began to develop that included LGBTQ characters. The Fallout series claimed the title of the first game to include same-sex marriage. According to a 2012 article by rockpapershotgun.com, “As of this writing, California, the state Fallout 2 takes place in, still hasn’t legalized gay marriage. But it was an option in a game made in 1998, amazingly. In 2012, most games still don’t include gay romance options, much less gay marriage.” Other games, such as Mass Effect, The Sims 3, Skyrim and more, allow gay marriage. According to ign.com, “If you’re a gay character in Mass Effect, The Sims or Skyrim, nobody really cares. You don’t face discrimination from other characters or find yourself forced to justify your identity and choices to those around you.” In BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), there is a female Jedi named Juhani who is believed to be a lesbian. According to an article by GayGamer.net, “If you choose to kill her [Juhani], a female Jedi at the temple will lambaste you for murdering her beloved one — stating that she and Juhani spent many nights under the stars together.” While all of the Persona games include homosexual characters, Kanji from Persona 4 (2008) is perhaps the most discussed. The characters in Persona 4 face off against hidden parts of themselves. According The Escapist, “In Kanji’s alternate world, his other self appears as a nearnude ‘gay’ sounding version of himself who inhabits a men’s bathhouse, strongly suggesting the character houses homosexual desires.” The article quotes an interview with Yu Namba, the project leader for Persona 4, saying, “What matters is that Kanji’s other self cries out, ‘Accept me for who I am!’ I think it’s a powerful message which many, if not all of us can relate to.” A recent game I played that features a homosexual character is The Last of Us (2013), which is set in a new future after a deadly infection spreads throughout the
U.S. While not the main character, Bill is introduced in the first half of the game as a paranoid survivor living outside of Boston, in a town full of traps he set to keep the military and infected away. After travelling through town for a little bit, you find the body of Frank, w h o Bill calls his “partner.” Ellie, a teenage girl travelling with Joel, the main character, manages to swipe a gay porn magazine from Bill as well, which also suggests Bill is gay. Sam Einhorn of GayGamer.net approved of Bill’s portrayal, saying, “It’s not a big reveal, nobody turned it into a bullet point on the press release, and the character isn’t treated any differently by the narrative just because he’s gay.” Members of the University of Tampa community approve of having more LGBTQ characters in video games. “I think having LGBTQ characters in video games allows people to realize that the LGBTQ population is big and exists in all facets of life,” said Devin Phinazee, a junior graphic design major and member of GLTSBA. “It also normalizes the idea of LGBTQ people.” The number of LGBTQ characters in video games has been growing and is still on the rise. “With the recent increase in LGBTQ characters, I only see it rising in the future as society becomes more okay with the idea of LGBTQ people,” Phinazee said. With games like The Last of Us and Mass Effect portraying homosexual characters and relationships in an honest and unbiased light, it seems as if LGBTQ will soon become an accepted and completely normal part of gaming as we know it. THE MINARET | PAGE 25