In Apex Legends I play a robot with a human soul that is programmed to murder and enjoys every second of it
I can assure you I am nothing like him
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Donāt expect much from this company on Inclusion. Especially when they are shunting over 36% of the player base by POOR SHAMING and WEALTH shaming people with their whole SMS stuff.
I mean, honestly, I have always been about inclusion in gaming and that everyone has a right to game, but Blizzard handling their issues by what they are doingā¦ yeah they have a VERY long way to go, before anyone asks for anything MORE of the company.
I am not saying your post is bad, but this company doesnāt care about inclusion, at all.
It takes out public access gaming and narrows the game to a thin margin of upper middle class players and that in itself is socially unethical by Blizzard itself.
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Agree with this. I used the backstory/lore as a vector for educating my kids about LFBTQ+ issues and community. It helped unveil the concepts tastefully, without short-circuiting to stereotypes or sexual activity.
This is my main issue. I want my kids, their friends, anyone enjoying OW franchise - to learn a broad variety of inclusion topics without making it overt or stereotyped. The hero select is a place to be reminded of minority demopgahics, cultures, flags, backgrounds, without āworrying too much about itā. There should be something left to the imagination - we should be able to read into things more/less as individual consumers with differing priorities.
I think youāll have at least the short-stories + cutscenes + PvE campaigns.
Enriching the content with those themes? Possibly. If I had to spitball? They could make a Tracer mission or two, fighting bots as she tries to meet up with Emily. And she could kiss her or proclaim love for her and stuff like thatā¦without it being unwholesome for a younger or more sensitive audience. They could have a Zarya mission or two where she fights past a cyberpunk āgender-tansformā shop and talks about the time she almost ācompleted her transformationā as a man.
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I dunno man. I see hostility a lot. I mean you were here when they announced Tracer and Soldier were gay right? And I just saw a lot of this sort of thing recently in the Guilty Gear community. A long-time character, āBridgetā announced they were trans in their return to the series and this set off a powder keg with some awful takes coming from an apparent minority of very loud, very angry people. Then there was the announcement of Jim Sterling doing the writing of lore for Vampire Survivors and people saying āit was a betrayalā and āthey wanted a refundā over that because James is non-binary now.
I feel like youād have to try not to see it personally, at least online. But if you mean you donāt see it much in front of your eyes, Iād definitely say people tend to be a lot more civil in person. Anonymity at work I guess. But also like how much interaction do gaming communities have in person as compared to online now anyhow? While these hostile people do exist though it is nice to see that in some communities at least they are becoming an increasing minority.
If you ever wanna play a fighting game, might I suggest that you check out Guilty Gear Strive btw? In spite of my mention of hostility, those people are the minority and most of the community is pretty cool with some big figures like Romolla and Umisho being LGBT people. Also with Bridgetās announcement and later confirmation by the devs a lot of those bad elements are either leaving or shutting up. Iād say āgood riddanceā but who knows what arms are waiting to embrace them? Oh well, nothing I can do about that.
Bridget letting people know that the series that has been about accepting minorities and embracing compassion for 20 years might be progressive, actually:
We also have a non-bianary character named Testament.
But we also have an awesome soundtrack and waifus and husbandos a plenty. Best girl for me is Jack-O, who spawned the Jack-O challenge with her crouch animation. There is, I feel, something for everyone here, as long as youāre cool with an anime fighting game.
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Probably because youāre already well represented, and donāt understand what itās like to exist as a minority thatās had to be behind closed doors for a long time. Representation is important, because it helps you feel like youāre part of a community. It sucks always being relegated to side character, being killed off, or just not existing in media.
And, being LGBT+ should not have to be a āmeaningful partā of a story anymore than a straight relationship does or doesnāt to exist. The acknowledgement of our existence, especially when portrayed in a positive light is what matters.
It really, really should not be this hard to understand.
And to the post above?
The sheer denial and toxicity of Bridget being trans, and Testament being non-binary is honestly a very; very big example of why our inclusion matters and why it should be more common. People actively hate us and want to deny our existence, and youāre blind if you donāt see that with the climate in the world and with media in general.
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How would that realistically work? You would need someone to reciprocate the tone of the conversation and as far as I know, our only confirmed LGBT representatives are 76 and Tracer. So you would need another male interested in 76 which would be really out of character for him to begin with. He is strictly business. They do a bit with Emily and Tracer, but not directly.
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6 years later and still waiting for a Greek Hero. We got Ilios map but no Greek representation. I want my representation too.
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Tracer? No, actually. I didnāt get Overwatch until a good bit after launch when I played a free weekend on the PS4.
Soldier? Yes, and a lot of the discussion seemed to hinge more on his reveal being a small side thing in Anaās story. To be honest, I was upset too. I like Solder 76 a lot, and I even have a mouse pad for him. It sort of seems like he was robbed of something.
My issue with Bridget is that this character was very clearly a sexualized (fetish) character for a very long time, and now it seems like theyāre trying to say āN-no no! Donāt you see, actually weāre being progressive!ā as a cover.
HOWEVER! If Bridget is actually desexualized now, Iāll believe them. Not because I care about sexualizing fictional characters, but because I think itād be scummy to pretend to be progressive just so you can put a fetish character in a game and have some sort of shield against critique.
Truth by told, I sorta donāt trust corporations when they try things like this, but donāt mistake my distrust for hate. Iām one of those people who say āRace, gender, sexual orientation doesnāt matterā, because it doesnāt. However, I follow that up with āSo why not have the cast all black, or all gay, or all women, or men, or whatever? I sincerely donāt careā.
And if you donāt believe me, you should see my work.
I just believe a lot of this outrage is bass boosted via headlines and such from people trying to make a quick buck with articles, or people trying to appear more progressive then they are by taking 15 people and going āLook at the sexist, racist, bigoted gamers here. Can you believe it? Donate to my patreon so that we can fight this!ā, but maybe Iām just cynical.
Or burnt because, personally, Iāve found that a lot of the people who say theyāre the most progressive turn out to be incredibly bigoted. I donāt mention it often, but Iām black, and Iāve noticed a lot of the āelevate black voicesā crowd will want you to shut up if youāre not saying things they approve of. Iām not talking about things like āwomen shouldnāt be in sportsā or sexist stuff like that. I mean things like āIām black, and a conservative, hereās whyā. While Iām not a conservative at all, I think its incredibly important to listen to them.
Then a bunch of white people would tell me and actual conservatives to shut up!
Or, for a more practical example, check out the reaction to the abortion ban. A ton of white people had stuff to do with that, yet a whole lot of progressives with hammers and sickles in their bios just couldnāt wait to call Clarence Thomas specifically the N word.
Anyway, Iām getting lost in the weeds here.
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Well, Solider and Tracer wouldnāt really play into it since theyāve already been set up with strictly off-screen relationships. I will forever maintain they majorly wussed out by giving Solider a random NPC when Reaper76 practically wrote itself.
But anyway, itās something theyād have to develop gradually and reveal through interactions and such. Which is how Riot and Respawn have gone about things.
They definitely ship tease Mcchanzo so they could be a pretty natural road to go down if they ever actually canonically meet. Pharah has dat lesbian energy, but while thereās possibilities, there isnāt really an obvious pair for her yet. But really, plenty of the cast could be LGBTQ, we just donāt know either way yet.
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Why? Arenāt there comics outside the game that mention this 
I donāt see how a characterās sexuality matters much in a FPS.
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I guess not everyone goes beyond the game. Iāve been playing for a long while but just recently joined the forums. I dont go out of my way and watch CC, OWL, read the comics lore. A good portion doesnāt or may not even know about it. I didnāt know there were comics till like several years into OWās start. Have I gone to read any? No.
Also if a person vibes with a character in a fps, they are more likely to want to learn how to play better with said character and get them more invested into the game. Like I knew Tracer was, but S76, did not know .
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Look bro, Iām positive about people feeling happy with themselves but this is a video game weāre talking about
You are meant to play them because the game is fun, and not because a character happens to fit checkboxes about yourself
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Lol because games have been made for you with people more like yourself than for queer people like myself. Sims was my first game that had queer content and itās still one of my fave PC games (I dont like it as much on console), as a non-pc fps gamer.
And fanfiction and fanships will still be around, but CANONICAL stuff is just better.
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Tracer and Soldier arenāt dying or going straight. 
Everything will be ok.
Nobody said they were soooooooooo??? People want more lore content about characters they may care about (I dont play Tracer and S76 I only use for like Junkenstein).
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Sometimes your enjoyment is increased when youāre represented, which is the whole point here. It is undeniably a nice feeling to see yourself represented in media that you enjoy.
Thereās more of us than people seem to think there are, and I am so damn tired of this BS strawman.
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In general though, I too dont see much more beyond general mentions, a promo pic being all cute maybe, maybe a minor plot point, but nothing to further their actual lives in the characters personal lore,in the future if they want to keep their conservative player base.
Iāll just keep my head cannon ships and fanfics if I chose to. Itās more of a FYI type of thing Iāve seen across the characters, just never enough for people who want more specific lore content.
Edit: I mean Conservative Cis Hets are mostly the most vocal for even a smidge of queer representation. Take Deep Space 9, plenty of queer friendly characters that were written to tone down that specific aspect and relationships during the time period it aired, because the producer was trying to pander to the conservatives, yet make sure all the females were eye candy regardless of how they were
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i play a cybernetic ninja, a deadly leader and a fat killer with a hook
i couldnāt care less about it, they donāt represent me in any way
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I can understand this, however I think my original statement still stands here, wanting to play a game because of a sexuality isnāt something I understand
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I think it more has to do with the fact that a lot of people like me will not openly state their identity because of the real danger associated it with it. The statistics will be skewed because people can and do die for being LGBT+.
There are far, far more of us around the world than people think. Weāre just not allowed to talk about it or be out about it in a LOT of the world. Itās not even entirely safe to be out in the US, Canada, or the places in the EU where we are generally accepted.
Especially if youāre transgender.
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