EA Admits Games Can Do Better For The LGBT Community

Yesterday in New York City, Electronic Arts held a special event focused on queer issues in gaming. And it happened mostly because the company itself was willing to face its own stumbles in presenting gay characters in its video game

[BigStef71]

Why is it Kotaku always has these articles?lol

@2pacalypsenow
I agree but you know its America there always has to be a group complaining about something lmao

[KingKelloggTheWH]

.It's cause Kotaku is a liberal mess who is just trying to push their agendas on everyone.

[knowyourstuff]

Kotaku is definitely a liberal mess pushing their agendas on everyone, when they should be talking about "Why push developers to be inclusive in their art, rather than letting them just create whatever art they want to create?"

I want a developer's questions to be "How can we write a good story? How can we perfectly mesh the gameplay with the story? What mechanisms can we use to create more immersion?"

Please don't waste everyone's time, and your precious development time with bullsh*t questions like "How can we change the story to make it inclusive towards gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transexuals, and every other confused person on the planet? Should we have the option to make all our characters gay or just a few? How will gay people feel if one gay person is a little too flamboyant... will we get hate mail and bad press?"

It's art, do whatever you want, not what politicians and the politically correct lobbyists want.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

@ knowyourstuff
I'd like to hug you.

[morganfell]

Yeah, the LGBT community would love to be included...until they get treated like everyone else and suddenly the character representing their community is the bad guy, morally corrupt, with no redeeming qualities.

They don't really want equality because equality really means the right to be bashed like everyone else. What they really want is to be painted in the manner in which they exist...but only in their head.

There is good and bad in LGBTville like everywhere else but developers will be damned if they give them true equality. And developers won't. They'll be too afraid of the backlash so we'll get the same bad guys we have always had.

I remember when RE5 was enroute and people like N'gai Croal were having a fit. I asked him if he had actually ever been to Africa and was he aware it wasn't a continent full of people wearing brightly colored clothes, singing kumbaya, eating a bountiful feast at some massive picnic.

A lot of minority groups, both racial and social want inclusion and representation as long as they are treated with kid gloves and provided a shining, sanitized representation.

Besides, there are bigger issues to tackle than lifestyle representation. How about decent AI period. Oh wait, that doesn't work on a poster in the window of Gamestop.

[Jackhass]

Because they get folks like you talking I guess!

[ATi_Elite]

WTF! Does LGBT community have to do with

NPC A.I.
Story
Game mechanics
Graphics
Sound
re-playability
hit detection
Physics
Environmental Detail
Control
Gamer input
Mods tools
Lag free Servers
Entertainment value
etc..

These are the things important to me in video games. I do not care about a characters sexual preference and I do not want Devs wasting time with this when they need to focus on the things listed in my list.

($60 million video game production cost, spent $40 million making sure Heterosexuals and LGBT community were represented in game, too bad the Graphics, Sound, and Physics budget had to be slashed)

If you want LGBT Community style characters then go watch Pron!!!

[2pacalypsenow]

who cares about the LGBT community? gaming should be the same it shouldn't change to please a bunch of people who whine about equality and yet make liitle social groups . Just live like you want and stop trying to get everyone to accept you

[Chuk5]

No offence, but your comment couldn't sound anymore ignorant.

[Cueil]

they a fraction of a fraction of the population... insignificant in the bigger picture

[Bimkoblerutso]

I don't mean to sound like I think the lgbt community is "insignificant" but heterosexual game developers should not have to adjust their vision to cater to a particular demographic.

I'm sorry you are underrepresented in the industry, but perhaps you should be trying to raise interest within your community instead of trying to force your lifestyle on others.

[FarCryLover182]

I wholly agree with 2pac. Just "forcing" characters to be that way in their games should not happen. There's nothing wrong with LGBT characters in games at all. But having an agenda to "make sure the LGBT community is represented" seems kinda unnatural to me. It should just happen naturally.

But EA should be doing better for all gamers by abstaining from anti-consumer policies and ethics.

[oOMICHAELOo]

Great comment! As for the people who will & have called this comment ignorant STFU! Nobody is more ignorant than you all who refuse to accept peoples opinion on the matter at hand. I get so sick & tired of this lifestyle being forced down peoples throats.

Worst thing is most of the people who get offended when people speak their minds aren't even homosexuals... It's like let people have their opinions. Not everybody will agree with homosexuality, and it's their right to feel this way. As long as they aren't telling people to go kill all the gays STFU!

As for this article, please I do not want to be forced into homosexual interactions when it comes to my games.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

I hate how Ea does this crap for publicity and to make themselves look good.

[Chuk5]

I'm all for gaming growing, and I believe there are social contexts that have been neglected. But for F***sake EA, how about delievering working products? How about not reducing games to check boxes. You need to work on how to run properly before you tackle other issues.

[guitarded77]

So is this a response to SimCity issues?

[Cueil]

Who cares... they are a fraction of a fraction of the market there is no real reason to cater to them specificly

[TongkatAli]

Keep your butthurt feelings about society out of my video games, thanks.

[KillrateOmega]

Don't try and specifically cater to a certain group in society. I hate when people do this in general. It just calls more attention to a supposed 'issue' (ironically making it an even bigger issue and creating more fuss) and makes it feel very forced.

I'm not trying to be ignorant nor do I have a thing against the LGBT community. I just don't want games to start feeling forced and unnatural.

[Mogwai]

You wouldnt be saying that if you were gay. How does representing something that exsists in real life make a game unnatural? Its ok to have zombies, monsters, greek gods, aliens, ghosts ect but having a gay character makes it feel unnatural!? Lol, Give me a break!

[KillrateOmega]

You don't know me. Maybe my younger sibling is gay.

You misunderstood me when I said 'unnatural'. When I said it, it was directed at the game's creation. That, instead of simply having a character be LGBT from the start and just as naturally a part of the plot like any other character, they potentially changed the plot JUST to include a LGBT character. That it didn't come naturally off the pen when they wrote it. That it was forced.

[V0LT]

It shouldn't matter what you are nor should it be split into a separate group... Gaming is gaming plain and simple.

[deno]

This gay agenda is disgusting. Women act like men and men act like women, and people try to say these mentally perverted individuals are normal. EA is garbage, haven't purchased anything from them since the first dead space. Gayme Over!!!!!

[FunAndGun]

I am gay and I don't even know what the 'agenda' is...can you please tell me?

[deno]

Look at your avatar and tell me you don't have a perverted mind.

[FunAndGun]

LOL!

you still didn't answer my question.

Are you inferring that only gay people have perverted minds?

Also, how is a picture of Sean Connery as Zardoz perverted? .... he is a stud! ;) lmao

[zeldafreak404]

What they should admit is their grudge against nintendo not taking up that origin deal!

[Mogwai]

Im a gay gamer and have been playing videogames all my life, im now 35, the rampant homophobia within the gaming community is disgusting, i would like to see more positive gay characters in games or just more queer characters full stop, its the way life is so lets show it, some of the people that make the games are gay. Just because you dont agree with homosexuality dosnt mean its going away. Grow up and except it. Power to the gaymers!!!

[deno]

It will never be excepted no matter how hard homosexuals try. No political correctness here.

[FunAndGun]

Too late, already happening. You must not get out much, lol.

Oh, it is accepted not excepted. If you are going to be ignorant and least brush up on your vocabulary so you don't sound like a total brain dead hillbilly.

[jeeves86]

I'm glad you've used up all of your bubbles, deno. You can stick your fingers in your ears and try to drown out the fact that people are gay and other people 'do' accept them and their lifestyle choice.

It's okay - they can live their lives the way they want. Accepting that won't make you suddenly want to start doing dudes.