Sexual Orientation in Fantasy Video Games

Okay, so hardly anybody uses joysticks anymore, but the symbolism still stands (S)

I enjoy video games. Not only are they fun, but as a medium, they offer unique opportunities for storytellers. The interactive element of video games allows them to tell stories in ways that would be impossible in other art forms, like film or literature. Specifically, games are different in that they actually present the audience with choice. Not just choice, but different degrees of choice. Rather than showing us characters doing things, they put is in the same situation and allow us (or don't allow us) to make certain decisions. Creators are in charge of placing limitations on what we, the player, can and cannot do, whether it's for logistical purposes, to alter the difficulty, or for artistic reasons. It's another dimension that enhances the work. Using the mechanics of the game world, game designers can make a player free and powerful, or trapped and powerless. It's one thing to describe or show a character feeling a certain way, but it's different when that character is you (or at least, controlled by you). So when games introduce options for sexual and romantic relationships with other characters, I'm interested to see how one's sex and sexual orientation affect those options.

I'm a fan of fantasy role-playing video games. This type of game generally allows you to choose the race, class, sex, and even appearance of your in-game character. Essentially, while there's generally one end goal to the game, how you get there is decided by you (and what 'role' you want to play). Two of my recent favourites are Dragon Age: Origins and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. And hey, wouldn't you know it - both games allow your character to be gay! Awesome.

Dragon Age: Origins is a fairly standard role-playing video game. Like most Western* role-playing games, it allows you to pick the race, sex, and class of your character. The games story actually begins differently depending on which class and race you choose (hence the name "Origins"). The game is very much about the story. At many points the player is given options on what to do next, but these are quite often two-pronged choices that essentially split the story into two possible directions. Sort of like a choose-your-own-adventure book, or a movie with alternate endings (obviously it's not quite that simplistic, as the game designers had to be able to synthesise all these options and stories in a way that seems natural). There is a certain degree of freedom there, including the option to do side quests unrelated to the main story, but the main effort seems to have been put into the core story. The game is less about offering freedom of choice, and more about the effects those choices have on the story and the characters around you.

Part of this choice involves the option to romance one or more characters - Morrigan, a straight female; Alistair, a straight male; Leliana, a bisexual female; and Zevran, a bisexual male. Each of them is a fully fleshed out character with their own backstory and personality, including their different ideas on sex and relationships. Zevran and Leliana both talk to you about their bisexuality, and actually ask you if you have a problem with it. Successfully starting a relationship with any of the characters requires you to pay attention to them - listening, finding out what they like, saying the right things, and of course, giving them gifts. Oh, and in the case of Alistair and Morrigan, being the right sex.

I think it was his bedroom eyes that really drew me to him (S)

I was actually kind of disappointed to find this out. Of the characters in the game, Alistair was the one I was most interested in romancing. But since I was playing as a male, I couldn't have him. It may sound odd to say that about a fictional character, but playing the game really immerses you in the story and makes you connect with the characters. I mean, it's not like I was totally heartbroken - I wouldn't say I was "in love" with Alistair - but on some level, it did kind of hurt that my sister was able to romance him and I wasn't. Having a crush on a straight person is something I (and I'm sure many of you reading) have experienced in real life, so not being able to be with Alistair reminded me of those very real experiences.

I wouldn't fault the game designers for making Alistair unavailable to me. It's not unreasonable that they would make a straight character, and I was actually quite pleased that there was a bisexual male character (though I might take points off for the bisexual guy being promiscuous and an ex-prostitute). Having characters with different orientations is quite simply realistic.

In contrast to the story-driven gameplay of Dragon Age, the Elder Scrolls series is widely noted for the amount of freedom it gives to the player. The games are focused not so much on telling a story, but on creating a world for you to explore. At the centre of each game there is, of course, a world-ending catastrophe you have to prevent, but I'd say more than 90% of my time spent playing Elder Scrolls games is not spent on the core story. Freedom is key: rather than just crafting one plot, like most novels or films, the game puts you in a world filled with many stories, and lets you do what you want with it. There are living cities, filled with characters who are irrelevant to the main quest. You're free to be as helpful and heroic to them as you like. Or you can choose to lead a life of crime and debauchery. Heck, you can even opt to spend your days in Skyrim labouring as a miner or a blacksmith, if that's the kind of life you fancy. It's a fantasy game that allows players freedom to pursue whatever goals they want. So I wasn't all that surprised to find that Skyrim takes a similar approach to romance options.

Which do you think would freak out my parents more - that I'm marrying a man, or that he's a giant lizard? (S)

In contrast to Origins' 4 main romance options, Skyrim offers a whopping 62. They are, understandably, less personalised and more generic than Origins'. But every one of them is open to players of both sexes. Apparently, everyone in the province of Skyrim is bi. Is it a little unrealistic that every available person you meet is attracted to both sexes? Perhaps. But then again, being a bipedal humanoid cat that shoots lightning out of his hands isn't too realistic either. Opening up all marriage options to everybody certainly doesn't detract anything for straight players, it just gives us gay players an equal shot at marriage. And not only is every marryable character bisexual, but nobody makes anything of it. The fact that I married a man hasn't been commented on by any of the other characters. (Much to my relief, not one person showed up to protest my gay, interracial, reptilian-feline wedding.) In fact, it almost seems like laziness on the game designers' part. I can just imagine the conversation: "Okay, so we don't want to make every character straight, the gay players will hate that. So how many should be gay, and which ones?" "Ah, who cares, just make 'em all bi. Then everyone will be happy - plus it's easier to code." "Problem solved!" I'm certainly not complaining. I think it fits with the spirit of the Elder Scrolls series.

So, since I've played both games, what are my thoughts on how they approach sexual orientation? Which do I think handled it better? Honestly, I don't think either of them was wrong. They took different approaches, both of which are valid. On the one hand, writing characters who won't be interested in me because I'm male is definitely representative of reality. Seeing my sister romance Alistair, when I couldn't, reminded me of feelings I've felt in real life situations. It reminded me of those emotions in a way that no book or film ever has. This may not have been intentional on the designers' part, but it arose because they created characters with real human traits. I suppose one thing I might like to see is a game with more gay and lesbian characters - perhaps this would help straight players think about and maybe even understand those feelings.

On the other hand, I enjoy the feeling of freedom afforded to me by fantasy games like Skyrim. It may seem a little idealistic that my sex is irrelevant to pretty much everyone in that world, but it's a fictional world that plays by its own rules, like Middle Earth or Narnia. I mean, we're talking about a land where dragons roam the countryside and I can go to university to learn magic spells - why can't it also be a world where everyone is bisexual?

This actually reminds me of a film, Big Eden. It's a romantic comedy about a gay man from a small town in Montana (the eponymous "Big Eden"), but there is, surprisingly, not a bit of homophobia in it. All the townspeople are fine with his sexuality. This allows the film to focus less on the fact that he's gay, and more on his relationships with the other characters. People have criticised Big Eden for being 'unrealistic', but I don't think that's really the point. Homophobia exists, sure, but do we really have to see it in every single movie or TV show with a gay character? Big Eden never claims to be a documentary. Sometimes it's just nice to think about that kind of world. After all, romantic comedies are usually pretty idealised anyway. I think we should treat it like we do Harry Potter, or The Hobbit, or any other fantasy work. We shouldn't be concerned about how realistic Hogwarts or Middle Earth are as settings. Instead, we should be more concerned about the characters and the stories that take place within those settings. Not to say we should eliminate realistic films and games in favour of fantastic ones, but the existence of one doesn't devalue the existence of the other. I think it's good to have works that portray realistic events and emotions, as well as ones that are fantastical and idealistic.

The tendency of video games to be used as a somewhat escapist form of entertainment makes it understandable that their creators would want to allow a certain level of freedom when it comes to things like romance options. Their nature as an interactive medium also gives creators the ability to address issues like sexual orientation in a slightly more complex way than other more traditional art forms. I appreciated both Origins and Skyrim for the inclusion of homosexual options, as well as on their own merits as games. Though, as I did mention, I might like to see more game developers taking full advantage of the medium and actually using gameplay to directly address gay issues. I'll leave you with Vorpal Bunny, a blogger for GayGamer, and some of his interesting ideas on such a possibility.

*"Western" here refers to non-Japanese role-playing games; Japanese ones generally have a somewhat different style than Western ones.