Teddy Pozo’s article Queer Games After Empathy talks about how the rise of VR as an ultra-realistic medium between player and the in game world, and how it has become mistaken for an ‘empathy machine’, the mistaken idea that experiencing something in VR will lead to a genuine, real life understanding. Although VR does heighten the immersion and reality of video games, it is not a genuine stand in for any human experience. Although these VR experiences and even narrative-driven ‘walking simulators’ may have a goal of putting an individual into an immersive narrative, often with a queer theme, it is not a substitute for real human encounters, but they can be sympathetic in nature, and are representative of a want for change and representation in the titles being released.

My Roommate Sonic is part of the Sonic Dreams Collection, a series of games parodying the Sonic series made by indie developer Arcane Kids, portraying itself as long lost prototypes originally meant for the Sega Dreamcast. In this portion you interact with the world around you via VR as Sonic’s roommate. You are given a stationary first person view of the environment, as well as a genderless body. Throughout the game you receive text messages from Dr. Robotnik, encouraging you to ‘seize the day’ and confess your attraction to Sonic, performing actions such as attempting to tickle him before having your hand slapped away, and then gazing into Sonic’s eyes before you are sucked into a void, becoming Sonic yourself. Obviously it would be questionable to think that the statement of this game is to give you the experience of being attracted to video game character Sonic the hedgehog. Even in the game itself, this attraction is depicted with exceedingly surreal humor, such as your arm rag dolling when Sonic slaps it away. My Roommate Sonic is very clearly a parody, not meant to give an individual the experience of having a queer attraction to Sonic the hedgehog. It is a game that plays on the supposedly empathetic nature of VR experiences to create a surrealist comedy of a beloved fictional character. Even though the set up for My Roommate Sonic is clearly absurd, it does play off of many of the aspects of VR, indie, and walking simulator games that are geared towards making you feel empathy, using its limited interactivity to guide you through a set narrative whilst soft, ambient music plays in the background, lit dimly with the TV.

Even though the softness used in My Roommate Sonic can be off-putting due to the surrealist nature of the game, it does indicate that there is a consistent framework for indie games with queer narratives. My Roommate Sonic is significant in that an indie developer has used a big name, trademarked character in a parody that uses the framework and aesthetics of a genre that is most commonly used for queer narrative. Most big name developers don’t use the conventions of these narrative based indie games, especially not with the idea of radical softness. So while representation in the games industry as a whole leaves much to be desired, the fact that a parody indie game made use of both a franchised character along with the aesthetics of queer indie games not used in big name titles indicates a desire for more queer narratives in gaming.

Works Cited

Pozo, Teddy. “Queer Games After Empathy: Feminism and Haptic Game Design Aesthetics from Consent to Cuteness to the Radically Soft.” Game Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, Dec. 2018.

My Roommate Sonic, Sonic Dreams Collection, Arcane Kids, 2015