Every day is the "End of the Week"

     Well folks, something rare happened tonight - I went scouring the internet for some gaming news, as I hadn't heard anything new about the upcoming games I'm looking forward to. During this search, I stumble upon an interesting find, an article on Kotaku. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim allows players to undergo same-sex relationships. Good for them!

     I'm not going to say that I disapprove of homosexuality, bisexuality, and whatnot. It used to be that a lot of games only paired relations between a man and a woman. But with the turn of this new decade, we can see a whole new acceptance for those of us who feel differently about such subjects. It's more widely approved of nowadays. I had originally heard that Mass Effect 3's female Shepherd would raise the possibility of Shepherd hooking up with another female, or even another male (if you chose Male Shepherd). While I don't recall if the Mass Effect 3 rumor was confirmed or denied, I have been asking myself this question for a while - in an age where "alternative" lifestyles and sexualities are more widely accepted than in the 70s and 80s, why haven't more video games experimented with the possibilities that could emerge from these lives the players live?



     Granted, a video game is far different from a board game (The Game of Life), a movie (way too many to attempt to name), and Table Top Role-Playing Games (Dungeons and Dragons, etc)...wait a minute, no it's not! They're all different forms of entertainment in which any sorts of situations may arise, be it finding a life-long partner, shooting some monsters, or even discovering a secret within one's self. While they aren't completely accepted in all films and entertainment industries, same-sex relationships have been brought out into the open in these mediums more then before. The line between video games and other forms of entertainment has been slowly blurring over the years, with the higher quality looks of games and overall storytelling.

     Take Fable, for example. This game, where the player's choice affects their entire story progression and game life, presented the option for players to have partners of the same gender as their character. Moreover, in Dragon Age 2, your male Mage, Anders, would "make a move" on you, no matter what gender your character was, after a plot-moving quest. It had been asked by some players if there could have been a "No Homo" button placed into the game for this situation. This question had been answered with a question of how much criticism the game would receive if that had been possible. Alternatively, the Game of Life allows you to choose how many kid you will have, what sexuality your character will be, etc.



      Alternative lifestyles have been experimented with in past games, though they were edited in localization. Take Birdo from the Mario universe, for example. She was originally introduced in Japan and America as a "boy wanting to be a girl;" however, in localization of later games, Birdo was fully translated to be a female. If other countries have accepted and allowed these alternative types of people in their games, why hasn't America been as into it as they have?

     If the different forms of entertainment aren't so different, why must video games be excluded from the same-sex relationships? I mean, the most we see from same-sex relationships in games is sexual innuendos involving two people of the same gender, but it never develops into anything.



     Don't get me wrong. These kinds of things won't effect whether or not I'll purchase a game. I believe that, overall, I'm just glad that some developers are finally saying "It's pretty much alright, now, so how about we give players a CHOICE if they want to do this or not? It's not like we're forcing them to choose something they don't want or anything..."



     The choice is yours, fellow gamers. Do you feel like playing as the guy who gets the babe? Or perhaps you want to play as the guy who gets the hunk? Girl who finds her man? Girl who finds her woman? The possibilities, while not so endless, can show that gaming is beginning to evolve into the type of entertainment where nearly anything is allowed.



     All I can say is, I'm glad things are moving in a positive direction. Now, back to the games!


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