Diversity and Gaming.

I feel like this is a subject that I'm constantly addressing and although some people may be fed up with it, it still needs to be addressed as many times as possible. I didn't a post about sexism and gaming back in Feb and even back then I was getting sick of people's attitude towards women in the gaming world and the way I feel still hasn't changed, since then E3 have announced some kick-ass games a lot of which I will happily be getting and playing, a few of which have a strong female lead which is welcomed in the gaming world for me. Slowly people are coming around to the idea that women can be great lead roles and protagonists but when it comes to a game announcing that it's pushing things further and becoming more diverse by carrying on a storyline of Ellie being gay from The Last of Us DLC in The Last of Us 2, there was a lot of mixed emotions, some that weren't needed at all and show how homophobic the gaming world can be.

Why in this day and age are people still being homophobic? Its a question that baffles me a lot because love is love and people are free to love who they want (no I'm not on about child molesters and sex offenders and realise how people try to make out that predators are just as bad as someone who chooses to be gay). I've only played the last of us for a little while but I've watched streams of the main game and DLC and we have all known for a while now that one of the protagonists (Ellie) is gay.  Some people have been passing their homophobic attitude off as just wanting to play through the action but the story that comes along with the action is a huge part of the game, I love video games that follow a story I find it more enjoyable and a good story keeps me coming back. In the DLC for the first last of us, we see Ellie kiss a character called Riley.

Ellie and Riley: The Last of Us

Is it really such a bad thing that this girl trying her best survive in a terrifying world doesn't like men? Druckmann said in an interview that when he was writing the story he was writing it with the idea that Ellie was gay, so he specifically wanted a female protagonist who is also gay and the actresses who play Ellie and Riley were fine with this, that DLC was 4 years ago now yet people are still up in arms over Ellie being gay, so ignorant and uncalled for in my eyes.

Representing people from all sorts of backgrounds and how they identify is very important, wouldn't we all love to see a cool video game character who represents what we are? I know I would! I don't believe that someone's sexuality in a game nor in real life should be an issue or stop people enjoying things, being wound up over these kinds of things is just hateful and a waste of time, it's not hurting you and it's helping those who have hidden their sexuality for so long open up about who they are. Not enough people are being represented, race is also a huge issue when it comes to games especially when it comes to women who are from different backgrounds, I personally have seen more men from different backgrounds represented in games more than I do women, I'm sure the industry already are aware of these issue's but progress is slow and men (white) very much dominate the gaming world.

Introducing a LBGQT+ character is nothing new in the gaming world and a quick search on google you will find a wiki page full of characters that represent the LBGQT+ community one of which goes all the way back to 1986 called Moonmist about a female artist who is jealous that her girlfriend married a man, from what I gather this video game is one of the first video game to feature a gay character and that was other 30 years ago now. Some video games don't make it obvious what  a character's sexuality is or people just don't clock on that a character likes more than one gender, take Fallout 4 for example, when playing as the Sole surviour you can potentially have relations with your campaigns no matter the gender and I've never seen anyone complain about this, so why the uproar over Ellie? 

One of my favourite characters from Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood was Leonardo Di Vinci and in the game, he is portrayed as gay based on historical evidence and in the DLC The Da Vinci Disappearance Ezio isn't phased at all by this, he is very accepting and tells Leonardo that he is in so many words. I think it was very important that AC added this in the game as it made me more curious about it as when I learnt about him in school this never came up. Did you know that when Leonardo was 24 he and a few others were arrested and charged with Sodomy but because there were no witnesses the charges were dropped, I guess he was being watched as people were aware that he liked men. It's a part of history that shows how people who were gay were treated yet these days homophobic people still exist and still aim to make people's lives difficult and moan about a game that they don't have to play.

Max and Chloe: Life is Strange

So what was the point of this post? Diversity is very welcomed in the gaming world and we can't back down to people who are ableist, racist, homophobic, ignorant etc because if we did then there would be no change in this world. Representation and diversity in all aspects of life is what is important, if every game was just about CIS males imagine how boring that would be, I know I wouldn't feel like playing a game solely based on that so give us more variety and if people don't like it well who gives a fuck, it's not up to them.