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08-04-2013, 07:30 AM
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A "hump of assumptions" can stand in the way of creating and including lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters in video games today, said David Gaider, lead writer for the Dragon Age series at BioWare. Speaking on an EA-populated panel at GaymerX (https://www.gaymerconnect.com/) in San Francisco today, Gaider and colleagues addressed the importance of heeding the demand for diversity and, more plainly, "reflecting humanity" in modern games.
Hesitation over tackling LGBT issues, Gaider said, can come from pessimistic assumptions made - both by creators and marketers - about how the audience will react. One of BioWare's earliest gay characters, Juhani (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Juhani) in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, was practically snuck into the game. "I think for a long time it was just assumed that nobody would accept it," he said. "That's what the mentality was. It's not like we went and tried to ask permission or anything - we kind of hid it. She never says, 'She was my lover.' She just says, 'We are very close.'"
Not explicitly addressing the topic, however, "seemed like a very obvious exclusion" to Gaider. BioWare's next role-playing game, Jade Empire, was less subtle in its depiction of a same-sex relationship, and it faced far less resistance than the team had assumed. There was no long conversation after the team asked, "Why don't we just make the romances available to both genders?" According to Gaider, "that was the whole conversation."Continue reading Clearing the 'hump of assumptions' in making LGBT inclusive games (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/04/clearing-the-hump-of-assumptions-in-making-lgbt-inclusive-game/)
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Permalink (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/04/clearing-the-hump-of-assumptions-in-making-lgbt-inclusive-game/) | Email this (http://www.joystiq.com/forward/20686110/) | Comments (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/04/clearing-the-hump-of-assumptions-in-making-lgbt-inclusive-game/#comments)
A "hump of assumptions" can stand in the way of creating and including lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters in video games today, said David Gaider, lead writer for the Dragon Age series at BioWare. Speaking on an EA-populated panel at GaymerX (https://www.gaymerconnect.com/) in San Francisco today, Gaider and colleagues addressed the importance of heeding the demand for diversity and, more plainly, "reflecting humanity" in modern games.
Hesitation over tackling LGBT issues, Gaider said, can come from pessimistic assumptions made - both by creators and marketers - about how the audience will react. One of BioWare's earliest gay characters, Juhani (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Juhani) in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, was practically snuck into the game. "I think for a long time it was just assumed that nobody would accept it," he said. "That's what the mentality was. It's not like we went and tried to ask permission or anything - we kind of hid it. She never says, 'She was my lover.' She just says, 'We are very close.'"
Not explicitly addressing the topic, however, "seemed like a very obvious exclusion" to Gaider. BioWare's next role-playing game, Jade Empire, was less subtle in its depiction of a same-sex relationship, and it faced far less resistance than the team had assumed. There was no long conversation after the team asked, "Why don't we just make the romances available to both genders?" According to Gaider, "that was the whole conversation."Continue reading Clearing the 'hump of assumptions' in making LGBT inclusive games (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/04/clearing-the-hump-of-assumptions-in-making-lgbt-inclusive-game/)
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif (http://www.joystiq.com)Clearing the 'hump of assumptions' in making LGBT inclusive games (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/04/clearing-the-hump-of-assumptions-in-making-lgbt-inclusive-game/) originally appeared on Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com) on Sun, 04 Aug 2013 00:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Permalink (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/04/clearing-the-hump-of-assumptions-in-making-lgbt-inclusive-game/) | Email this (http://www.joystiq.com/forward/20686110/) | Comments (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/04/clearing-the-hump-of-assumptions-in-making-lgbt-inclusive-game/#comments)