his account would be canceled and Microsoft would keep his monthly fee.

As usual Microsoft have downplayed the situation, saying it’s just a miscommunication and that they will contact Moore to apologize.

Now rather than having a knee jerk reaction to this story, we at lesbian gamers actually think what MS have stated is true. Someone complained about Moore having “Fort Gay WV” in his bio, it was then passed onto a representative and dealt with in the usual MS manner. The problem with MS reps however is that they follow a strict code and don’t deviate from that, it’s almost like they’re reading from a script. I myself have almost been in tears on the phone to MS because their ‘reps’ offer NO help and merely keep you on the phone reading from a set script. I think perhaps this is what Microsoft should look at next.

These reps are meant to represent the company and offer ‘service’ and ‘help’ but more often than not you end up having a one sided non helpful conversation that gains no useful outcome, as is the case here. A quick check would have noted the term Fort Gay was in fact a real place and a quick “sorry sir I see YOU are right, sorry for the inconvenience” could have been issued and this wouldn’t even be in the news right now, making Microsoft look – once again – like they’re somewhat homophobic. They REALLY need to look at the way their customer service is run.

I’ve been thinking about the lack of gay characters in video games and how utterly annoying it is that developers don’t try and make their games a more immersive experience by adding characters of depth that in some manner represent the color of society.

It seems that gay characters in video games generally get a bad rap. Developers have to woo ratings boards by tweaking the wording regarding characters, edits are made and now and again we do see a gay games characters. Whether coincidence or not it seems that games that can cope with the ‘horror’ of having a gay character included will generally feature a deep story and character depth.

One game that springs to mind as having little to no drama surrounding the gay character within was Fahrenheit (released 2005 on Xbox, PS2 & PC). Quantic Dreams had one of the main characters in Fahrenheit (aka Indigo Prophecy) have a gay neighbor and friend. This addition took a back seat to the controversy surrounding the sex scene between the straight couple within the games story.

Mass Effect, KOTOR and Jade Empire too all – could – feature homosexuality and again all these titles feature deep, rich storylines.

Does a deep story and character depth leave the door open for the addition of gay characters more easily, or is it coincidence in these particular instances that this is the case? BioShock featured a rich story and no out gay characters, as do quite a few other titles.

When will we start seeing story driven titles that feature the diversity we’d like to see, without the shockwave of outrage flowing alongside?

A game released in 2002 is in the headlines this week because it urges the player to shoot gay men before they ‘rape’ the player. Various gay groups are up in arms over “Watch Out Behind You” a web based game written by Frenchman Stéphane Aguie and hosted on Georgian website Uzinagaz. In an odd twist akin to hit movie Bruno, the sites owner has stated the games designer wanted to “mock hunters and rednecks, not gay men”.

Though a lot of gay news sources and blogs are in uproar over the ‘game’, not all are, with one source suggesting it’s been taken out of context. The website’s owner, Jean Christophe Calvet, stated “In the end, its all a bit of fun.”

On reading about this hooplah this morning the movie Bruno immediately leaps to mind as I had seen it this past week and it had similar fallout for me. The movie which on the one hand cleverly issues a message about the stupidity of homophobia, could also fan those very flames, dependent on the context of the viewership.

I haven’t played “Watch Out Behind You” and don’t intend to give the game more credence by giving the website a hit (thus no link here), so for this reason, statements about the game will remain vague at best. Is it right to portray gay men in this light if that is what this game does? No of course not. Is it right to shoot gay men in games? Absolutely not. We must also however try and keep this within the infantile context with which it is intended and perhaps think about related issues.

Is it right that most black people in games portray a criminal element? That most Arab people portray terrorist / enemy elements? That most women play peripheral roles in attendance to the male leads? That strong female leads in games have to be sexualized up the whatoozy to get them marketable?

Watch Out Behind You is yet another example of what’s wrong in gaming and it sadly mirrors what’s wrong in society as a whole.

The lovely Kate tips us off to this article at GamePlayer which discusses Gays in Gaming. Writer Stuart Clarke does a nice job of looking at a few older games in which bisexual or gay characters were eradicated for audiences outside of Japan.

The article then nicely covers how perhaps the closet door is slightly ajar, more so for bisexual characters than for gay characters, but that perhaps a change is a coming. It’s a good read and nice to see a site like GamePlayer even covering the issue.

Via [GamePlayer]

Thank you Kate!

Online network site Kombo has an interesting article up at the moment that poses the question “Are Games Gay Enough?”. After an incidental side mission in Fable II, writer – and gamer – Brad began to wonder about “the state of homosexual characters in today’s games”.

What’s nice about this article is the articulate manner in which Brad tackles the issue. We liked it so much we’ve hit Brad up for a Q & A that we’ll be running shortly. Check out the article HERE.

Via [Kombo]

Firstly apologies for no posts end of last week, LG HQ lost its net connection. All is well now though and here we are back to business.

Gaywired has an interesting article up by Laura Vess about playing Eve Online and being a lesbian gamer. Vess openly discusses her own experiences as a lesbian gamer in Eve Online and states "every day in EVE, anti-gay language flies through the chat windows at warp speed".

Vess then goes on to outline her encounters as a lesbian gamer in the online gaming world where she has experienced both sides of the spectrum. She comes to the conclusion that nobody should have to hide their sexuality in gaming and the more "honest gay gamers are about themselves, the more likely it is that at least a few corners of the virtual worlds out there might become safe and comfortable places for all of us". It’s an interesting read, here’s the link.

The Apple iPhone is – unexpectedly – taking off as a games machine. We got to thinking about what this might mean for gay and lesbian gamers and particularly how the open market of iPhone Application development and dispersal might affect gay content in games.

Is the iPhone just waiting for a bunch of gay game and app developers to get their groove on and add to the library of available titles already flooding the App Store? How will this affect the amount of gay content in games by comparison to other platforms? Are we dreaming, or could the iPhone be the first gaming device to have a library of gay content games and applications….

Mobile phone gaming has never quite taken off, for many reasons, some perhaps subconscious – it’s not a ‘real’ gaming device it’s a phone! – and some perhaps more to do with mobile phone gaming’s distribution issues and overall costs. Anyone that’s ever tried to download and install a regular mobile phone game will have no doubt experienced some issue or other.

The Nokia N-Gage seemed to be the first phone to truly take gaming seriously, with games being sold in stores, in little plastic cases – with instructions – just like a ‘regular’ game. Problem was, despite the N-Gage actually being quite a nice platform – well I liked mine! – the device was never really taken seriously as a gaming platform by consumers and eventually flopped.

Enter Apple, a company that seems to value itself more on the creative side of utilities than gaming. Sure there’s been rumors of Apple dipping its toe into gaming – pretty much every couple of years a new Apple gaming console rumor appears – but for the most part Apple owners realize they’re buying into a great operating system that doesn’t value gaming as its main selling point. Apple too are known for their MP3 players – iPods – and seen somewhat as an artiste’s tech manufacturer of choice.

With the release of the iTouch and more recently the new 3G iPhone however, things would seem to be taking a very gaming turn and the development side at least may well be far more open to games with gay and lesbian content than any other gaming platform presently available. The open source nature of the iPhone development tools mean anyone with some programming knowledge can work on a game and have it up and running for the masses without the bureaucracy that stems the flow of other platforms.

This may potentially mean gay and lesbian content in mobile games that is more readily available than on other platforms, because the games being developed for the iPhone are made by anyone with a little programming knowledge and a copy of the iPhones SDK (software development kit). Does the ease of nature and distribution of the Apple SDK and Applications store mean we will see more lesbian (and gay) content in games? Will this be yet another underutilized development opportunity for those talented gay and lesbian software developers out there, or will those developers -gay or straight – who want their games to reflect society, step outside the constraints forced upon the larger developer who is bound by huge publication companies scared to go ‘there’.

Given the ease with which programming and distribution – via the Apps Store – has been made by Apple, one would imagine it is only a matter of time before some smart gay programmers are out there releasing gay themed RPG’s, utilities and other software on the device. Apple are only charging a bare minimum set up cost for the SDK ($100 at time of writing) and they take care of all distribution and credit card transactions (though they take a 30% cut – which is more than fair) linked to the software developed (or you can put it up as a free application).

Technically the iPhone also has additional features your other gaming handhelds lack. Features like the GPS and camera could add additional functionality to games. These aside though the accessibility of the iPhone for developers is where it’s way ahead of the pack and with this accessibility should – hopefully – come an array of games which throw old conventions out the window. Innovation in hardware is one thing, but what some suggest gaming has lacked for some time is innovation in game development (though a few have appeared recently on other download services such as XBLA and PSN). With such a free and open game development strategy in place, one has to wonder how long it will be before we see a slew of gay RPG’s in which characters can hook up with the same gender, gay utilities that give you access to information pertinent to you as a gay person and other applications featuring gay content.

One would imagine with the slew of iPhone applications presently flying to and off the service, at some point Apple will need to upgrade its categories in the App Store to include a sub category system for ease of sorting and finding. All categories should really feature sub menus of genre. Hopefully the lifestyle category won’t be where gay & lesbian gets tucked away only and that games will include a sub category of  gay & lesbian content. Of course for that to occur, gay and lesbian developers and those wishing for more equality need to start making content.

Surely it will happen… surely.