Olympic track athletes spend a lot of free time trying to be the best in their favorite video games. So much so, our fingers sometimes get more tired then our legs do in actual races.

According to Gay, playing video games helps take his mind off pre-competition jitters. He'll be running for gold in the 100m at the Beijing Olympics. Above, he explains his development as a runner through a painting he did of a tree trunk.

Athletes play video games as Olympics go virtual [Yahoo! News] [Pic Thanks, Zhien!]

The most important lesson I learned from comics though relates to hatred. I learned that any group that is sufficiently different is a target for ignorance. Skin color, sexuality, mutant abilities, whatever the cause, if you are different, you will be hated. You see, gay people tend to love superheroes because we get it. We know what is like to hide your True Identity (tm). The need to blend in, the protection of banality. But it is a lie. We are different, and we're hated because of it.

I also learned, largely to Stan Lee, that the responsibility for dealing with hatred directed at me is in my hands. I could rant and rage and take matters into my own hands, like Magneto. In truth that probably could accomplish some good. Or, I could choose to be like Charles Xavier and the X-Men. I could choose to love and defend those people that hate me. This really isn't altruism, in my opinion, it is about what I allow to consume me. I choose love over hatred.

There you have it, tempest in a teapot, or at least I hope that's all it was.

What Comic Books Taught me about Hatred [Gay Gamer]

A hacker has knocked GayGamer.net, the only news gathering gay-gaming site, offline with a series of denial of service attacks after flooding the site with threatening emails and hate speech, the site's owner said Sunday.

Flynn De Marco, the site's owner and Kotaku weekend editor, said small waves of denial of service attacks started Wednesday morning, causing occasional timeouts on the site. By Friday the site, working with their host, was able to block the IPs where the DOS attacks seemed to be coming from. Then Friday evening someone began flooding the site's forums and chat room with hate speech, including some death threats, and over-sized images meant to bog down the site, De Marco said. The flood of messages and images all originated from the same IP in Philidelphia, he added.

The site deleted the offensive messages, but the continued DOS attacks lead to the site's host taking GayGamer down until the attacks could be permanently blocked. De Marco hopes to get the site operational by Monday, but is having problems getting a straight answer from their host, GoDaddy.Com.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations a hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.

Its sad to see that even in the virtual worlds of gaming and game coverage people decide that the only way they can express themselves is by attacking others. Hit the jump to read GayGamer's official statement on the outage.

Hello, faithful readers: As you might have noticed, we have had some connection issues in the last few days and now the site is completely down. I'm sad to say that we have been the target of homophobic hackers. Thankfully, they didn't get to our database so all of our stuff is still in tact. At this point we are jut waiting for our service provider to ensure everything is good before putting the server back online. Hopefully, this will be resolved by the end of this weekend, so please keep checking back. You can't keep a good gay gamer down, so we'll be back before you know it, serving up all the sassy game content you can handle. Cheers, Fruit Brute

Why can't gay dwarves get married in Middle-earth? [Salon.com]

GayGamer went all artsy with their latest contest, asking readers to create their own Chocobo Tales dioramas for a chance to win a copy of the DS game and a stuffed Chocobo.

Man, I haven't seen a diorama since I was in grade school. Some of the entries seem a little phoned in, but that glass one is simply amazing. We totally need to do a diorama contest on Kotaku. Brian Crecente

Chocobo Tales Diorama Contest Entries Gallery [Gay Gamer]

Hey, that's weekend czar Flynn! And he's 39 years old! MTV did a news clip on gay gaming culture with interviews from industry notable Brenda Brathwaite, designer Jeb Haven, Joystiq's Alexander Sliwinski as well as GayGamer's Boy of Tomorrow, the eternally fabulous Tiny Dancer and, like I said, weekend czar Flynn. It airs on MTV News at 1:50am on Saturday or 3:50am and 7:50am on Monday. For those impatient ones click here to read the article and here to watch the clip. Brian Ashcraft

GG on MTV [GayGamer]

Some people just never learn. After GamesRadar's last attempt at gay humor went sour, writer Matt Cundy has inexplicably decided to try it again. Maybe he's trying to make up for past transgressions, or maybe he's just trying to grab some readers who would be intrigued by a headline like "Men Kissing Men", but in either case, the mark has been missed again. It's not that the material is particularly homophobic as much as it is poorly executed. The attempts at humor get a bit lost in the pure blandness of the article itself and after reading it I'm left with the feeling of "What's your point?" and more importantly, what is your intended audience with this piece?

At the GDC I had the pleasure of sitting in on a GLBT (That's Gay, Lesbian Bi and Transgendered for the uninitiated) developers roundtable. One of the things discussed was how to create more visibility for gay people within the gaming community, but I don't think this is exactly what they had in mind. Unfortunately, I think articles such as this one do more of a disservice to gay people by giving the whole thing the air of a circus sideshow. Perhaps if this was written for ingestion by a gay audience it would seem a little different, but somehow I doubt it.

I'm sure there are plenty of those who'd still be shocked to learn that there are men who do kiss men, but in this age of Bully and Brokeback Mountain, I think that number is slowly dwindling. I would like to think that we have progressed to a point where this type of thing wouldn't be such a big deal, but being myself a gay man in a gamer's world, I know that it's just not the case.

In the case of Mr. Cundy's gay articles, however, I leave you with the immortal words of the venerable Mr. Quentin Crisp: "If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style." Flynn De Marco

To inspire me to hurry it up with our PS3 contest (sorry all!), I bring word of a DS Lite contest they've got over at Gay Gamer. Not only a DS Lite contest, but also a copy of Final Fantasy VI Advance contest. They'll be running a question every day this week for a total of five (count 'em) questions. They've already got two up: Here and here. They've got rules, too. Send all of your answers to GG by midnight March 17th. Now, I can go back to plotting our evil and difficult PS3 contest. Mwahahahahahahahahahaha. Brian Ashcraft

Sure, Marcus Fenix has been in prison, but does that mean he's gay? Or what about Frank West's cross-dressing habits? And since Kratos killed his wife and daughter, he must secretly prefer men? Gay.com (UK) is criticizing a Games Radar feature which "outs" five game characters. Says Gay.com's Hassan Mirza:

While it's reassuring to know that gamers are interested in the sexual orientation of digital superheroes, Matt Cundy's 'Are they gay?' article relies on a series of juvenile stereotypes and cliches... I can't imagine any homophobic intentions, but it can be dangerous to suggest that looking "camp" means gay, or worse, that gay men hold violent grudges against women. It's a completely misinformed suggestion.

After reading the article, it doesn't seem homophobic in its intentions, just poorly thought-out and written. Sure, the Gay.com editor might be overacting and then again, might not be at all. Pretty sure Matt Cundy feels rotten about all this negative attention being directed at him and Games Radar. If only the piece was a bit sharper, if only. Brian Ashcraft

Article Criticized By Gay.com [Gay Gamer]

This is not a double post. Well, it is. But indulge me. On Monday, we posted a clip of an Elebit falling down and being wheeled around by Konami employees. Funny, right? Yeah, but only heh heh humorous. Leave it to a Gay Gamer reader to prove one thing: Speeding things up is bwahahahahahaha hilarious. Benny Hill music, too! Brian Ashcraft

Elebit Fall Part Deux [Gay Gamer]

Strategy Informer has strategically informed us that they now have the Gothic 3 demo up for download. Gothic 3 is the latest in a series of PC RPG games by German developer Piranha Bytes, featuring an open-ended world that you explore in the guise of The Nameless Hero, fight epic battles, and pee.

The full game ships to North American retailers on November 14th. I hope they've taken the extra time to iron out the bugs that plagued the European release last month. Give the demo a try, and experience the hot gay porn combat engine for yourself. Michael Fahey

Gothic 3 Demo [Strategy Informer]

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

(breath)

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

(breath)

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Can't breath... need to.... lay down. Brian Crecente

Jimmy and Jack Make Up [Gay Gamer]

Well, this is crap. Blizzard has decided, based on a bunch of hooting, red-assed baboons screaming "GIRLY MAN!" in their forums, to change the design of the male Blood Elves.

As many players have noticed, we have made a slight change to the male Blood Elf character models. In response to concerns that the Blood Elf male appeared to be too feminine, and after reviewing the model from a visual and conceptual standpoint, the decision was made to increase the body mass to give them a more substantial, masculine feel. It was also important that as members of the Horde that the Blood Elves gave the impression of strength and a more menacing presence.

Oh, bullshit. You changed it because your constituency is a bunch of capslock-riding asshats who are threatened by bishy player characters.

The reason Blood Elves were Horde in the first place is because everyone was whining about all the Horde races being ugly juggernauts. The point of Blood Elves was to inject some swish into a very physically intimidating set of races.

They're not exactly chunky now, and I do not begrudge a game company making prerelease aethetic changes, but their reasons for doing so are pathetic.

Thanks the Laenir, who pointed out the following comparison shots over at WoW Insider.

Horrible. They just look like regular humans now. Eliza Gauger

WoW Overwhelmed By Homophobes, Make Blood Elves Less "Feminine" [GayGamer]

Courtesy of the lovely NeoGAF comes this fantastically hilarious look at the combative stylings of Gothic 3. You might want to turn the speakers down or put on some headphones, lest your wife, roommate or parents think you're spending your weekend afternoon cataloguing your gay porn collection. Please stick around for the NPC versus boar gangbang. Michael McWhertor

For whatever reason, this picture of a gigantic Pac-Man with an aerated scalp gobbling up a Japanese lamp was posted on Gay Gamer. Is it gay? That's not cock Pac-Man's chomping, guys. Man, they've been slipping lately. Florian Eckhardt

Pac-Man Sign In Tokyo [Gay Gamer]

Says who? Game site GayGamer. And they've even got MTV convinced! So there!! GG's Fruite Brute and co. have created a little video piece for MTV.com's "Overdrive" entitled "7 Reasons Why Dead Rising Is So Gay." And GayGamer should know, because they're pretty darn gay. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [GayGamer]

The cam isn't too shaky, and the pelvic thrusts are absolutely authentic: could this be a tip-o-the-assless-chaps to supergreen Japanese television personality Hard Gay? God I hope so.

Game|Life says:

I've been continuing my excursion into the off-kilter world of Tingle's Rose-Colored Rupee Whatever. I bring to you this evening news that there is, in the game's second level, a character whose overtones make the green-spandexed Tingle look positively hetero.

It's Duke, the short-legged-no-shirt-overalls-straight-out-of-The Village People construction worker! Who communicates primarily by way of thrusting his pelvis.

Eliza Gauger

Tingle RPG: Gay as in Happy [Game|Life, via 4 Color Rebellion]

Over at Destructoid, a site which apparently functions as a cross-posting repository for all of our favorite amateur game bloggers, they've posted a great little overview of what might possibly be the most homoerotic game series of all time: Cho Aniki.

Cho Aniki is probably best known for being among the most arguably homosexual video games ever created, or to be objective it stars more muscular men in thongs than any other shooter ever. It's one part Hard Gay and one part Sexy Parodius whose most prominant release was on the PC Engine, which means massive sprites and great music... and lots of misplaced muscle groups. But alas, this game remains rare and weird as it was only played by a) The Japanese and b) a few amused teenage guys with part time jobs in the 90's.

Perhaps most alarming to me is that I recognize many of these scenes from my own homo-oneiric fantasies. For example, that giant Japanese hedonist puncturing a metallic sphere with a muscle-man erection? An LSD-inspired hallucination I had at a party, circa 1999, after Crecente passed-out next to me and slammed his head face-first into my crotch. Crecente, with the shaved head he sported at the time, took the place of the muscle man. Florian Eckhardt

Weird Game Wednesday: Cho Aniki series [Destructoid]

Computers and Video Games has slapped up a new God Hand trailer. The video has angry clowns, ass-kicking, mega-spanking, heavy drinking and of course lots of Gay Hard men. I really can't wait for this game. Brian Crecente

God Hand Fingers New Trailer [C&VG]

Hard Gay and Tingle [Weekly Geek Show]

We've gotten a number of emails from myopic, stigmatized gamers that Dead Rising has a bit of a blurry text problem. And in that regard, my homoerotic, velvet-swishing soul mates over at Gay Gamer have some bitching to do:

Dead Rising has the smallest text I've ever seen. I'm playing on a 36" TV and I have to sit on the floor up near the screen to see anything. I absolutely can't play for a long period of time because my eyes start to strain themselves and hurt. This has never happened to me with a game before. Is anybody else having this problem?

In all seriousness, even using component cables the picture is sharper, but the text is still like reading a font at size 12 from six feet away. There is no option to increase the text size - talk about stupid things ruining the game experience. I'm begging for a text size adjustment patch to be uploaded to the marketplace for download - oh, and for free! Look for our full review of Dead Rising as soon as I stop massaging my eyes to make the pain go away.

Which just goes to show that my mother's curious aphorism was right: too much wanking off to imagined gay video game characters will make you go blind. Florian Eckhardt

Earlier, Florian posted a fine selection from the Game Poets Society, which jogged my memory to something that will interest both game poets and GayGamer.net.

Gentlemen, I give you two works from the inimitable Everything2, the first being more relevant poetry, the second prose.

Excerpt from im in ur base killin ur d00dz by allseeingeye on Everything2.com

'im in ur base killin ur d00dz' he said
Sans-serif and blue,
left of the bobbing crosshair,
while the polygon world slipped by.

Finally,
here at the end,
we danced while the ghosts of our brothers swam in the ether betwixt us.
I clutched my gun like a lonely child and sought your heart.

'joo r a lamer',
impish and coquettetishly teased.
I feel my breath catch at the collar of my cotton t,
the tension of the hunt dancing on my skin, foxfire.
I am coming for you.
I am the Tyger Tyger, burning bright.

Excerpt from im in ur base kissin ur d00dz by Excalibre on Everything2.com

We've got a map onscreen, sir. It appears that every duty station has been deserted.

Dear Lord.

It appears that the men have congregated in the launch area, sir. It's the largest open space on the base.

Zoom in, Lieutenant. Maybe we can tell what they're doing.

Aye, sir. But I think the evidence is unequivocal. Here's a closer view.

Sweet mother of God, Lieutenant. It's obscene!

Yes, sir. I'm sorry.

Eliza Gauger

im in ur base killin ur d00dz [Everything2]
im in ur base kissin ur d00dz [Everything2]

In following with the kerfuffle following GayGamer's posting of the Top Twenty Gayest Game Characters, I bring you the rebuttal from a blogger that has a problem "with people unnecessarily labeling fictious characters as gay".

LJ user Count_Zeroor, pictured at right falling feet-first out of a portal into a White Stripes concert while evacuating a monster-fur bezoar, maintains that even though the King of the Cosmos wears a skintight unitard, has fancy facial hair, impeccable makeup, and sneezes rainbows, he's just not gay.

Same goes for Bloody Roar's Fox, who, if the Count remembers correctly, is female.

And Tingle? No, he's definitely not gay...you see, Nintendo is a family-centric company, and would never expose children to that sort of sexuality. Tingle is just "silly".

The count admits that a few on the list might be gay, maybe.

There are some characters on there that are actually homosexual. For instance, #12, Vamp from Metal Gear Solid II, does kind of work, if only because vampires do have a fair amount of eroticism attached to them. The drinking of blood and the biting of the neck has been described by not just literary critics, but by literary scholars as a [sic] erotic act, and in Bram Stoaker's Dracula (not just the film, but the novel as well), Dracula's bite causes his victim to experience a feeling of ecastacy [sic].

Not just critics, but scholars as well (literary ones), agree that vampires are gay because it's erotic when they bite you. Which I agree with, as just last night I had to ask Florian which compartment of my makeup case was appropriate for the storage of my fangs. He maintained that they should be stored with toothbrushes, et al. Eliza Gauger

Citing his afinity to wear green pantsuits with red man-panties on the outside, his neatly-manicured wispy facial hair, and his habit of keeping the company of other swishing men, he's pretty much a lock. Appearing later this year in a game called Freshly-picked Tingle's Rose Colored Rupee Land isn't helping his case for heterosexuality either.

Check out the full list, one that borders on NSFW simply based on Nagare Namikawa of Capcom's Rival Schools 2 well-stocked banana hammock. Michael McWhertor

Top 20 Gayest Video Game Characters

I believe we posted some this super-bizarre Mario fan comic a few months ago, with the leatherdaddy-lookin' Super Bros doing all sorts of running and jumping and climbing trees. But this particular pinup I had not seen until I did my daily GayGamer check.

They have been through the tumbler, eh? So rough n' rugged. Personally, daddies don't do anything for me but I am sure some of you out there are thoroughly enjoying it. I think Luigi kinda likes being bound up. OH, and look at the 'shroom Daddy Mario is holding...a tad phallic?

But seriously, look closely at Luigi's g-strung crotch. It's flatter than a mannequin. Is this some extra layer of kink, or did the artist just turn his nose up at rendering the bulge? The world may never know. Eliza gauger

Mario and Luigi: Oh So Burly [GayGamer]

In Newsweekly, companion website to In Newsweekly, New England's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender news and entertainment weekly, has posted a story on a new survey meant specifically for GLBT gamers, or "gaymers" as the article so coyly quotates.

The whole piece stinks of two things I hate: splitting an already disadvantaged minority (gamers) into potentially conflicting factions; and assigning previously-constructed stereotypes to the new group.

First we need to prove that homosexual gamers even exist. Yeah it sounds ridiculous, but that's where you have to start on something like this. This survey is an attempt to quantify the existence of an invisible minority.

I think this minority is invisible because who a gamer likes to boink has no practical application here, except possibly as a marketing tool. It's the same issue I have with the constant barrage of "women in games" crowing: the longer we tell each other that a gamer girl is a rare and mysterious thing, the longer she will remain so.

I'm with Dan Savage on this issue. Let homosexuality be normal. True tolerance isn't making special recognitions of your fellow gamers' differences, but simply not caring in the first place.

As a possibly self-defeating aside, I once got warned by Blizzard for saying "hey it's okay to be gay" in Barrens Chat. Amid an ocean of "stfu fagget". So now I say it every chance I get. Eliza Gauger, or possibly Gayger

Gay video game player survey [In Newsweekly]

Slipping under my radar, earlier this year a pair ski jumping game with homoerotic overtones made its way to the PS2. Called Ski Jump Pair: Reloaded, the title is totally real. I mean, Famitsu mentioned it, so it must be...

The game is from the popular Ski Jump Pair DVD series, which usually feature two men doing amazing, death defying ski jump tricks—such as holding each other in mid-air. The gay-for-pay Razor Ramon HG makes a no-brain appearance. This isn't a dude-only affair, however, as players can also select female ice skaters. Game play can be two-on-one as in two-players on one PS2 controller.

Two words: Japan only. Brian Ashcraft

More Info Here [Kamui] via Aeropause

Seeing how it's 2006, the comedian known as HG is officially so last year. The biggest casual online game site Hangame Game roped in the gay-for-pay performer. Last we saw Hard Gay, he was mixing it up on the back nine.

HG avatars loom around the Hangame site, there's a Razor Ramon chat schedule and fans have a chance at winning Hard Gay's autograph. The funny man tells admirers, "I'm coming to Hangame to play. Come and meet me. Hangame fuuuuuuuuu!" Too bad his "fuuuuu" catch phrase is no longer fuuuuunny.

Hangame will be hard gay during Golden Week until March 8th.

More Here [Hangame] via Famitsu

Sephiroth and Riku get gay in the Sims 2. What is it with Squeenix fans anyway? Half of them seem to think they've been beamed straight from a homoerotic, bobble-headed universe where Riku and Donald Duck share a special, furry bond.

Just when we thought all the HG gaming we'd be getting this year was Pangya Golf, Razor Ramon is at it again. And this time, he'll let you stick him with daggers until he pops out of a black barrel. The game is a reworking of the popular stick-the-pirate-with-a-knife-game. Instead of Long John Silver, we get the Hard Gay Man. No, you're not alone. I don't want to play either. Fuuuuuuuuuuu!

Order Here [Amazon Japan] via Moeyo!

Thanks to an utterly bizarro campaign, the online sickeningly cute Korean online Pangya golf gets Hard Gay. Players can snag leather hotpants and sunglasses for their characters, including the female character. His "Fuuuuuu" catch phrase even makes an appearance via one of the characters in the game. Apparently the man himself even came up with a special "Aztec" golf ball that makes HG noises. Geez Louise, somebody please tell me that I mistranslated the bit about the Hard Gay Man noise-making golf balls. I beg you.

Yes, He Sits On Some Dude's Face [Pangya HG Campaign] via Game Watch

It may be a little too late for Halloween, but Taito's "Hey" game center in Akihabara has a U.F.O. catcher stuffed with Hard Gay Man costumes. Otaku feed coins to arcade machines, hoping to win pleather HG gear. Feel free to "WTF."

HG Duds Here [Akiblog]

Free Online Survey [Survey]

An adult novelty shop in Den-Den Town is using a mannequin dressed up as the HG character for their PSP capsule toy machines. PSPs and leather hot-pants: How do you think Sony feels about this?

Shop Here for Japanese Adult Leather Goods [A-1012]

HG Man. In Den-Den Town. In front of an otaku porn shop. Shocking.

Gotta flash movie with Japan's favorite leather biker HG comedian running amuck in Rakugaki Oukoku (Graffiti Kingdom). This is pretty much the same thing he does on Japanese TV, minus the levitating.

Watch the Hard Gay Man Here via the Japundit