Gaming In Color: Playing Well Together: This article is a departure from most of my normal pieces, but it is for a couple of good reasons, fellow readers. The first reason is that this article is more of a review/editorial piece on a documentary I recently watched. The second reason is, well, I’ll save that towards the end of the article. Let’s focus on the documentary. The documentary is Gaming in Color, and it is a documentary that focuses on the queer elements within the culture of gaming. This documentary was released by Digital Films in association with MidBoss and was directed by Philip Jones.
Like any typical documentary we see today, Gaming in Color is filled with interviews from multiple members of the LGBTQ community who have multiple roles within the video game industry. From players to developers, and from activists to everyday people, we get the perspective of what the game industry is like to its LGBTQ counterparts. Where this documentary transcends other documentary counterparts is the way in which these stories are told. I found myself taking pages of notes surrounding three major topics within the documentary, and by the end was impressed by how they all related to each other not only within a topic, but how they all seemed to fluidly move along a timeline. Allow me to explain.
We begin the documentary discussing the idea of younger people playing games and finding a new identity within the games they play. Used by some as an escape from the real world, and utilized by others to live out a daydream/fantasy, young LGBTQ gamers share the vision that within these games they were in control of their identity. They had the options to be male or female, to have the physical attributes of their choice, to be the gruff outspoken guardian, or to be the wise and wonderful mage. A sense of control to a group of people not only experiencing the normal confusion of adolescence, but to also having to restructure societal norms to accept their LGBTQ identity. Since we mentioned societal norms, let’s also look at the general gamer. Stereotypes and less societal favorable attributes are forced on them. They are often perceived as socially inept, overweight, and with bad acne kid. The ‘jocks’ or ’cool kids’ of the school pick on the ‘nerds’ and ‘geeks’ who play D&D and carry their Pokemon cards around. This was the era I grew up in. I was a huge geek, (still am), and was definitely not part of the ‘cool kids’ because of it. However, in the geek world, I was awesome. I had friends that accepted me based on my personality, shared interest, and gaming abilities. None of the other ‘cool’ ideas mattered. We can see how this relationship between gamers and LGTBQ youth work incredibly well with each other. Each group is being ostracized from the popular kids for their differences. We see a healthy alliance in the merging of these two groups that feed each others need for community and fellowship. Those of us that had questions about our sexuality found a home in gaming and used it as a shield and/or guide to get through the nightmare of adolescence.
Well, adolescence put aside, what happened to those of us who found ourselves in the LGBTQ/gaming community? You will meet people in the documentary who used gaming to develop a lucrative career from that. You will also see people who took the strength from those times to become activists for the LGBTQ community. The gaming was a way for some LGBTQ people to develop their own voice and their own community. Gaming was a way for them discover a sense of self, to take that identity, and move into the world of their making. Gaming in Color shows how those of us that struggled with LGBTQ identity and turned to gaming, well, we did okay. We left this world where we saw violence and hate towards LGBTQ and we became mages, ninjas, warriors and heroes to fight other types of evil. Then, when we came back to the real world, we had tools that equipped us to handle some of these evils that permeated our lives. We used those tools to create a character to play in this world, where we weren’t afraid anymore, and when we found our voice, we found our world.
So where did this ultimately take us? Now we have become the engineers for the next generation of all gamers. We grew up with these games, before the internet was available to all on a phone. We were on the Oregon Trail in our covered wagons curing dysentery with bacon. Now we have MMORPG and live on line play. We saw how safe it was for us to be gamers, and now we are on the forefront of developing and protecting the next generation. Here, the documentary begins to discuss how companies are dealing with online trollers. We even get an example of how League of Legends polices its online gaming and calling someone ‘gay’ or a ‘fag’ is immediate expulsion. We are also seeing some of the very heroes we grew up playing are now coming out of the closet. In Fable, you can have a same sex wedding. Commander Sheppard from Mass Effect can be a gay male hero. Let us also not forget how Dragon Age has given us the option to have relationships with anyone of any gender we choose. Not only do we get to play the heroes we all dreamed of, but we are now seeing that these heroes are just like us LGBTQ persons. While this is only the base of the mountain and we still have miles to climb, we are now not only able to use our games as an escape from things, but we are able to actually relate even further to the characters. The times they are a changing, not only in the gaming world, but in the real world as well.
I highly recommend that people of any sexual orientation pick up Gaming in Color and watch it. I believe you will find in incredibly informative and enjoyable to see how an industry that began not very long ago, and that has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, is keeping with the times and beginning to envelop the LGBTQ experience into its normal existence. I must admit that my LGBTQ experience greatly paralleled the documentary and was grateful that my story, along with the story shared by many others, is finally being heard.
Oh I almost forgot. There was one other good reason I was doing this type of article. This article was a labor of love to write, but unfortunately it will be my last for Games People Play. A new player will be taking the controller from me as I go on to complete my clinical licensure. The real world demands my attention, so I must make sacrifices in order to do so. I have enjoyed my time here at Go Figure News and with Games People Play. It has truly been an honor and I thank all of you that read and supported my article. Now it is time for me to dig deep as I have a huge demon to slay. That demon being the Board of Behavioral Sciences, of course. However, I have my knowledge social work, my plus four to test taking, and my amulet of memory retention. With these in my arsenal, and some pretty sexy mage robes, this demon is toast.
I bid thee farewell (if someone would hire a bard to sing about me while I am gone, I would be greatly appreciative)......
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