So, full disclosure, I am cis, and exclusively attracted to men, since that is sure to influence my viewpoint on this.
I am of course referring to this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EveryoneIsBi
I think that this is essentially the laziest way to do gay/bi representation. Everyone’s just inexplicably bisexual. I’m sure some people are happy with that for whatever of what I am sure is long list of valid reasons. If you like games where you don’t have to worry about this, I’m not arguing that you shouldn’t. And I can’t know how bi people feel about this at all from my experiences alone, so any bi people with an opinion on this please do share so I can further develop my own perspective on this.
Like, when I want representation, I kind of want it to reflect the real gay experience. That means the tragic bits too, including that not everyone is on the table as a potential partner. And that doesn’t even mean having only one in ten or so characters being an option, I have seen VNs where there are so many gay people that it is clear that there is something in the water making everyone gay, that represent that aspect better. Something like getting the wrong signals and getting turned down by someone who can’t reciprocate your feelings towards them? It’s a tragic experience, but one that can be worth representing in media, because it’s a real experience. But I don’t know if that ever will be represented properly, queer people are already a small portion of the market, queer people looking specifically to be tragically rejected by a straight person have to be an absolute minority.
Why I say this is possibly a step backwards, is that games like Dragon Age: Origins (2009) had romance options that all had distinct sexual orientations, you had two straight and two bisexual companions you could romance. Fallout NV had no real “romance” options with companions, but did have Veronica and Arcade as distinctly lesbian/gay. And honestly, this seemed a bit more… it feels really fucking wrong to say “natural” in this context, but I will say it feels uncanny in comparison when I can put on a necklace in Skyrim and suddenly everyone I have run an errand for wants to marry me. Or that every companion in Fallout 4 will constantly forcegreet me after I max out friendship trying to get me to start their romance line.
It also just feels so much like an afterthought in comparison as far as the character writing goes. Looking at the games I mentioned, the distinctly bi and gay characters do feel like they have bi/gay energy, and that feels like it adds to their character design. I don’t feel the same representation I felt with someone like Arcade Gannon in this type of setup, where there was a character who was like me (though to be fair I didn’t know I was like him at the time I played – well, I kind of did, but I was in deep denial at the time – it’s complicated), it just seems empty – none of these characters are like me in that way.
i agree, but i have to say i looked at the tvtropes link and the top example was utena. so i like it in that instance. but that’s not actually a literal everyone example, it isn’t a video game, characters go through trauma and angst related to sexuality and gender presentation, the most obviously queer character has a crush on a character who is (or at least thinks she is) straight, and a whole bunch of other things revealing that the true problem lies with tvtropes connecting “most characters are textually bisexual” with “everyone wants to fuck the player because that’s easier than dividing it or making things specifically queer in a potentially alienating way” and saying there’s no difference between the two
I think in a form of media that has only one ending, it’s more acceptable. It’s canon in the story and harder for fans to dispute.
With games though, a cast of bi characters are situationally bisexual. You won’t see it in the story in a meaningful way. Players could play the game and never realize someone could be gay/bi/trans. It’s a frustrating thing in games like Stardew Valley where a character’s ex has a gender dependent on the player. If you romance her as a male, her ex will be male.
Having distinct things like sexuality set firmly in the plot could do a lot to help people who feel othered.
They’re only bisexual if you play the game more than once, technically. The first time they just happen to align with your single character.
I think it’s a case-by-case thing where games that want more player freedom of self expression would require more ‘everyone is bisexual’ type design while games that want to have more story and meaning encoded onto the NPCs would give the characters more rigid sexual preferences the same way they’d give them more rigid representation in other aspects.
Edit: they can also blend the two styles together if wanted as well for certain gay/straight-specific characters if needed.
Yeah but there’s a difference between writing a gay character, a bi character, and a straight character, an aroace character, and anywhere else someone might fit in that constellation. They’re all going to notice different things, react to different people in different ways, ignore some things but catch others. Something as subtle as a character mentioning “My ex, he used to like this” can give a lot of insight in to who the character is. You could ask the player what their character’s preferences are and have lines tailored to reflect that, I suppose.
I think when a game has limited dev resources, making like 4-6 romance options for each orientation might eat too much into the budget, as ideal as it may be representation wise. If there are only 5 romance options overall, I’d prefer to see how every one of them works out instead of getting railroaded into the one gay option (something I’ve seen in several VNs).
That said, TES/Fallout always has lazy programming and modded in romance options will tend to have more interesting arcs.
Bethesda are a terrible company with terrible writing. Letting Devs write quests is the dumbest shit ever, and I say this as a programmer myself.
Letting Devs write quests
Eww, is that what the problem is? Writing is a skill! Hire professionals!
TES/Fallout mods are great though. I still think about my awkward Ashlander husband sometimes and I haven’t played Morrowind in like 9 years.
I agree. As much as I want to live in the world where gender isn’t a factor, making art that resonates with people depends on it reflecting their experience. A painless, frictionless world doesn’t hold my attention. And that partiular kind of gendered pain cuts deep since it’s so confusing and so pervasive.
It reminds me of how sometimes in SF and fantasy video games, characters are trans in a purely incidental way. Like, while it’s nice to imagine that magic or technology make transition totally easy and flawless, it doesn’t have anything to do with the world we live in. You might as well just not have trans characters at that point. I think it’s the same with these “player-sexual” love interests – they obviously can’t be written as gay if they are only straight in some playthroughs (and it’s usually not like they’re realistically bisexual either).
It reminds me of how sometimes in SF and fantasy video games, characters are trans in a purely incidental
That sounds pretty cool, can you give me any examples of trans characters? I have trouble finding many trans folk in most media.
You might as well just not have trans characters at that point
idk about this, trans people are about so much than our gender(s). The trend in media of centering queerness and transness around suffering is really unnecessary when there is also so much outright joy and liberation as well.
That sounds pretty cool, can you give me any examples of trans characters? I have trouble finding many trans folk in most media.
For once, Wikipedia comes in handy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_trans_characters#Games. Out of the games I know on this list, only Tell Me Why and The Missing (which goes very heavy on the suffering) really feature convincing trans characters, in my opinion. If it’s just one sentence from an otherwise prominent character, like in Technobabylon, that doesn’t sit right with me.
idk about this, trans people are about so much than our gender(s). The trend in media of centering queerness and transness around suffering is really unnecessary when there is also so much outright joy and liberation as well.
I understand that, but my complaint is about characters whose transness is just a minor background fact – I don’t think it’s really liberation to portray trans characters as indistinguishable from cis characters save for some biographical detail. There’s no trans community or culture in such examples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_trans_characters#Games
awesome! Thank you for this link!
don’t think it’s really liberation to portray trans characters as indistinguishable from cis characters save for some biographical detail
Interesting, I don’t necessarily view representation in media as being core to liberation, could you walk me through how that’s intertwined tor you?
There’s no trans community or culture in such examples.
Love this as a critique, what ways would you present community or culture in these characters?
There’s no trans community or culture in such examples.
I’ve thought sometimes about how you would work that experience in to a radically different or utopian setting. It goes for a lot of “Other” statuses. How do you tell a story to a person who experiences racial discrimination so they can see themselves in the story, when in the story that cultural dynamic just doesn’t exist?
I guess you could do a trans-joy thing showing, say, a younger character getting a full body rebuild when they reach an age where they’re considered able to make important bodily autonomy decisions, and have another character talk about their experience doing the same thing. Show it happening, but in the context of a world where prejudice and exclusion and violence just aren’t part of people’s lived experiences. You could show what life might be like in a world where acceptance and accommodation are always present and never doubted.
