b'GAMING Along for the AdventureAs the gaming world introduces new, diverse characters, its turning into an ideal space for LGBTQ+ storytellingBy Matthew BradfordQ ueer characters and narratives have long vied for space in popular entertainment. And while video games have a less-than-stellar history of LGBTQ+ representation, the medium is levelling up. Games are an interesting medium for representation because there are a lot of different types of dynamics between the player and their character, suggests Adrienne Shaw, author of Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture and associate professor at Temple Universitys Department of Media Studies and Production. Still, adds Shaw, to say the industry has matured would make it seem like it needed to go through a revolution process to think about representation, and thats giving the industry as a whole too much of a pass.The opportunity for gamers to step outside their known worlds and plug into different experiences makes video games an ideal space for LGBTQ+ storytelling. Yet after 60-plus years of immersing players in the lives of soldiers, street fighters, space marines and princess-savers, its only in recent years that game developers have explored non-heteronormative themes in a meaningful way. Flores from Tom Clancys Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft)8| QBiz CANADA | Issue 1 2022'