When it comes to gender identity and sexual identity in video games, straight males get a large portion of representation. This can leave players who don’t identify as straight and/or male feel left out or unwelcome. In their article, “‘theyre all trans sharon’: Authoring Gender in Video Game Fan Fiction”, Brianna Dym, Jed Brubaker, and Casey Fiesler explain that many fan communities will write fanfiction about a game series, character, or scene that better represents them, such as writing that a certain character is gay, saying that “[u]nderrepresented fans of media, such as women, members of the LGBTQIA community, and other marginalized people use fan fiction (new narratives constructed from elements of existing media) to critique and recraft their representation in media such as television, movies, books and video games”. These groups of people feel that they don’t receive the necessary representation, so they make their own.

Similarly, Merrit Kopas talks about their experiences while playing Gone Home in their article “On Gone Home“, and how “this is a game that feels like it was made for [them]” . They also mention that they bring in a lot of their own experiences into the discussion, which can be related to writing fanfiction. The game’s premise on a secret lesbian relationship that has a good ending, not one that ends in death or trauma, really speaks to Kopas and gives them “hope”, in a way, when it comes to storytelling and representation in games. Games like Gone Home can hopefully inspire other developers to add more positive representation in video games.