Mohammad Farraj

DMS 448

Blog Post

Growing up, the idea of sexual orientation within video games was not brought to light until game developers was faced with criticism from the gaming community. The lack of representation in sexualities that aren’t heterosexual related made true gamers within the LBTGQ demand more from the same gaming companies that they invest in. Reflecting to previous classroom discussions, in which the break down of harassment and cyber bullying of LBTGQ streamers and gamers. Writers such as Brianna Dym, Jed Brubaker, Casey Fiesler and Merritt Kopas, explore this issue in their writings. Therefore, with the support of the gaming community, game developers will invest the time to accurately represent both the identity of a member of the LBTGQ community and life.

             Game developers in the game “Gone Home” have received feedback from the gaming community and managed to incorporate the internal struggles of an individual who is learning more about her own sexual preference. In the game itself, the player experiences an ominous and uneasy feeling while experiencing the game. In terms of the game mechanics, players use the mouse to look around and interact with their environment. On the same note of environment, based off of previous let’s play from classroom discussions, the game sets the ominous tone/feeling  like previously stated. Luckily, Kopas breaks this down as well as “expectations” of a character who is depicted as a member of the LBTGQ community. Kopas states how as a player, “you’re kind of on edge because the lights are flickering and every once in a while the house creaks in the storm and you don’t know what’s going to come first, the beginnings of a lesbian tragedy suicide sequence or something jumping out at you from a dark corner” (pg. 146 Kopas). What this shows is that, expectations of a jump scare, acts of violence or fear inflicting images are in place due to the score and overall setting of the game. When in actuality (based off of the in class gameplay), the player just searches a big empty house for clues and reveals the thoughts in her head. This is key to recognize because it breaks the social expectation of a tragic death of a member of a LBTGQ community who is in her teenage/adolescent years. Therefore, thanks to members of the gaming community such as Kopas, game developers can accurately represent members within the LBTGQ community in video games.

            Members of the gaming community voice their concern of characters within games not being represented equally. In the text, “They’re all trans Sharon: Authoring Gender in Video Game Fan Fiction” by Brianna Dym, Jed Brubaker, Casey Fiesler, states how the terminology of “queer” doesn’t equally benefit or even represent individual identities that are queer. In the text, the writers state, “does not benefit all queer identities equally… in society, the use of “queer” to refer to non-straight sexualities and non-cisgender identities…to clarify, we need to distinguish between the two as “queer sexualities” and “non-cisgender identities” — the former represented more often within games” (they’re all trans sharon: Authoring Gender in Video Game Fan Fiction, 2018). What this shows is that, in video games, the identities of queer character are shown to be treated and portrayed unequally. To prove this even further, this quote proves that society needs to understand the individuals who believe their physical bodies doesn’t match their sexuality and be represented more accurately. None the less, members of the gaming community have voiced their concerns and provided feedback for gaming companies to work off of.

                                                            Work Cited Page

Dym, Brianna, et al. “Game Studies.” Game Studies – “Theyre All Trans Sharon”: Authoring Gender in Video Game Fan Fiction, gamestudies.org/1803/articles/brubaker_dym_fiesler.

Kopas, Merritt. On Gone Home.