As Pride month ends, the editor of Gayming magazine assesses the state of play for LGBTQ+ depictions in video games
One of the falsehoods perpetuated among the more toxic sections of the gaming community is that LGBTQ+ representation and community in video games is something new: an agenda developers and publishers are pushing, at the risk of alienating their overwhelmingly white, cis male fanbase. Actually, video games have always been queer.
This is the title of a very informative book from Bo Ruberg, which investigates the ways in which LGBTQ+ themes show up in games. Was there anything remotely gay about Pong, Tetris, Sonic or Call of Duty? Ruberg would argue that there is – but in 2023, we don’t have to read queerness into video games. It’s more overt, and it’s everywhere, from Horizon Forbidden West to The Last of Us to the forthcoming Thirsty Suitors.
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