Playing Dirty: The queer hero

It would be nice to include a spoiler warning near the top of the article, or around where you start talking about RE4.

Is this just another attempt by the homosexual lobby to convince us all that being gay is totally normal? You know, like that bogus statistic that 10% of the population is gay.

And I find it linguistically ironic that gays will refer to themslves as "queer" (check its definition in Webster's), such as in the "Queer Student Union," but argue that being gay is normal. Can someone explain that to me?

There is already enough homosexuality entering our homes through movies, television and newspapers. We don't need it shoved into our homes through videogames as well.

@39:

If there ever is a clearly gay male protagonist in a game, I sincerely hope he is from Kentucky. It may just be the fatigue from working 1 billion days in a row talking, but imagining that line in a game manual was the best laugh I've had all year (literally).

Wow! Y'all are actually allowing comments this time? Cool.

As a gaymer myself, I have no *need* to see a homosexual protagonist in my videogame. Just like I have no *need* to see a story about two gay cowboys (eating pudding).

What I mean is, if there's an interesting story to be told, I'm there. I loved me that Brokeback, but absolutely loathe just about every other queer-themed movie ever produced.... because they're crap.

If done right, I believe I'd be thoroughly engaged if Leon turned out to be a Mo in the next RE installment. But I'm not clamoring for a queer protagonist just for the sake of there being one. If Hollywood is any gauge, projects started like that tend to give us more stereotypical crap.


And to whomever said 3-4%.... HA!!

How dare you even suggest it!
He flirts with Ingrid Hunnigan, anyway.
pwned joystiq, pwned.

*Yo tack!*

How about you keep all of your barely-clothed women and heterosexual themes and WWE 'rasslin of the television and we'll call it even, cool?


Wait... keep the WWE 'rasslin on. Somebody please pass the John Cena...

Ugh....despite my "no feeding trolls" policy, I simply cannot resist giving 47 a few peanuts.

I can practicaly see the wife beater on this guy through my moniter.

First off, I don't know many gays (including myself) that appreciate the word "queer" anymore. It is an archaic term that is not unlike calling a woman a "chick" or "broad".

Secondly, look CLOSER at the dictionary definition. It lists MORE THAN ONE definition for a reason! One of them is:

"strange or odd from a conventional viewpoint; unusually different"

When it was originally used, THIS use of THIS definition meant to try to illistrate the fact that "different" does NOT equal "Abnormal".

For instance:

I am different from you in that you are a prick and I am not. However, I find pricks quite normal in our society.

Lastly, if you have said "homosexuality" entering your home, you have only yourself to blame. No one is forcing you. You can switch channels you don't like, put filters on your Internet and choose not to buy "Brokeback Mountain" if you so wish. If you still have a problem with homosexuality in your home against your will, then perhaps you should see that as prove that being gay is NOT a choice at all since someone in your house (probably you) cannot seem control their desire for it.

Maybe he's bi. Did you ever think of that?

After posting his comments Captain Obvious (or whomever gave his post 2 stars) went to McDonalds for a McFlurry.

This is what happened:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01032007/news/regionalnews/anti_gay_mac_attack_at_mall_regionalnews_jamie_schram__lorena__mongelli_and_lukas_i__alpert.htm

"And to whomever said 3-4%.... HA!!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_sexual_orientation

Australia

2003: The largest and most thorough survey in Australia to date was conducted by telephone interview with 19,307 respondents between the ages of 16 and 59 in 2001/2002. The study found that 97.4% of men identified as heterosexual, 1.6% as gay and 0.9% as bisexual. For women 97.7% identified as heterosexual, 0.8% as gay and 1.4% as bisexual. Nevertheless, 8.6% of men and 15.1% of women reported either feelings of attraction to the same sex or some sexual experience with the same sex. Half the men and two thirds of the women who had same sex sexual experience regarded themselves as heterosexual rather than homosexual.[2]

Canada

1988: A study of 5,514 college and university students under the age of 25 found 1% who were homosexual and 1% who were bisexual. [3]

1998: A stratified random sample of 750 males aged 18 to 27 in Calgary, Canada included questions on sexual activity and orientation. 15.3% of men "reported being homosexual to some degree" on the basis of three (often overlapping) measures of homosexuality: (1) voluntary, same-gender sexual contact from age 12 to 27: 14.0%; (2) overlapping homosexual (5.9%) and/or bisexual (6.1%) self-identification: 11.1%; and (3) exclusive (4.3%) and non-exclusive (4.9%) same-gender sexual relationships in past 6 months: 9.2%.[4]

2003: A survey of 135,000 Canadians found that 1.0% of the respondents identified themselves as homosexual and 0.7% identified themselves as bisexual. About 1.3% of men considered themselves homosexual, about twice the proportion of 0.7% among women. However, 0.9% of women reported being bisexual, slightly higher than the proportion of 0.6% among men. 2.0 % of those in the 18-35 age bracket considered themselves to be either homosexual or bisexual, but the number decreased to 1.9 among 35-44 year olds, and further still to 1.2% in the population aged 45-59. Quebec and British Columbia had higher percentages than the national average at 2.3% and 1.9%, respectively.[5]

Denmark

1992: A random survey found that 2.7% of the 1,373 men who responded to their questionnaire had homosexual experience (intercourse).[6]

France

1992: A study of 20,055 people found that 4.1% of the men and 2.6% of the women had at least one occurrence of intercourse with person of the same sex during their lifetime. [7]

Norway

1988: In a random survey of 6,300 Norwegians, 3.5% of the men and 3% of the women reported that they had had a homosexual experience sometime in their life. [8]

United Kingdom

1992: A study of 8,337 British men found that 6.1% had had "any homosexual experience" and 3.6% had "1+ homosexual partner ever." [9]

United States

1990-1992: The American National Health Interview Survey does household interviews of the civilian non-institutionalized population. The results of three of these surveys, done in 1990-1991 and based on over 9,000 responses each time, found between 2-3% of the people responding said yes to a set of statements which included "You are a man who has had sex with another man at some time since 1977, even one time." [10]

1992: The National Health and Social Life Survey asked 3,432 respondents whether they had any homosexual experience. The findings were 1.3% for women within the past year, and 4.1% since 18 years; for men, 2.7% within the past year, and 4.9% since 18 years;[11]

1993: The Alan Guttmacher Institute found of sexually active men aged 20–39 found that 2.3% had experienced same-sex sexual activity in the last ten years, and 1.1% reported exclusive homosexual contact during that time.[12]

1998: A random survey of 1672 males (number used for analysis) aged 15 to 19. Subjects were asked a number of questions, including questions relating to same-sex activity. This was done using two methods — a pencil and paper method, and via computer, supplemented by a verbal rendition of the questionnaire heard through headphones — which obtained vastly different results. There was a 400% increase in males reporting homosexual activity when the computer-audio system was used: from a 1.5% to 5.5% positive response rate; the homosexual behavior with the greatest reporting difference (800%, adjusted) was to the question "Ever had receptive anal sex with another male": 0.1% to 0.8%.[13]

2003: Smith's 2003 analysis of National Opinion Research Center data[14] states that 4.9% of sexually active American males had had a male sexual partner since age 18, but that "since age 18 less than 1% are [exclusively] gay and 4+% bisexual". In the top twelve urban areas however, the rates are double the national average. Smith adds that "It is generally believed that including adolescent behavior would further increase these rates."The NORC data has been criticised because the original design sampling techniques were not followed, and depended upon direct self report regarding masturbation and same sex behaviors. (For example, the original data in the early 1990s reported that approximately 40% of adult males had never masturbated--a finding inconsistent with some other studies.)

Thanks for the numbers Ben. However, they don't really account for the slant homophobia has on the results.

It may not be 10%, but boy-howdy it ain't 3% either.

Ok, first off... why do you have to out a video game character?
Second... how do you know that some of our current game heroes aren't gay or on the down-low?

Sheesh, leave it be. Personally I think the gay agenda think has gone overboard.
Next...

Scott, just because you're gay and you wish Leon to be gay doesn't make him gay. As many others have pointed out Leon makes it clear that he still has feelings for Ada, and he even flirts with Hunnigan.

"I've fantasized for years about the making of a truly great game, with a protagonist who just happens to be gay."

This makes it clear that you are bothered by the lack of homosexuals in video games. You are the type that demands to see at least one homesexual in every TV show. People like you make me sick, not because you're homosexual, but because you try to force your viewpoint on everyone else.

@Derbeste

How is "unusually different" or "strange or odd from a conventional viewpoint" semantically different from "not normal?"

And thanks for stereotyping me, too. Just because I don't agree with the idea that homosexuality is normal or should be socially acceptable or that gays should be allowed to marry (other gays), doesn't mean that I wear tank-tops or that I beat my wife.

And are you actually trying to conclude you post by calling me gay, and trying to make it be an insult?

Christ, this went downhill fast.

Can't we all just love each other and learn to get along? No need for homo or heterophobia when we're talking about a video game.

I'll say it again - given that he was written by Japanese writers and not given any of the traits that are stereotypically gay to said Japanese writers, I'm going to conclude that he's not gay.

Though after seeing some of the homophobia in the thread, I almost wish he was just to hear the ignorant whining.

What an excellent piece. I think for gay characters to be accepted, they need to find their way into big franchises. A place in an installment in a popular franchise would mean that a game wouldn't be judged on the fact that there's a gay main character. I think Final Fantasy is probably a series that would work with a gay character better than most others, and the FF fanbase are probably the least likely to react negatively to this, given how Final Fantasy regularly emphaise's grandiose love stories and with the iconic death of Aeris's, made male gamers cry. Yes, Final Fantasy would be a suitable place for a main gay character.

Metal Gear Solid has already touched on the issue and Rockstar and Lionhead have broken the "heterosexual-only" unwritten rule of games with choices. It's only a matter of time before the taboo is broken entirely. Besides, it's not good for the industry to be so caught up in trying to block homosexuality. IN an era where mainstream television, movies, music and books are all completely comfortable with homosexuality, it's a bad reflection on videoame culture and cannot be helping with the shaking off of the juvenile image, us gamers so truly detest.

Leto,

Why must discussions like this always degenerate into stupid homophoes inflicting their silly moral stance on us? You are forcing your, quite frankly, hideous opinion on us, yet you chastise 'Scott' for saying that he would like to see more game characters that he can personally associate with. And you acuse this 'Scott' character of sterotyping you and getting all dramatic about it, yet you have no problem assuming things about his television viewing habits based entirely off od his sexuality. Grow up already.

I actually created an entinre game document about a game I thought up. It featured a world where man-kind was coming to it's descruction and the hero of the game takes on the responsibility of match-making people to continue the human race. My explination as to why he didn't just go find someone for himself was that he was gay, and figured for the time being his relationships could be put on hold for the betterment of man kind (even though there's nothing wrong with homosexuality, it wouldn't contribute to the world population, so this is why he consideres his love less importaint in these times).

I think it was a decent way to put in a homosexual protagnist as a main character, but after looking over the idea I realised it really didn't effect the story in a very significant manner. I understand there's definatly a dillema when it comes to designing a gay character who's suppose to be the main character. It's hard to bring together the game's story with a character's sexuality until you start giving that character relationships.

However, there's nothing to say that, let's say, a puzzle game couldn't have a gay character as the main character. Being that the story doesn't play as big a role, one could easily have a scene where the protagonist hits on one of his opponents (maybe to get'em a little jumpy before the match or vice-versa) or even be on a mission to rescue the man of his dreams.

I'm going to be rethinking some ideas I've had, as I've always wanted to experiment with player reactions to gay characters. Especially when the player doesn't know the main character is gay until they've developed some sort of connection with them. It's a complete blind-sidder =P

@captain obvious 1 more time before I reinstate my anti-troll feeding policy:

1) I answered how "normal" and "different" are not equal in my post. You either cannot comprehend or choose to remain ignorant. (I'm guessing a little bit of both)

2) I didn't stereotype you. I'm comparing you. BIG difference. You didn't merely "disagree" with homosexuality. You attacked them. In my mind, that's puts you right up there with wifebeating white trash that have little more than their opinion and their fists to back up their careless, inflametory statements that somehow make them "closer to God".

3) I never intended my implications toward your possible sexual orientation as an insult. I was merely referencing an old adage: "Me thinks thou dost protest too much".

4) Contrary to your venom spewing rhetoric, gays do NOT label anyone that disagrees with their lifestyle as "homophobic".

Case in point: My family does not agree with my lifestyle but we both love and respect each other. They would NEVER attack me with the moral disregard that you have in this thread. When disagreements cross the lines to attacking someone (even if only verbaly), that makes you ignorant, phobic, and a hypocrite (so much for turning the other cheek).

And now....much like a channel I don't like, I am switching to something else.

Good day.

Well, I think this article as at least partial tounge-in-cheek so I won't take it too seriously but it seems stupid to debate the sexuality of a character who doesn't anywhere in his storylines have sex or a serious relationship in the first place. But regarding Leon the only relationships or love interests even hinted at have been female so there's absolutely no basis to say he's gay. Chris is a better candidate from the simple fact they've never mentioned any relationships of his. He's a blank slate as opposed to Leon who has at least a couple checks in the straight column.

Allow me to coin the term 'queero'. Sorry, but 'queer hero' just doesn't roll off the tongue.

Erm...please disregard that tongue comment.

I think the Samus analogy is the proper one for this case. The players need to go through the game with a guy who extols all the virtues of a hero and impresses the hell out of the players (someone like Master Chief or Dante, for example), and then, at the very end, we find that the person he's rescuing or questing for is also male, and the two of them walk off into the sunset holding hands.

There doesn't need to be graphic depiction of their orientation for the implication to be made, and it doesn't have to be a major plot point. It SHOULD be something that we find out after getting to know and like the character, so we can all realize that it doesn't matter who he's walking away with, and that being gay shouldn't change how we feel about him.

But . . . To combat the obviously uncomfortable and darn-near homophobic in this thread, I have to say this: If this were an article about a LESBIAN hero, you'd probably all be lining up to buy the game.

And this makes you a hypocrite.

It doesn't matter. There's no need to make a 'gay hero'. About as much reason to make a 'straight hero'. I can't say I've ever liked a game more because the main character was more of a man.

And if homosexual heros are a 'threat' to heterosexuality in video games, then they are making it gay for gay's sake.

And lastly, let's nip this 'gaymer' terminology in the bud. Who cares if you're gay? Or straight? If you play games, you're a gamer. I don't designate myself as a straight gamer.

Should I call myself a 'straimer'?

Gay Propaganda!!! The cowboys had to deal it with now it is us gamers.

WHo cares if their gay or not? I couldn't care less who the hero in my game likes, as long as he/she can kill zombies with huge guns.

#9
"Eh - gay characters are a niche market - there aren't enough gays for them to have mainstream appeal. (Something like 3-4% of the population is gay, and by making a homosexual main character you're alienating a much larger part of the population than you're gaining with a main character.)"

That's surprisingly sexist. That also excludes women, since women aren't the majority of the gaming population, and they usually don't love women as much as men. If they make the lead character a female, that would exclude males, but who cares? I'm tired of EVERY lead character being a "Mary Sue", a proxy for myself.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue) I play games for a storyline, I could care less if the main character is just like me, or even remotely similar to me at all. It gets boring when in EVERY single game you play as "Young hot male lead who is tasked with saving the world and being more special than everyone else."

Two of the better Xbox games played with some of the gender barriers. In KotOR you COULD play as a female, and I'd say the real centerpiece of the story was Bastila, not you. In Fable, you could play as gay or straight, and yet I didn't hear that game being banned, or alienated. Fable just made it a part of life, nothing big, same as it is with gay people.

Why should we sacrifice plot just so one or two emotionally-insecure gamers feel better about themselves? Some of the best stories(both books and games) out there are actually about people other than the narrator. And by sacrificing plot, I mean for example, death. If you're playing as the character, the odds are pretty high that the character will survive the story intact. That gets boring, that feeling of invincibility as you play through the game. It means you're not really worried about the character's fate through the story.

I got off on a bit of a rant there, but the point is, who cares if the character is gay or straight, similar to us or different? If they can fit it into the plot without it sounding like "omg look we have a gay character", then go for it.

I'm suprised nobody mentioned Squall Leonhart. That coat he wears is more than enough to convince anyone he's gay

Huh, that was a really interesting read. That's a nice viewpoint on things there.

Um, since when did long blonde hair make one gay? Leon has the hots for Ada Wong, he's not gay, and it's ridiculous to state he is. You guys *do* know what gay means, right?

He wasn't going to bang Ashley because she's the president's daughter! How many secret service agents do you see banging the bush twins? Come on, guys.

Finally, cultural norms are different for the US and Japan. RE is a Japanese thing. In the US the cultural norm for males is to be stupid, horny, drunk, violent, and like sports. In an asian country that is not the case, nor was it in the US in previous years. Just because you see some stereotypical bullshit on TV doesn't mean anyone not fitting it is "gay".

Sad.

I just wanted to say that I wear a bomber jacket and blue jeans all the time, and I had hair longer than 10" half a year ago. I'm not gay. Those things don't have anything to do with sexuality at all.

there is one very important problem with trying to create a "queer hero"

The idea is to create a character that is a hero regardless of his sexuality. Cool neither because nor in spite of his orientation.

The problem: The only way to do this effectively is not not have it as an issue at all. As a result, no one would ever REALLY know if he's actually homosexual or not. Thus the effect is totally lost except for those people deliberately looking for it.

I'm not against it, I just don't see it working well.

"yet you have no problem assuming things about his television viewing habits based entirely off od his sexuality. Grow up already."

Wrong, I based it on his fantasy of creating a great game in which the protagonist is homosexual. You might want to take some reading comprehension classes.

"That's surprisingly sexist. That also excludes women, since women aren't the majority of the gaming population, and they usually don't love women as much as men. If they make the lead character a female, that would exclude males, but who cares?"

On excluding males by having the lead character be female: Tomb Raider, Syberia, Perfect Dark, Fear Effect, Parasite Eve, Resident Evil, Metroid, Dinocrisis, Beyond Good and Evil, American McGee's Alice, and Bloodrayne. That's the short list of the most notable games - the long list can be found at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_and_video_games_with_female_protagonists), because Wikipedia deems it necessary to have a list for everything. Clearly these games didn't exclude male players. You could argue that in most cases the women in these games are exaggerated and sexualized versions of real woman, something that drives women gamers away, but that's a different discussion.

Face facts: 90% of the gaming market is male. A very small (i.e. non-profitable) subset of them are homosexual. If you cater to gay males with a homosexual main character, then you're likely to alienate a huge percent of potential characters. Is that heterosexism? Yes. Is it reality? Yes. Time and again popular culture has shown that straight men can't readily identify with gay men - we're not familiar with the feeling of attraction to other men, and having other men be attracted to us is uncomfortable (in the same way that being the object of one-sided affection is always uncomfortable).

So no, we're not going to see an explicitly homosexual male lead anytime soon - the cost of developing a game is too high for a company to do that (you can already find low-budget indie games with gay leads though). I don't think that's progressive thinking, but I do think it's good business.

Besides that, most games either have no main characters (puzzle games, strategy games, simulation games) or no stated sexual preference (the vast majority of shooters, fighters, platformers, and sports games). The only real area that sexuality comes into it is in the RPG genre - and even then there are lots of games that give you the option to be homosexual (or at least not be straight): KOTOR, Jade Empire, Morrowind, Oblivion, Fable, to name a few.

Part of the problem I have with this article is that it basically says "Hey, even though the issue of sexual preference isn't really addressed in this game, I think Leon is gay." A much better article would be, "Hey, I like that they don't address the issue of sexual preference, because it's far less restrictive on the player's immersion if they're gay."

If you chose 100 games randomly.
how many would have a gay protagist. mostly likly zero.
But even if only 1% of the population is homosexual it should atleast one game... Just saying
I don't really care who i playing as long am i having fun.

Invader Alex, only 1% of the population is zoophiliac, should there be at least one game in which the protagonist is a zoophiliac?

"Queer heros" or "Queeros", if you will, will likely never become even a small niche in gaming culture. Typicall heros fufill some sort of fantsy for the the gamer. A "Queero" would simply alienate the majority of gamers as it would not fufill that fantasy need.

Doesn't she realize that the "effeminate" heroes are simply from Japanese games, where a different standard for masculinity exists?

#6 - Beyond Good and Evil.

While the game didn't see much publicity it was still an excellent game with a heroine. I agree though that we do need another "Samus Aran" meaning a heroine that is in a well advertised and polished game that also spawns sequals.

I beleive he didn't go into overtime with Ashley, because of her voice. Can you imagine her in the sack? she'd be a screamer to say the least.

I didn't read most of the comments, but after you watch the credits I'm fairly certain he flirts with the woman who is his contact. He doesn't flirt with the president's daughter because she is a minor... and the president's daughter!!!!

Have you ever walked around in tokyo.. the current fashion for boys/men is "wearing girly clothes". (or at least that is how one japanese guy described it to me recently. )

Hang out in shinjuku (not a gay area btw.) and almost every young man will be dressed and have hair done in a style quite similar to leon kennedy in RE4. (and also quite similar to the girl on their arm!)

As someone else pointed out, the stereotypes for gay men in japan are very different.

(but hasn't there always been a strong homosexual undercurrent to most western heroes too?)

Bah.... I find Leon neither effeminate or homosexual. He didn't do "overtime" with Ashley because he knew how taboo that would be. It's actually kind of ridiculous that these days any many that turns down sex is considered homosexual. And other people have already brought up the whole Ingrid deal.

I'm mostly just bothered that it's even suggested that he's effeminate. Sure, he's good looking, but he kicks butt and is tough, and his type of character is welcome when so many other companies are giving us Cloud, Vaan, and other dainty mascara-wearing men.

Interesting article. RE4 did have sort of homoerotic vibes. And I just KNEW that this article would get tons of "OH NOES HES NOT GAY!!!" comments ;) Chill boys