Play’s Republic

Salon has an interesting article up at the moment on the representation of multiple sexualities in video games. Apparently there’s been quite a bit of internal debate on whether to allow players of an upcoming Lord of the Rings game the option for same sex marriage. It seems like much of the debate was over the idea of a video game as an open playing environment for the players to make their own versus Tolkien and his vision.

Personally, I’m guessing Tolkien probably never really envisioned his books being turned into franchises with talking action figures, let alone video games, but leaving that alone for a minute, I think this idea of creator versus player intent is something to dwell on.

Commenting for the article, Brenda Brathwaite, author of Sex in Video Games, says:

“Players are still creating their own experience,” Brathwaite says. “In a video game, it’s about abdicating authorship and letting a player explore a world.”

While this is a noble sentiment, it seems a bit naive. Can authorship ever possibly be abdicated in an artificially created world where every leaf, movement, and keystroke is scripted and planned for? I think the real point here might be that we keep failing to acknowledge that these games can’t ever be empty vessels without certain (corporate) authors having the loudest voices in the narrative.

On the subject of sexuality in games you might find the following interesting:
- It’s a Queer World After All: Studying The Sims and Sexuality by Mia Consalvo
- GayGamer.net