Representation in Video Games

Deven Chaffee

CM384 01 FA 2022 (Media Criticism)

Professor Hunt

December 15, 2022

Introduction:

Representation is an important part of any media. Being diverse and bringing

representation to media is essential to making people feel seen and included. When people see

characters that are just like themselves, they feel included and represented. One of the most

prominent forms of media that sees a lot of diversity and representation is video games. From

fighting games to story-driven games, there is a giant cast of characters that represent all

different kinds of races, cultures, genders, and orientations.

Diversity is talked about in different ways across different media. But coverage of

diversity in video games is talked about much less than other forms of media. However, there are

so many different characters of different backgrounds, representing different cultures, races,

genders, orientations and more, that the medium is worth taking a deeper look at. Although the

topic of diversity in video games is somewhat niche, the growing popularity of video games has

made the subject less hidden. There are many articles that have been written that research aspects

including representation in gaming as well as effects of what groups are being represented.

Gaming communities have been generalized for years as toxic communities full of hate

speech and generally poor conduct. While that does still exist in places of the community, there

is significantly less toxicity than when online video games first became mainstream. However, to

learn from the past it is important that major scandals be examined and analyzed so that they do

not happen again. Another aspect of the community that must be considered is all the good that

the community has done. Fundraisers, charities, writers, developers, indie studios, all these

different groups and people come together to make a difference when they make a game, better

yet make a story with characters of many different backgrounds. The result of this is sometimes

people who are hesitant to be tolerant to everyone they meet may change their minds if a
character they like is represented as a group they had a bias against. Representation is important

because it could change minds and make the world a better place.

Literature Review

The topic of representation in video games is under covered compared to other types of

media. Destiny 2 is an example where the developer itself has revealed the orientations of

different characters in its story. There are quite a few characters that are defined as LGBTQ+ in

the Destiny story, and the way they are woven into the narrative is done very well and

believable. For example, the relationship between two characters, Saint-14 and Osiris, has been

significant at many points in the story. Most recently, as of 2022, Osiris has been in a coma for

around a year in real time, and players have seen Saint-14, Osiris’ partner, stay at his bedside and

taken care of him. Most people will immediately guess that this relationship ends with the trope

of characters in gay relationships dying, however that is not the case. Osiris wakes up and the

two embrace and Osiris continues to be a major part of the Destiny story. As Destiny 2 journalist

Paul Tasse writes, “… making this explicitly canon is also important, as often times it’s just

hints about a character’s preferences rather than saying it outright. Bungie specifically has really

tried to change that lately by driving home hard the importance of Saint and Osiris’s relationship,

going so far as to correct people who say they’re just good wartime buddies” (Tasse, 2022).

Destiny 2 is a great example of a video game with excellent representation.

Fighting games have a huge variety of different characters from many different

backgrounds, much more than most other genres. A few examples that are most prominent are

from the popular series, Guilty Gear, with the most popular game being Strive. Two characters

are the most prominent LGBTQ+ characters in the series. Testament, a character that has been

described as “Neither male nor female. Testament is Testament” (Riku Ozawa). Testament is a
character that represents nonbinary people. The other character is Bridget. Bridget is an old

Guilty Gear character that was raised as female due to a village tradition that twins of the same

gender would bring bad luck. Being very feminine in nature, Bridget’s story mostly consisted of

her trying to “be more manly” up until her inclusion in Guilty Gear Strive. In the story mode for

Strive, the character comes out as transgender.

Transgender representation has been a more difficult topic in the gaming community due

to the past representations of characters of that orientation. In the past, trans characters have been

used as a joke or for some sort of shock value. An example of the negative portrayals of

However, not all representations are bad. For example, “… Angof, a non-playable character

(NPC) who runs a crystal armor shop, is the earliest known example of dysphoria/physical

transition. This is seen when the player reads one of Angof’s diary entries that says: ‘In many

ways I am more myself than I’ve ever really been. No longer that little boy that felt trapped in a

skin that was not his own. The form changing ability of the crystal certainly has its advantages’”

(Thatch, 2021). Trans representation has so many possibilities in video games because due to the

sheer amount of fantasy settings, the way a character realizes they are trans, or transitions have

the possibility to be both respectful and interesting.

A cross-game look at transgender representation in video games by Hibby Thatch details

the different trends of how transgender people are written and portrayed throughout games.

Transgender portrayal in video games throughout the years has changed a lot. This research

details the change from transgender characters being portrayed in a negative light, for example

the reveal that a character is trans is played for shock value, to more of a reveal than a shock. The

source contains an analysis of 63 games containing transgender characters from 1988 to 2019.
 Meet the gaymers: Why queer representation is exploding in video games by Keza

Macdonald is useful because it details how aspects of games have adapted to be more inclusive.

In many games, players are now able to shape characters exactly as they want, down to gender,

orientation, race, and any aspect you can imagine. Compared to how character creation in games

used to be very basic, with most main characters being male, or at the very most, being able to

choose between male or female. In simulation games, many originally did not allow same-sex

relationships, however in recent years, games have become more progressive to the paint where

you are able to romance any character of any gender.

Straight-washing "Undertale": Video games and the limits of LGBTQ representation by

Bonnie Ruberg is useful because it uses another different game to demonstrate that games are

written very diversely due to the wide variety of characters in the game. Undertale is a very

important and popular game and has some of the most famous LGBTQ+ characters in gaming.

The issue that this article presents is the straightwashing of characters in Undertale by fan fiction

writers and certain fans. Some people are unable to accept that the characters are written the way

that they are written so they choose to ignore the way those characters are written.

Early adolescents' perceptions and attitudes towards gender representations in video

games by Helen Liu details the study of adolescents’ feelings towards gender representations in

video games. This is an important source because it portrays a negative side of video games.

When people think of toxic players in games, they usually think of children online who spew

hate speech while playing. This source is an academic study that attempts to gather information

on how gender representations in games affect children.

 Fighting games like 'mortal kombat' have come a long way by De’Angelo Epps is about

diversity in fighting games. Fighting games have always had a diverse cast, due to the need for

interesting characters. This page details the number of different types of characters that have

been represented in fighting games over the years, going back to the 90’s. These characters span

many cultural backgrounds and orientations. The source also talks about negative parts of

representation, giving a good contrast between what developers do right and what they do wrong.

Research Problem

The topic of representation goes further than just the games themselves. Games influence

not only people, but also perceptions of different groups seen in game. How groups, both

dominant and marginalized, are represented affect the audience’s interpretation and thoughts

about that group of people. This can be detrimental because poor representations can contribute

to even more hostility to a marginalized group of people. An interesting facet of this effect on

outside people is what type of characters people play in games. For example, in a study done by

Eugene Kukshinov and Adrienne Shaw, “In North America and Europe, White men are

considered the ideological ‘default,’ and in turn, White men are overrepresented as protagonists

in all manner of media “(Kukshinov et. Al, p.1). The issue with overrepresenting one majority, is

that an echo chamber is created where the precedent for those types of characters is set. An

example of this problem is the number of games that star a white male with the same stone-faced

personality that makes them indistinguishable from one another. The issue with this “norm” is

that people of marginalized groups might choose to play as the “normal character” in order to not

deal with harassment they may face online. Over time, these harassment issues have got slightly

better, however there is still some online harassment in different games. Majority of this

harassment happens in competitive online games.

 Why is representation in games important? How does representation in games affect the

outside world? There are many different reasons that representing a large variety of people is

important in games. The importance of this research is to demonstrate the diversity of characters

in video games and the issues that accompany their inclusion. Much like other media such as

books and shows, LGBTQ+ and marginalized characters have become more prominent

throughout the years. Characters went from being not included at all, to being included but as a

joke or punchline character, to being represented in mainstream media. One of the issues that

still plagues these characters today is that they are sometimes used as pandering devices. Not all

characters of this nature are created for the purpose of pandering, but some are.

The problem of representation not always being portrayed correctly or being portrayed

poorly is an issue that affects people’s perception of marginalized people. Media should be

diverse to the point where it doesn’t have to be a negative talking point. Representation helps

make more interesting content for audiences to enjoy. The creation of characters of different

backgrounds can help people who are marginalized become more empowered and feel at home

when they see people like them in their favorite media. When these representations are portrayed

as either jokes, stereotypes, or hateful insults, the negative effects can be very damaging to those

individuals. The goal is to find what representations in video games are done well and find

examples of representations done poorly in media.

Method

When attempting to determine if a character was created on good faith, examining the

developers as well as the publishing company is important. Independent developers are more

likely to make characters and narratives that are more organic and believable. For example, Toby

Fox, the creator of Undertale and Deltarune, has crafted a lot of well-written LGBTQ+
characters in his games. Fan favorite characters have become the face of indie games, with each

new installment bringing even more beloved characters into the spotlight. Relationships in

Undertale such as the relationship between Undyne and Alphys are written and handled in a way

that is normal and believable. The game just portrays them as a lesbian couple, and doesn’t

attempt to use it as a marketing tactic to sell the game. However, not all developers are well

meaning. “Large, influential AAA game studios have begun to acknowledge the importance of

increasing LGBTQ representation in games” (Makuch 2015), this is not necessarily a bad thing.

However, as large, out-of-touch corporations usually do, making money in any way possible is

the first goal. With the success of games such as Undertale, large game studios began to include

characters that are LGBTQ+, with some changing previous characters to fit these new trends.

An example of this is Activision Blizzard, and their game Overwatch. When the team-

based shooter released in 2016, people were praising it for its large cast of characters with

different backgrounds. In this cast, there was one character who from the start was canonically

gay. Tracer was an example of a character that was written to be that way from the start.

However, as the years went on and the game started to lose in popularity to other games that

were coming out at the time, in 2019, the company released a short video depicting Soldier 76

previously having a gay relationship. While most praised the company for being so inclusive and

having a gay male character in the cast, others were not so happy. Most of the negative feedback

came from homophobic people complaining about forcing LGBTQ+ themes into the game,

however there were others that gave genuine negative criticism. The problem this minority had

with this revelation is that it seemed like Blizzard saw their game was declining in popularity and

needed to attract players and recapture the interest of players that had stopped playing. The
sudden sexuality reveal came across to many players as a marketing ploy to get people interested

in the game by making a character suddenly LGBTQ+.

Characters such as Saint-14 and Osiris from Destiny are written in a way that is

respectable as well as believable. From the beginning of the game’s lore, it was implied that

these two characters had feelings for each other, until it was portrayed in the story. The

progression of the relationship of these two characters felt natural and not forced. Their story

also subverted the typical fate of gay relationships in media in which something tragic occurs

leading to the death of one of the characters. Osiris wakes up from a coma he was in and has

become an important character once again in the main story of the game. This isn’t a trend from

Destiny, as there are many other characters that have LGBTQ+ relationships in the game.

There have been controversial characters as well, but not for the reasons you may think.

One of the most recent games to receive controversy due to the orientation of characters is Guilty

Gear Strive. Two fan favorite characters were brought back as downloadable content and as

other characters in the game, also received more story for their character. People were upset

because the character Testament was referred to as non-binary. Testament is referred to as

neither exclusively male or female, with the marketing representative for Guilty Gear saying

“‘Agender is the best word, […] neither male nor female. Testament is Testament’” (Walker,

2022). Testament While this character is non-binary because they exist outside of human gender

norms due to not being human, they are still a non-binary character nonetheless.

While non-binary people are underrepresented in most media, transgender people are

represented more. Unfortunately, most times they are written as jokes or for shock value. An

exception to this is Bridget from the Guilty Gear series. Bridget is an older Guilty Gear

character, with her origins dating back to Guilty Gear XX (2002). Bridget was originally
portrayed in the story as one of two twin brothers. In the village that Bridget was born into, twin

boys were seen as bringers of bad luck. Due to this, Bridget was raised as a female to not be

executed due to superstition. After proving that the superstition is incorrect, Bridget’s story

became much more about her trying to figure out who she was. As of August 2022, Bridget was

added to Guilty Gear Strive (2021) and given more lore. In her story mode, she comes to terms

with who she is and officially comes out as transgender. Much like the controversy with Soldier

76, many people were ecstatic to have a character that identifies as transgender, but others had

issues with this reveal. Several people made transphobic comments about the character and

claimed that Arc System Works, the creators of Guilty Gear, were pandering to a specific

audience. However, since this character’s story consisted of struggling to figure out who she was

and what she wanted to be, the same criticism that applies to Soldier 76 does not apply to

Bridget. People commended the way that this reveal was handled and most felt like it fit

perfectly into her story.

One of the most recognizable LGBTQ+ characters that has a more complex portrayal is

Tony Prince, from Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (2009). Tony is a character that

initially comes off as a stereotypical homosexual man, “He meets all the typical gay male

stereotypes; he dresses well, likes jewelry, and displays more effeminate mannerisms” (Mayer,

2013). However, as the story goes on Tony is portrayed as a powerful man who is both very

smart and business savvy. The character is much less of a stereotype character and more of a

father figure to the character the player plays as. The majority of people will be skeptical of this

character purely for the reason that they are in a Grand Theft Auto game. However, unlike other

satirical media such as Family Guy or South Park, Rockstar Games subverts expectations and

delivers a character that is a representation of a powerful gay man.

 The audience for this type of media is a very broad demographic. Most are targeting

people who have played games before as gamers are more likely to play more games than the

average person. It could be argued that these companies are targeting LGBTQ+ groups, but the

companies that are not pandering are not taking that into account and just sending their game out

into the world. The games that have these diverse representations of characters are trying to

appeal to everyone, even though some only do that to pander to gain more sales. Most developers

create these characters and are confident that people will play their games regardless of what

type of people are represented. Very rarely do people stop playing a game series because of the

introduction of a LGBTQ+ or marginalized character. The only people who will be actively

upset at the inclusion of these characters are the people that were hateful to these groups to begin

with.

Alternatively, the best-case scenario for these interactions with diverse characters is that

bigoted people may grow fond of the characters, leading to a closer understanding the groups

that they once disliked. Most of the reason people are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. is because

they dislike what they do not understand. Video games are a much more involved medium than

something like a television show or movie, so the player grows attached to the characters. This

could once again lead to an understanding of these marginalized groups and result in people

becoming less hateful. Some, however, will immediately dismiss a game or other medium

because they do not like the type of message it is trying to send, or people it is trying to

represent. Unfortunately, there is not a universal solution for this.

Conclusion

Overall, the medium of video games is incredibly vast and so are the examples of

representation done right and representation done wrong. The difference between the two comes
down to context, as well as the intentions and past of the developers and publishers. In recent

years, representation and diversity in games has been steadily increasing and most

representations of characters have been generally well made. There are of course a few

exceptions, although the majority of marginalized characters are done in a tasteful manner.

Representation and the acceptance of these marginalized groups has come a long way since the

early 2000’s and through video games they are only going further.

There is a major difference between characters that are written and represented with

passion and those who are written to pander to audiences to gain more sales. Among many other

things that large developers and publishers need to work on and be held accountable for,

attempting to capitalize off the marginalized needs to be called out by consumers to show that it

will not be tolerated. Soldier 76 is only one example of pandering, as many other triple A

companies have forced diversity into their games in order to get more sales. Characters have

been written only for the purpose of attracting more of marginalized communities to buy their

games.

The most important part of diversity and representation is writing these characters and

storylines as uplifting and tasteful. Media should be looked at critically and developers and

publishers should be rightfully criticized when they pander or misrepresent a group of people.

Analysis leads to understanding and is essential for getting the true intentions of developers and

determining if a depiction of a character is correct or harmful. Holding the correct people

accountable for any harmful interpretations or generalizations they make is the only way that

marginalized groups will be less ostracized and discriminated against. Representation is games is

extremely important as shown previously, it affects not only the audience it attracts but also

outsiders.
 Overall, diversity and representation are an integral part of any media. This is especially

true for video games as the effects felt by depictions and representations of different

backgrounds and groups affect real people in real ways. Women are often treated poorly in

online games due to representations of strong female characters such as Laura Croft from Tomb

Raider being remembered as a brave powerful female character, but those traits being

overshadowed by her blatant sex appeal. Depictions such as this leads to online harassment in

multiplayer games as the stereotype of women being less than men is reinforced through

negative depictions. Representations can affect real people.

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