So video games tend to be exactly how "traditional society" thinks about the world. Mia Consalvo brings up a good point about video games and the lack of homosexuality. She uses both The Sims and Final Fantasy 9 as her examples of video games and either their lack of homosexuality or the lack of going all the way. The Sims incorporates gays but it does not allow them to marry. However, this list is not exhaustive. I could probably list all of the video games I have, at least the ones that regard a relationship, and each one has nothing to do with homosexuals. Grand Theft Auto would be another good example. The player can, if he or she so chooses, to go on dates and after the date, the user may be invited into the house for some "Hot Coffee". Either way, all these dates are with women. The user never really has a choice to go out with a guy. (I do know that in GTA IV that there is a dating website and I remember there being gay men on it, but I never experimented with dating them so it is possible you could date other men in GTA IV) However, Consalvo's point remains true, that most video games do not center around a homosexual relationship.
Another point that Consalvo brings up is the love triangle between two men and a woman. I did not think of this in class, but another good movie example of this triangle could be Star Wars. Luke Skywalker, the main character, and Han Solo end up being pretty good friends throughout the series. However, they both inadvertently end up indirectly fighting over Princess Leia. George Lucas relieves this tension by revealing in the end that Princess Leia is, in fact, Luke's sister. There are also many other cases of movies where the main character and his good/best friend end up fighting over a girl between them. These movies usually end with one agreeing to let the other have her or it turning out to be that neither really wants her. They then go back to being good friends and everyone lives happily ever after. The usual story book ending by Hollywood.
So in retrospect, Consalvo brings up the points that show our society is still afraid to admit gays into open media. Apart from Broke Back Mountain, I can not really think of any widely popular movies that featured such a famous gay scene. And in most video games homosexuality is completely avoided, probably for several reasons. One, the game creators may be against homosexuality. Or two, they may be afraid that some people would not buy their game if it was advertised for having homosexuality in it. It is probably a combination of the two, especially considering marketing is what drives most video games to huge sales. In conclusion, I think our society is too afraid to openly address gays and so it will continue to be an unspoken trait for years to come.
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Andrew: Unfortunately, you're right about the lack of representations of alternative sexual orientations in mainstream media. While such issues and plotlines are now more common on television (think Will and Grace, the Bravo cable channel, etc.), games seem to be less cosmopolitan than Hollywood and cable.
ReplyDeleteIt's really sad that games are so unidimensional the majority of the time, focusing on the S and mostly ignoring the LGBTQQIA etc. It's also counterintuitive when you consider more classical theories of sexuality, such as the Kinsey scale of 0-6 (0 being entirely heterosexual, 6 being entirely homosexual), where most people lie somewhere in between. You would think that more games would want to present the players with these options to cater to more people. Then again, at the same time, that would require more work by the game designers. Maybe it is just easier for designers to make a game where the protagonist is a white, completely straight male, because it allows them to focus on building a specific storyline to cater to that character. Expansion on the identity of that character would likely (subtly or more explicitly) change the finer details of the game, such as the interactions with different people, places and objects. It's also interesting to consider how choosing a white, straight male is in a sense choosing a minority (though it seems like a majority stereotype), as there are not as many completely white, completely straight males as there might seem to be at first glance.
ReplyDeleteTo add a bit to your examples, movies have dealt with homosexuality for years and with great acclaim (think Milk, Fried Green Tomatoes, and American Beauty), but the industry has not succeeded thusfar in promoting and realizing sexual equality.
And when there's a wikipedia article entitled "LGBT characters in video games" that's no more than a couple of pages long, you know you're seeing inequality in games' representation of sexuality.
Videogames and their sexuality today definitely take on the "traditional" approach of heterosexuality. Gamers should be given more options when playing games so as not to discriminate against homosexuality. Homosexuality has been around as long as heterosexuality and should be accepted, but society hasn't completely come around to the idea. Deviating from the norm is a courageous act, and should be accepted. You bring up a good point about the marketing strategies of the creators of videogames and how they don't promote homosexuality in their videogames because they might not sell as well, which is a sad reality. However, learning to accept difference has to start somewhere, and maybe starting with promoting difference in videogames is a good start.
ReplyDeleteAoife Parkin
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