b'GAMINGthem to views and lifestyles they might not see in their day-to-day lives and help GLAAD AWARDS them be kinder when they encounter different people in their lives andIn 2018, the Gay and Lesbian Alli- gaming space.ance Against Defamation (GLAAD)Ducharme and his team were added an Outstanding Video Gameinstrumental in bringing two LGBTQ+ Award to its annual GLAAD Mediacharacters to the online tactical shooter Awards. 2021 nominees included: Rainbow Six Siege: Flores, a master thief and the games first gay character, and Assassins Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft) Osa, a tech specialist and the titles Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, first trans woman. I was very happy Finding unspoken love in the underworld into be assigned to these characters, he and Tentacles (2K Games) Hades (Supergiant Games) says. The fact is there is a fairly large Bugsnax (Young Horses) community of queer gamers who play Hades (Supergiant Games) Siege, so it makes sense that if were going If Found (Annapurna Interactive) have a diverse cast that there will be queer Ikenfell (Humble Games/people in the cast.Ducharme says that bringing Flores Happy Ray Games) and Osa to Rainbow Six Sieges vast Immortals Fenyx Rising (Ubisoft) online community in a respectful and The Last of Us Part II meaningful way was a priority for Ubisoft. (Sony Interactive Entertainment) Its important to speak to the people Tell Me Why (Xbox Game Studios) were trying to represent, he notes. By World of Warcraft: ShadowlandsEllie and Dina share a moment in The Last of example, we spoke to Dakota women Us Part II (Naughty Dog) when designing our Indigenous character (Blizzard Entertainment) CREDIT: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT Thunderbird, and for the same reasons we spoke to trans women when creating Osa And they were there for every aspect We kind of liked pushing boundaries apart of who they are. Whats appealing toof Osas development, from the writing to bit. Not always with violencewe wantedus about having a big cast of characters isconcept art and modelization. They were a game which is full of social commentary.for each of those characters to be distincteven made aware when we cast Nicole So [same-sex marriage] was just anotherin voice, manner and worldview, whileMaines, a trans woman, to play Osa, who thing we were doing, Tim Cain, creatortogether creating a cohesive sense of thedid a phenomenal job.of the Fallout series and an openly gayworld theyre from and the values of thatIts a learning process, stresses developer, told The Daily Dot. I dont evenworld Works of fantasy and scienceDucharme, but its supposed to be. think anybody in the team really arguedfiction have an opportunity to imagineWithout meaningful engagement with over it. We didnt think, Oh my god, thisworlds with values or social ordersthe communities that developers are is an amazing thing. It was just, Weredifferent from the world we live in, in bothattempting to represent, there is a risk going to cover every possible base here.large and subtle ways. of falling back into lazy stereotypes And then we moved on. or narrative shorthand that ends up The momentum continues today.RECODING REPRESENTATIONbetraying their best intentions. Same-sex relationships have becomeVideo games havent always handledFor example, says Shaw, The a de facto option in franchises like Thequeerness with respect. Gaming shelvesnumber-one problem, outside of blatant Sims (EA), Mass Effect (BioWare) andare filled with overly flamboyanthomophobia and transphobia, is having Assassins Creed (Ubisoft), while LGBTQ+characters, deviant homosexual villainsLGBTQ+ characters exist in isolation. In characters and narratives have taken theor gender-swapping scenes played off forsome fantasy games, for example, youll spotlight in best-selling titles like The Lastlaughs. Promisingly, industry talents likeonly come across one or two LGBTQ+ of Us Part II (Naughty Dog), Life Is StrangeSimon Ducharme, a narrative scriptwritercharacters in that whole universe. Thats (DONTNOD Entertainment), Stardewat Ubisoft Montreal, is among a growingwhy showing LGBTQ+ people as part Valley (ConcernedApe) and Hades number of game makers that have helpedof broader communities of LGBTQ+ (Supergiant Games). bring richer, more realistic LGBTQ+people is an important first step toward According to Supergiant Gamesstories to the screen.meaningful representation that doesnt creative director Gavin Kasavin, We doRepresentation matters in gaming, asfeel like tokenism.our best to imagine our characters asit does anywhere else, says Ducharme.Favouring perfection over realism completely as possible, where aspects likeTo me, theres an opportunity here tocan also dull the impact of queer their sexuality or gender identity are just agive players an experience that will exposerepresentation. As Ducharme notes, 10| QBiz CANADA | Issue 1 2022'