A large minority, however, felt uncomfortable and that other players discriminated against them when they played as Soldier: 76 after the announcement. They got tired of homophobic slurs and constant harassment and temporarily switched to other characters to avoid it.

I can guarantee you that the pretend sexuality of the imaginary character you play a game as had no impact on why you got called a fag.

Even if you don't mind the whole... gayness part, protected groups are written in a very limited way now. A gay character who has any real flaws is going to generate HUGE scandals. And I don't even mean them being evil (which should be allowed as well), just having actual conflicts.
But then, what can be interesting about them? We can't forever bank on "the first openly gay character" forever, we have reached the point where gay is nothing special.
But dynamic writing NEEDS conflict, there need to be issues, hardships, development can only happen if something is lacking at the beginning. But that's not possible if every gay character still has to be "good representation". Not good writing, but a flattering thing.

"Scientific American"

Both words in the publication name are a lie.

Article is filed under "diversity" so yet another reason to disregard ANYTHING it says.

I like video games because they give me choices that I don’t have in real life. When I want to feel like a princess, I choose Peach in Mario Kart. If I want to fight like Bruce Lee, I can choose Marshall Law in Tekken.

And no straight male wants to play pretend as a cocksucker.

However, backlash could deter these companies from supporting marginalized groups and discourage gay players from participating.

Then make your own gaming company faggot.

The first-person shooter game Overwatch, which is widely popular and has generated more than $1 billion in revenue so far for its owner, Blizzard, has turned out to be an ideal laboratory for me and my colleagues to investigate these questions.

Overwatch was popular, in 2016. It also notoriously fleeced customers by forcing them to by cosmetic “loot boxes” and gamble for skins. Also, at 1 billion it is one of Blizzards least successful franchises…

In May 2019, an Overwatch writer updated the background story for one male character, Soldier: 76. He wrote that Soldier: 76 had been in a romantic relationship with another man and identified as gay. It was a bit of information that is far from unusual in the real world, but in online gaming, it was somewhat revolutionary.

Pandering once sales and repeat players tanked, shocking…

Interestingly, instead of choosing Soldier: 76, several players chose the only other LGBTQ character in the game: a lesbian called Tracer. Though Soldier: 76 had previously been assumed by most to

Yeah because Zarya, the pink haired Russian powerlifter was totally straight…

Additionally, many players mentioned that the gaming community makes an important distinction between the only two LGBTQ characters in the game. Whereas Soldier: 76 is a man, Tracer is a woman. Some players reported in the survey that they felt other players see lesbians as appealing and interesting, but that the same players voice disgust toward gay men.

BECAUSE THE MAJORITY OF PLAYERS ARE STRAIGHT MEN

This fag is supposedly a professor but can’t figure out why straight men don’t want to larp as a buttpirate? Yet we need more diverse representation because why?

Degenerate behavior shouldn't be promoted. It's as simple as that. Faggots should go back in the closet. The nuclear family (husband, wife, 2-3 children) is the bedrock of a functioning society.

Why is that a surprise?
For years we heard that it is important to have gay / female characters, because gay/female players cannot identify with the "straight white male" main character.
So why is there a surprise - if you believe this - that straight white male players now are not able to identify with such characters?

Instead they're attracted to (lipstick) lesbians.

https://archive.ph/jSnOP

Why is this a shock? Most gamers are straight males. Now I know some prefer to play as females because it’s better to look at a female but generally few will play as a gay character. Similar to the fact that I’d never watch something with a gay/lesbian romantic subplot. I’d rather see male/female of there is a romantic aspect. I don’t think that is strange

I’d go one step beyond that. If you need to shove it in my face the main character likes the beenis I simply won’t buy it or even pirate it.

Gay characters are a new phenomenon and shouldn't exist in the first place.

wow who would have thought no one wants to vicariously be a faggot

Lame ass overwatch had a tournament only for LGBT and LGBT supporters lol. Imagine if you had a tournament of whites only and white supporters..

Also.. players been calling each other faggots for decades and will continue to. Also... blizzards gonna ban a lot of black players via voice transcribing because a lot of black people say nigga and faggot a lot.

Jokes on you everyones a tranny/faggot in Overwatch.

Upvote for thread title alone.

I liked such games when it was evidence that a game company was brave and daring, because most gamers did not like it.

Now that it has become orthodoxy, it repels me.

Because most of the time it feels like they are just planted in and its a case of "look at our diverse cast, we now have a gay character!" It doesn't feel organic

The last time it felt organic that I can remember was with two characters in the same game, Veronica Santangelo and Corporal Betsy from Fallout new Vegas as it fed into the story than simply be a "oh and I'm gay"

Man, I may be in the minority, but I miss the days where the main character’s sexual orientation generally didn’t matter…

There are exceptions, certainly (RPGs, generally. Or like, The Sims), but if I’m playing an FPS, Strategy or the vast majority of games, I really, really don’t want to know the details of my character’s orientation.

Fuck that shit.

The sex of the character I play is completely up to what I feel like playing. And I don't give two shits about romance in games*; I just started a male Shepard in Mass Effect because I don't plan to bother with the romance crap I heard about. (unless, of course, there's some relevancy, or you have to do a dating thing, but I haven't played any dating-type games.)

I once made a waify, skinny little female redhead blood elf warrior because it was funny for a while.

And it irks me that in certain games, all the choices for female characters are either garbage or gay/bi (lookin at you, FO4). No, I don't want my straight female character fucking a faggot.

Don't like all video gamers want to fuck anime children?