Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) characters have been depicted in video games since the 1980s. GLAAD estimates games with LGBTQ characters or storylines account for less than 2% of all games, this could be seen as an example of heteronormativity, as when sexuality is used in game content, games generally rely on heterosexual narratives. While the frequency of LGBTQ content in video games has increased over time it has faced accusations of tokenism. In 2018, Sam Greer of GamesRadar+ found only 179 games commercially released games with any LGBTQ representation, only 83 of which have queer characters who are playable characters, and only 8 of those games feature a main character who is pre-written as queer as opposed to them being queer as an option. LGBTQ games and characters were one the targets of the Gamergate harassment campaign.
Tropes
Video games contain a number of recurring tropes, themes and archetypes in regard to LGBTQ+ identity.
Bury Your Gays As in other media, LGBT characters in games often suffer from the "bury your gays" trope, a trope where LGBT characters die or generally suffer. According to Kotaku, these characters are "largely defined by a pain that their straight counterparts do not share". Facing challenges that "serve as an in-world analogy for anti-LGBTQ bigotry", they are defined by tragedy that denies them a chance at happiness.
Comical and Villainous Gender-Variance Meghan Blythe Adams gives examples of video games which depict gender-variant characters as humorous, pitiable, monstrous or all three. They argue that gender variant characters are often portrayed using stereotypes associated with transgender women and gay men with transphobic and homophobic depictions being presented as comedy. Gender variance has also been used as a tool to offer social commentary about sexism or homophobia. The censorship codes of Nintendo and Sega limited the usage of gender inversion to exclusion of cross-dressing until 1994.
Depictions of LGBTQ characters
Transgender characters in video games
Capcom created Final Fight for the arcade in 1989. The game involved players choosing among three fighters on a quest to save the mayor's daughter, who was kidnapped by a criminal gang known as Mad Gear. In 1990, Capcom presented Nintendo with a version of the game for the 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). According to David Sheff's book Game Over, Nintendo stated that Capcom could not put a female enemy in a video game published for the SNES, as that violated Nintendo's ban on violence against women. Capcom countered that there were no female enemies in the game, revealing that the female characters Roxy and Poison were transsexuals. The characters were nevertheless removed from the international versions of the SNES port (the Japanese Super Famicom version retained the characters). However, in 1993, Sega obtained the rights to release the game for their Sega CD. In a sign of Sega's more liberal policies, Poison and Roxy could remain in the international versions, but with less-provocative clothing, and there could be no indication of their transgender status. (Sega of America later removed a homosexual boss and unlockable playable character called Ash from the international versions of Streets of Rage 3.)
In the 2016 role-playing video game Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, there is an optional dialogue tree in which the cleric Mizhena mentions that she was raised as a boy, indicating that she is a trans woman. This, along with a reference to the Gamergate controversy, attracted contention resulting in online harassment and insults towards the developers, especially against the game's writer Amber Scott. The game's Steam, GOG and Metacritic pages were bombarded with complaints that the transgender reference constituted "political correctness," "LGBTQ tokenism", "SJW pandering" and pushing a political agenda. On an April 2016 post, Beamdog announced they would expand Mizhena's story, saying in part, "In retrospect, it would have been better served if we had introduced a transgender character with more development." Paul Tumburro of CraveOnline termed this as "spineless and disappointing" stating that Beamdog's founder Trent Oster refused to acknowledge the transphobic criticisms leveled at the game.
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, developers introduced a not-obviously gendered character named Sheik. Eventually, Sheik is revealed to be Princess Zelda in disguise. Sheik never self identifies with any set of pronouns in the game; however, a character in the game refers to Sheik with male pronouns. Sheik's presence and gender ambiguity in Ocarina of Time created the “Sheik Gender Debate.” Two sides were taken in this debate – one that believed Sheik was simply cross dressing. The other side believed that Sheik was Princess Zelda assuming a male gender identity using some sort of magic. In 2014, Polygon asked Nintendo for a comment on the “Sheik Gender Debate.” Bill Trinen gave an official statement saying “The definitive answer is that Sheik is a woman – simply Zelda in a different outfit.”
In the 2011 puzzle game, Catherine, Erica Anderson is revealed to be a transgender woman throughout the game. Erica's portrayal has sparked controversy throughout the years due to her identity being treated as a joke. During the true ending of Catherine, Toby, who had slept with Erica, learns of her identity and feels betrayed and disgusted. In the ending credits of the original release of the game, Erica is listed under her deadname, Eric Anderson. This was changed by Atlus in the 2019 PC release of Catherine.
In the 2017 Nintendo game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link cannot enter Gerudo Town unless he dresses up as a woman. The player must find a character named Vilia in order to buy the women's clothing for Link. Vilia outwardly appears female, but upon speaking to her, the noises made when she speaks are deep. During a dialogue sequence between Link and Vilia, Vilia's face mask blows off in the wind to reveal – to Link's surprise – what appears to be facial hair. It is revealed that Vilia is merely a cross-dressing male Hylian in official media, such as Creating a Champion. However, it is not uncommon for fans to consider Vilia to be a trans woman.
The 2018 indie game Celeste had hinted and led to speculation by media and players that the player-character, Madeline, was a trans woman. This was later confirmed by the game's lead developer, Maddy Thorson, who herself has come out as a trans woman, the game in part an allusion to her own identity issues prior to opting to coming out.
Released in 2020 by Dontnod Entertainment, Tell Me Why features two main characters, one of which being Tyler Ronan, a trans man and the first transgender protagonist to be featured in a triple-A video game. The development team worked closely with LGBT charity GLAAD in order to ensure that Tyler's story was an "authentic representation of the trans experience". As part of this, trans actor August Aiden Black was cast to voice Tyler and worked collaboratively with the writers and developers.
The Last of Us Part II, released in 2020, features a trans masculine character named Lev.
Bridget from the fighting game series Guilty Gear was first introduced as a child who was assigned male at birth, was raised as a girl due to the superstitions of her village, and was secure in her gender identity as a feminine-presenting boy. In the 2021 game Guilty Gear Strive, Bridget appears as a DLC character, and she comes out as a transgender woman.
Gay characters in fighting games Having gay male characters in fighting games can challenge the perception of homosexuality and masculinity. Nevertheless, hints about a particular character's sexual orientation in a fighting game often take the form of stereotypical femininity in an otherwise tough masculine character.
In the Mortal Kombat series, Kung Jin is a homosexual character. The story mode of Mortal Kombat X features an exchange between Jin and Raiden that implies Jin's sexuality. Jin's homosexuality was confirmed by NetherRealm Studios cinematic director Dominic Cianciolo. The same game also implies that Mileena and Tanya are in a relationship, or at least show obvious attraction to each other.
In Fighting EX Layer, the character Sharon has been revealed to be lesbian, making her one of the first openly lesbian characters in a fighting game.
Gay characters in action games In 1996, Night Slave was a shooter RPG released for the PC-98 that have cut scenes in which occasionally contain lesbian adult content. (Reprinted from Retro Gamer, Issue 67, 2009)
The PlayStation 3 game The Last of Us (2013) was praised for its gay and lesbian characters, including teenage protagonist Ellie. GLAAD, the American organization promoting the image of LGBT people in the media, named the supporting character Bill one of "the most intriguing new LGBT characters of 2013".
LGBTQ visual novels and independent games
Many visual novels and independent games are created by independent creators and may sometimes include or be focused on LGBT themes and narratives. Many of these narratives themselves sometimes come from the personal perspective of a member of the development team. These depictions tend to be more similar to the struggles of being LGBT in the real world but often take place in universes where homosexuality is normalized and acceptable. One of the first known games with LGBT themes was Caper in the Castro in 1989, a detective adventure game that was written in the onset of the United States AIDS crisis when queer people were being mistreated and their struggles were being largely ignored. The game's author, C.M. Ralph, wrote the story to help promote awareness of LGBT themes of the time.
In the 2013 exploration visual novel Gone Home, the player takes on the role of a young woman who returns to her dilapidated household which is mysteriously empty. By collecting clues, she uncovers that her sister has recently come out to her family as a lesbian which caused an issue between the protagonist's parents and the elder daughter herself. This leaves the house in disarray and leaving the player a non-linear way of piecing together the situation.
In the 2015 action-visual novel Life Is Strange, the player takes on the role of Max Caulfield, an eighteen-year-old student and photographer who has discovered that she can turn back time at will. She uses this power to try and save her town after seeing its destruction in a vision in tandem with solving a mystery of a girl who had gone missing before the beginning of the story. Throughout the story, Max and Chloe Price bond. Chloe is a friend from Max's childhood and helps Max throughout the series as they try to stop the destruction of their town together as they develop a better understanding of one another as both friends and lovers. Chloe Price is an implied lesbian, while Max Caulfield's sexuality is mostly unknown. Ultimately, Life is Strange is met with some criticisms on the writing with the player ultimately having to choose between saving Chloe and letting all other characters and their town be destroyed or by letting Chloe die and saving the entirety of the town. If the player chooses a route where the main love interest is Chloe Price, the protagonist has a goodbye kiss in the Sacrifice Chloe ending.
In the 2017 independent visual novel Butterfly Soup, the player takes on the respective roles of four queer Asian-American girls who attend their first year of high school and their local baseball club. The plot mostly follows the lives of Diya and Mihn-Soo, and deals with many themes such as child abuse and homophobia but retains a very lighthearted theme overall.