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Avery Score Games Editor, Mobile |
Rainbow Road
Having just moved from Boston, Massachusetts, I have long been at ground zero of the American gay marriage debate. In the Boston Common, one of our nation's oldest city parks, a fundamentalist Christian group routinely holds "old-fashioned revivals," during which the group attempts to will the homosexuality out of its participants.
In a country where television shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Boy Meets Boy, and Will and Grace are pulling in top ratings, week after week, it is reasonable to suggest that--regardless of whether the Constitution is one day amended to prohibit homosexual unions--gay culture is growing a greater acceptance. You might say that it, like video gaming, is becoming part of the mainstream American experience. So, is there any overlap? Video games have oft been criticized for their violent or sexual content, but rarely for their inclusion of homosexual innuendo. To my knowledge, Senator Joseph Lieberman, notorious critic of video games and gay marriage alike, has not connected these two subjects of heated debate.
Yet, Lieberman and his supporters might be interested to learn that Troika's recent Dungeons and Dragons game, The Temple of Elemental Evil, allows your in-game male avatar to wed a gay pirate, named Bertram, after saving him from his captain/owner. You accomplish this by literally purchasing Bertram from his master. At the game's end, the fashion-savvy pirate will reenter the plot, and your hero will wed him. A picture of the happy couple in a rapt embrace will appear, and the game's narrator informs you that the two lived happily ever after.
Unless you count Ryo Hazuki's search for bar-hopping sailors in Shenmue, this is probably the only instance of gay pirating in a game. Persistent-world, homosexual pairing, in general, isn't without precedent, nor is it without a future, however. Will Wright's The Sims has long allowed same-sex partnerships--even going so far as to let gay couples move in together and raise little Sim rugrats. Peter Molyneux's upcoming RPG Fable may allow homosexual relationships, as well. A recent issue of Lionhead's newsletter suggested that such a feature was present in the current build of the game, and that Molyneux had no plans to order its removal.
Yet, while homosexual content is a relatively new frontier for games created on American soil, it's quite old hat for the Japanese market. Big-name publishers, such as Squaresoft, often place their leading men in homoerotic settings, or in relationships that could be construed, by bevies of giddy, female gamers, as homosexual. There is even a convention--employed in anime and manga, as well as in games--as to how these homosexual pairings should play out. Male characters are relegated to the status of either "seme" or "uke," words that imply a series of distinct differences in personality and physiognomy. Seme tend to be tall, steely-eyed, and full of manly vigor. Uke are shorter, more boyish, and submissive. The seme is typically demonstrative or abusive toward the uke, and this provides the major source of tension between the two.
Now, you may be thinking, "These must be some obscure games that never hit US shores," right? Well, there are a few infamous imports that really take homoeroticism to new bounds, such as the PC-Engine's Chou Aniki series, known here as "Super Big Brother," which puts you in control of two Speedo-clad, homosexual bodybuilders who shoot beams of energy from their waxed chests while intertwined in sexual positions not covered in the Kama Sutra. This series was recently reborn for the Japanese PS2, as Chou Aniki: The Legend of the Holy Protein, in which players must seek out this *ahem* mysterious substance so that it may transform them into the ultimate physical specimen.
Even more overtly gay are so-called "yaoi" titles, which are dating simulators featuring graphic relations between male characters. "Yaoi" is actually an acronym, standing for yama-nashi (without climax), ochi-nashi (without a conclusion), and imi-nashi (without content). Gainax, famed creators of the ever-popular Evangelion series, is notorious for pimping out its stars for use in such games. While these are usually less explicit than competing, lower-budget yaoi games, they are extremely popular in Japan, particularly among young, female audiences.
Yet, these niche games aren't the only place you'll find the suggestion of homoeroticism. Square Enix's Final Fantasy series is a perfect example of the roles of seme and uke being used to fuel character development and interactions. The seminal example of this would be Cloud and Sephiroth, from Final Fantasy VII. The spiky-haired soldier Cloud is strangely drawn to the domineering Sephiroth. One cannot help but feel that Sephiroth is a seductive presence for Cloud, even as he regularly belittles and emasculates our hero, who is the uke to Sephiroth's seme. This emasculation takes a more literal manifestation when Cloud is forced to wear a dress in order to sneak into the Honeybee Lounge, a sort of high-class brothel, where Tifa is being forced into servitude as one of the attendants. During his stay at the Honeybee, Cloud is hit on by a large man wearing a pink Speedo. Cloud may have the convenient alibi of doing all this for the sake of his buxom girlfriend, but the fact remains that he hot-tubbed with eager, homosexual men in a game designed for young teens. Take that, Vice City.
Final Fantasy VIII featured what was probably the first RPG character to be modeled after a real-world celebrity. Squall, the game's protagonist, was based on the likeness and personality of Camui Gackt, a chart-topping Japanese rock singer, formerly of the band Malice Mizer. Gackt, who is openly bisexual, is known for putting on rather homoerotic performances during his shows. Squall's provenance perhaps sheds some light on the apparent sexual tension between him and schoolyard rival Seifer. These sorts of relationships, however subtle, spawn countless tons of yaoi dojinshi and fanfiction--unlicensed comic books or stories featuring video game and anime characters, often in graphic, homosexual contexts. Japan's Tokyo Big Site, a huge convention center, is home to an annual market, called Comiket, dedicated to the sale and exchange of this material. Most companies take these kinds of harmless bastardizations of their intellectual property in stride; however, Nintendo has made it abundantly clear that it will not tolerate copyright infringement of any kind, particularly the sort that perverts their family-friendly image.
In Japan, homosexual pairings--particularly those between men--are a way to entice the female youth demographic. This practice might be considered entirely unwholesome by American standards, but with the growing acceptance of "gay-themed" TV shows and movies joining mainstream media, how long is it until a Queer Eye video game is released, in which you must help a hapless straight male adopt a fashion-forward lifestyle. For those of you who are fans of Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball, this sort of accessorizing should come naturally. As GameSpot reader Mike Lisman so eloquently put it, "I had a little too much fun picking out high heels. DOAX is a homosexual-themed game, masquerading as a manly boobfest."
GameSpotting Jump Around
This week, our editors would like to send word to your moms, as they have come to drop bombs, and they've got opinions like the Bible's got psalms.
