Diversity is important, and repreisentation is important.
The fact that your having this knee jerk reflex shows there clearly still is an issue.
The whole point of having LGBT repreisentatives is to normalise it and to give LGBT people a sense that they can and do belong anywhere.
Reprisentation in movies and games is a very good thing. The problem is when its forced in and those characters serve no purpose other than to say “hey look at us we are progressive.” Which if you’ve followed overwatch I can safely say Blizzard didn’t do.
Soldier 76 or Tracer is a good example, it was a small detail that didn’t change who they are and does not define the characters. It just adds one extra dimention to an allready multifaceted character.
Varus from League of Legends is an example of bad LGBT reprisentation. It was a retcon of an established straight character, that served no purpose. They quite literally made a song and dance over it, then never mentioned it again, didn’t even change his voice lines to reflect the retcon. It was hamfisted and forced and actually took depth away from the character.
Anyway, LGBT reprisentation isn’t a bad thing, its fantastic, bad writing of those characters however is an issue, but then, bad writing is always an issue.
Also if you truely are part of the LGBT community, then you should be ashamed for asking for it to stop, people literally died for our rights to be treat as people, for our right to be able to be seen in games and movies, and you want to throw that all away? It dosen’t need to stop, it just needs to be done right it shouldn’t be highlighted as something that stands out or something that ticks boxes, it should be normal. Because guess what, we are just normal people.
I feel its more a case of why is it even a thing at all nobody cares gay or straight or whatever you are that isn’t what defines you, having a char for the sole purpose of having it becomes what defines them
I fully agree, but thats a case of bad writing. An LGBT character who is there just to be there and their only defining feature is their sexuality is a badly written character. Just as a generic love interest who’s only purpose in a story is to be the pretty woman that the main guy gets as a trophy is also bad writing.
The difference here is you don’t see people complaining that they want no hetrosexuals in games and movies because of those badly written 1 dimentional love interests.
I’m against bad writing in all forms, but thats not an excuse to try and prevent LGBT reprisentation, it just needs to be done properly and people need to start writing LGBT characters as multifaceted as the other characters, not define them by sexuality.
In an ideal world I would agree with you, but sadly bigotry does still exist and is still an issue. Noone is forcing your opinion, but having LGBT actually reprisented in media allows you to even form an opinion.
Just existing isn’t enough, we’ve done that for centuries. We need to be seen existing.
I’m old, I’m in my 30s, when I was a kid it was still a taboo subject, it was a joke or a threat. the only media representation I would see as a child was designed to make me feel ashamed of who I was. I’m glad its changed and don’t want it to go back to how it was so other kids don’t have to go through that.
I have no problems, which means it worked and can stop now.
Do you know why the premise no longer works? It’s in the name LGBTQ. All the sexualities except just straight singling themselves out. It shouldn’t be primarily about our rights anymore, it should be about being one as humanity.
I understand this and see why you choose to have representation, but I see people my age who are clearly accepted and use it as something to identify their personalities. It’s just a sexuality, not a fad. They treat it like a fad.
Yeah, but I can’t see that happening at all due to many reasons that have nothing to do with being represented, which means the LGBT thing is outdated.
With how average people are being crossfire-annoyed, not just bigots, you see it phasing out. You see the process.
They don’t need it sure but that doesn’t mean they can’t want it and appreciate it being there. If it’s enjoyable for some people to see why shouldn’t they add it?
The problem is that it’s been normalized. There is nothing more to normalize about it. Now it’s to the point where we are forcing people to use pronouns that are fake just so people can get their jollies off for no good reason. Gay marriage was legalized. We can live where we want and do w/e we want. There will always be some homophobe and there is nothing you can do to change that persons mind and I’m fine with that. If they want to be shut in their tiny little world then let them. Don’t force them to bend a knee to something that doesn’t matter in the long term.
I turned 30 in november. I grew up with it being a threat as well. I was beat and chased because of who I am. But, it’s in the past. I don’t want it to go back to people hating me for who I am. I also don’t want anyone to fear me for who I am which is where this road we are headed is taking us. People are afraid to say anything when I come out to them and say I’m bi. They are afraid if they say the wrong thing that I will flip out and start some mess. People don’t want to be associated with me again because of who I am but, it’s out of fear and not hate. That hurts more than having someone punch me in the face.
And I’m smart enough to realize that ROMANCE is different from someone’s intimate choices. AKA, Disney Princess movies where guys and girls kiss and have dates all the time? And in general, too?
Yeah. So that’s a nonsense thing to say, quite honestly. From what I’ve observed, people want natural representation. Having none at all, even from feedback in this thread, is kind of stupid. Either we shouldn’t have ANY sign of relationships (which is petty and stupid), or representation of many. It’s not like NPCs would suddenly start intimate behavior so suddenly if that happened, that’s bloody ridiculous. You see straight couples all the time in WoW and that doesn’t happen.
Relationships aren’t all about intimacy, much as people wanna claim and whine about.
Of course, coming to the forums about this matter in general is silly, as this thread shows (and the post I’m responding to) because the average forum-goer tends to either be highly ignorant or just plain obnoxious.
You know what game is guilty of having too much diversity…Dragon Age: Inquisition
That game shamelessly uses minorities to check off boxes for “representation”, and the only thing that these characters can outside of combat is offer sex to the main character.
Yep, sex. Their personal stories? Nah not important, they’re just party members, diverse ones!
They stand in the main hub waiting for the main character to saunter up and seduce them by hearing their short summary of their lives. It really gets them going.
What matters is that they’re all parallels to real-life minorities, and that exhausting their short dialogue results in those characters offering a sexual relationship to the main character.
For one it is not normalize. The mere existance of this thread is proof of it. Gay characters should both just exist and sometime be able to be a important part of the plot. If it is truly normally no one should question one way or another the reason a gay character is actually added.
I dont care about them. I personally care about my own enjoyment of the game and that means actually having more things I want added in the game. Which in this particular case is more gay characters.
You have no idea what you’re talking about and call others wrong? Tracer’s reveal was just as big as soldier’s. There were no hints about tracer’s sexuality, so it appears YOU made that assumption based on characteristics.
“There have been almost three years worth of opportunities to mention it” Yeah, it’s not like there has been ZERO lore about MULTIPLE overwatch heroes. Zen mains are constantly crying about ZERO being added for zenyatta after years.
D.Va got a cinematic that introduced a love interest… Obviously you didn’t use that as an example of something being forced because it’s a straight relationship.
Soldier finally got some lore development after 3 years after having had none, and other characters are still awaiting that chance. Your issue with soldier here is wrong and you just want to complain.
Exactly. Black people for example had to fight just to get lead roles in media. People STILL bring up their issue with a black person in media as the character being “forced.” Like, the person playing the character happened to be black, chill out…
If I see a gay character, I continue as normal because it’s just another normal character. Meanwhile you have people on this thread that make the character’s sexuality the entire focus and go to great lengths to say why that character shouldn’t have been gay. Ironic isn’t it?
I’ve already started to ramble in my old age and it will only get worse, so no. If for some reason I ever say I’ll stop simply understand I’ll probably ramble again in the very near future.