Game Writers Talk About Gay Protagonists

The writer of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon believes we won't see an openly homosexual protagonist in a triple-A game for some time out of fears that sales would be hurt.

Speaking to the Ubisoft blog, openly gay Ubisoft Montreal lead writer Lucien Soulban shared his view that we're unlikely to see any gay leads for a while and, if they do turn up, it'll have to be surprise from a powerhouse like Rockstar.

"So when are we going to see that gay protagonist in a AAA game? Not for a while, I suspect, because of fears that it'll impact sales," he said. "So either we'll see a bait-and-switch like the original Metroid with Samus Aran where we'll find out damn near after the fact (PS: And Dumbledore was gay), or it'll come out of left field with Rockstar, Valve, Naughty Dog or Telltale, perhaps. But when it happens, I hope it's a serious take on it and not played up for jokes."

It's not too much to demand a bit of tolerance and compassion.

Soulban did acknowledge however that while we may not see a game centered on a gay character for a while, he believes that change is happening little by little.

"We'll definitely see more of them, and I think it's happening quietly," he said. "Look at the choices offered in Mass Effect 2 & 3, or Fable 3, or Dragon Age II or Skyrim, the gay characters in Borderlands 2 who mention it without much fanfare, etc.

"Video games have stopped announcing gay characters. They're introducing them without much fanfare in an effort to say, 'Yeah, it's there and pretty normal.' Call it: 'We're here, we're queer, and we're busy working.'"

Last week, BioWare's Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider also penned a blog post about being openly homosexual and how that impacts his work.

"There are people out there for whom the presence of any gay content will automatically render it 'the gay game'," he said. "The presence of two bisexual male followers in Dragon Age II, only one of whom made advances on a male player without first being flirted with, means 'every man in Thedas is gay and wants my man-meat'. These are the same people for whom the mere existence of a gay character, or a plot that deals with gay subject matter, really anything that forces them to acknowledge that homosexuality so much as exists, is going to be a personal insult.

"I remind myself that it's not that much to include, and really it's very little in comparison to the entire rest of the game and thus, considering what it means to those fans who receive that validation almost nowhere else, it's not too much to demand a bit of tolerance and compassion from the portion of the audience for whom this content is not even intended."

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.


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