The importance of representation in video games

[Ravenpoe]

This was a topic I was talking to a friend about, and I felt like posting it here to share my thoughts. With games tending to default to straight white cis male, and companies like Ubisoft claiming women are too difficult to implement, the need for increased diversity and representation in interactive media is something that continually needs focus, be regardless of how capital G gamers claim that woke culture is destroying games anytime a woman or brown person is shown to be a game protagonist.

Now, academically, I've always known that more representation is a good thing, but as a white cis male that's mostly hetero (more on that in a minute) it's not like I've ever felt unrepresented. That is, until I actually was represented, I'm a little game called Outer Worlds.

See, I'm asexual and heteroromantic. I'm attracted to women, but don't want to have sex with them. This part of me feels mostly invisible because as far as most of society is concerned I'm just straight. Any time I've ever told anyone about this they usually either don't understand or simply don't believe me, so for the most part I simply just don't tell people.

Now comes Outer Worlds, and specifically one of the npc companions you pick up, Parvati.



Parvati is a sweet natured ship mechanic. And as you get to know her better, she opens up that she has a problem. She has a crush on another woman but doesn't want to tell her because she doesn't like "the physical stuff" and that's always made her feel weird. Parvati is asexual, and this makes her incredibly gun-shy about trying to date. As she says "What if she doesn't like girls? Or... Or worse, what if she does, but wants... that?"

In talking to her you get the option to tell her that you are the same way, and this will flag your character as asexual and open up asexual dialogue options. And never in my life have I felt more seen, or been more invested in a fictional character. You better believe I became the galaxy's best wingman in getting Parvati a date with the woman she likes.

For the first time in my adult life I actually felt seen by this video game. And while I've never felt oppressed, for the first time I actually felt validated, and it was a powerful feeling.

So yeah. Representation in games. It's important. Have any of you ever had a moment like that, or have any thoughts to share? I've rambled enough.

 

[General Specific]

Brofist for also diving headlong into getting Parvati to that date. I dropped all other sidequests until I had progressed that storyline as far as I could.

But yeah, representation is extremely important. Growing up a cis-white male, I had tons of it so never felt left out either. It was only later when I had friends that were not white or male or cis that the lack of those characters was made obvious to me. I still see it. You'll have a tv show where the main cast is all white and cis and then you get to the one black guy or the sassy gay friend or even worse, BOTH in the same character. Like the studio had a checklist of how much can we do to fill our diversity quota and was just doing the bare minimum so they didn't get any criticism.

I love seeing shows like Steven Universe where the entire cast is diverse in many ways. No one is just one thing. We need to open up to more diverse creators as well, allow them to bring their own perspectives and views. We'll get some great new shows with fresh storylines if we do.

 

[Ravenpoe]

If we're mentioning tv shows, Lucy Liu's character in Ally McBeal is ace and characterized surprisingly well for a sitcom from the late 90's.

 

[PatrThom]

Parvati is asexual, and this makes her incredibly gun-shy about trying to date. As she says "What if she doesn't like girls? Or... Or worse, what if she does, but wants... that?"

I feel like I would be remiss in my duties if I did not bring up the following 4yr-old bit from El Goonish Shive:

It's not from a video game, sure, but hey... representation is representation, right?
I feel like this strip (the whole strip, not just these three panels) successfully and respectfully represents many, many people who don't get to see anything of themselves in other forms of media.

--Patrick

 

[Cat]

To be fair, Ubisoft kinda proved women were too difficult for them to animate when they couldn't even keep faces on their characters in that game

 

[Cat]

I'll have to give Outer Worlds another chance soon, it just didn't click for me. Checking out Cyberpunk again now that it's been out for a while bc while it's got problems it gets a lot of little things so right for me