As we start to think more about diversity in games, one of the issues that seems to keep coming up is homosexuality in games and gay gamers. Last year Armchair Arcade ran an interesting piece about gay game characters, highlighting a few that show up in games. And Gamesblog has a short piece on their site today about the issue. It seems the taboo lies more with the gamers themselves than the developers or publishers. Some good examples of homosexuality in games include The Sims Online virtual same-sex marriage, Ultima VII s bath house and The Temple of Elemental Evil, which built a gay marriage into the plot. The Gamesblog piece also points two a handful of sites dedicated to the gay gaming community.

It s interesting that more games don t explore this option. Virtual worlds seem like the perfect place to experiment with different identities. Heck, who hasn t played as a character of the opposite sex in at least one video game?

Homosexuality and gaming [Gamesblog]

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