Lately, there seems to be a surge in the creation of games that depict characters that identify under different places on the sexuality spectrum. Of course, there are a lot of differing opinions and very strong thoughts on showing queer characters in video games. That being said, do the sexualities of the characters really change the story of the game? Is the end result any different? Do they take away from the focus of gameplay? But in the end, why would the sexuality of characters affect anything within the game at all?
I think sexuality matters. It helps people related to characters. Perhaps there is an increasing amount of them in games now, because people are becoming more aware of these differences and want to continue to spread awareness. They may also be trying to connect to more types of people. A lot of hard core video game players probably relate more to outcast fringe character types anyway. Of course it changes the story of a game, but it shouldn't be distracting and should instead enhance its uniqueness. – Tatijana9 years ago
Sexuality in video games is a constant concept and it is a good topic to explore. Just look at the fighting games. Tekken is one of those games that exploits the female fictional characters in many ways. From their story lines, outfits and most importantly their sexuality. Sexuality can also be explore for queer characters as well. Not many characters in video games sexuality are explored. – jamarstewart979 years ago
The Dragon Age franchise is one of the first that stood out to me as opening up sexuality in romantic story lines, and I think this really added a lot to the experience. No it doesn't really affect the actual game, but it enhances the overall user experience by allowing for more customization. Video games have long been notorious for giving female characters hyper-sexualized armor and body figures that are far from practical, so I think depicting different sexual orientations helps draw away from this. – snlipkin9 years ago
It would be helpful to distinguish between increasingly sexualized visuals (particularly of female characters), such as in Tomb Raider, Soul Caliber, etc., and the way that sexuality has become part of the game play in many RPGs, such as Fable and Grand Theft Auto. – JLaurenceCohen9 years ago
I'm of the opinion that not every game needs to have lgbt characters, and just throwing them in there out of a sense of needing to do it doesn't really help. Sure in an open world game like Skyrim it works because of the blank slate character, but by every game just having the option kinda dampens the importance of these relationships. – brady6729 years ago
I really feel that regardless of orientation, sexual intimacy is something tragically underexplored in games. Bioware has made a lot of progress in bringing romantic and tasteful sexual content to games, but even then it's usually just the reward for a series of character interactions and then it goes to a second of buttshot and then a fade to black. The only games that I think really actually deals with the complexity of a sexual relationship in a well developed way is Catherine. Romance options have become such a popular mechanic in both eastern and western games, it strikes me that more effort hasn't been taken to develop mechanics and gameplay based on actually being in and maintaining a relationship, not just dialogue trees to seduce a character. – MattHotaling9 years ago
In these modern times we have seen changes to the video game industry toward a more acceptance of females. We now hear of female gamers, female main characters in games, and even professional female gamer teams. But have we really accepted females completely into the gamer community for who they are? Even with all these changes we still see females being harassed online, or judged on their gaming skills by being a female. I think it would be interesting to write this topic from both or either sides and discuss whether you think the gamer community has embraced or rejected female gamers.
It's a good topic, but one that might be a little too controversial. It'd be hard to find someone who could write this without bias (there was even bias in your topic). Assuming someone could actually write it properly, it'd be a massive undertaking research-wise when there's very little hard or even soft data. – jwiderski9 years ago
You could also branch out into females in the game development industry. I don't think women can fully be accepted into gaming until women are in the industry making games for women!c – Tatijana9 years ago
I think if you phrase the title differently and expand the gender split in other mediums, like video games and anime this is a worthwhile topic. The Anime News Network Podcast had an episode on sexism which covers this quite well, including differences between the anime fandom and other mediums. It might be a useful reference to look at. – Jordan9 years ago
I think the language of your topic suggestion already answers the question: if women are being harassed and generally held to a higher or double standard, then women have (not necessarily been rejected) not been embraced yet by the "gamer community." Is there another way to approach this issue? Maybe write an article about steps that can be taken to further include and respect women in said community? – Cmandra9 years ago
Given that games and technology are never going away, and are only going to get more refined. How will the rising rate of technology have a harmful effect on our youth?
This is an interesting topic. There is an article about whether watching Video Games promotes violence, so I would try to deviate from video games and focus on use of social media. Apparently the literature says there are mixed results on whether it is harmful, so highlighting the deviant opinions would be worthwhile. – Jordan9 years ago
Great topic, what are some examples you see of how technology could be harmful? I would add more questions to lengthen your argument. – emilyinmannyc9 years ago
My biggest issue with video games is the death of creativity in youth. I think that other forms of entertainment force people to think about the morals/issues brought up by a story. While playing games it's often times easy to overlook the stories in order to hurry to the next level or get the best gear. Younger people obsessed with video games become so bored when they are no longer playing them. They seem incapable of inventing ways to stay entertained outside of what's designed by the game industry. – Tatijana9 years ago
Today more people than ever play video games. There are professionals and streamers who can truly make a living out of a past time many never thought could be such a thing. Working at a game store I see people I also would never have thought playing video games. I do not believe there is an age range that does not play or has been exposed to video games. Its impact on society I believe is a good one as people can connect with others with a similar passion such as game cons or playing online MMO's and meeting new friends. Its industry also creates thousands of jobs and brings people from all aspects of the world together to create a masterpiece. Artists, sound designers, programmers, you name it and they have a place in game design! That is one of the great things about the new age we are in. No matter your hobby or your interests there always seems to be an option for you.
*its
Not to be a grammar Nazi but mistakes like that really do make your writing look sloppy. Cool topic idea, though! I'd love there to be an article that focuses on like gaming and an unexpected audience of people, like grandparents or 40-year-old women. – thekellyfornian9 years ago
With the recent release of Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live, players have begun buying into plastic instrument gaming yet again. Analyze the rise of this type of rhythm gaming, and why the tight grip it had on the market eventually crumbled. How have the opinions on this genre of gaming changed? Is it still reasonable to release these games in the current market?
That's a really good question. I LOVED playing them and really couldn't tell you why I stopped. Here are some possible reasons though. People thought they were awesome and picked up real instruments therefore losing interest in the plastic kind. This of course ended in loss of interest with the real instrument and somehow became associated with the plastic one too. Also I got really bored playing the same songs over and over again. I liked that you could buy songs that you ACTUALLY liked, but it became much too expensive so I eventually just gave up. Also perhaps it just gets boring after a while? Just like any other hobby we do obsessively for a while? – Tatijana9 years ago
This article could also bring up the more realistic "plastic instruments" introduced around when interest in the games faded. I think it might have been a different company that introduced them? A plastic guitar that wasn't dumbed down to five coloured buttons and a flip switch but which actually had buttons for every string and every fret so people could learn real chords and apply them to real instruments. They were not as popular. – Slaidey9 years ago
For better or for worse, some game developers are leaving out single player campaigns in favor of multiplayer-only games. This comes from a trend of campaigns seeing less play-time, and multiplayer being the bulk of the play-time as well as the largest part of DLC. Examine the cause and effect in games such as Titanfall, Star Wars: Battlefront, and Rainbow Six: Siege, which were criticized by some for not having a campaign. Discuss whether or not this is a wise decision for developers who see that disinterest, and address game consumers that still desire a single-player campaign. Also, look at the rise of games with a competitive focus such as CS:GO and League of Legends and their role in boosting the multiplayer community in video games, including aspects of player interaction and maintenance of an online persona/character.
I don't play games with anyone. I personally dislike engaging in multiplayer games. Or at least, I don't go out of my way to engage in them. I don't even have many friends around who could play along with me even if I wanted to. I'm a Skyrim, Shadows of Mordor, Half-Life 2 kind of guy, and none of those games, to me, would be better if I was playing along with other people. I like forging my own path, and not waiting around for others to catch up. Not that I don't understand the benefits and enjoyment of playing a game in a group. But it's definitely not a first or even second choice for me. Depending on the environment and the situation, I would be more inclined to do it. So with all of this stuff about single-player campaigns dropping from new games, it worries me that I'll have less options as new games come around each new year. Bloodbourne thankfully is still a single-player focus game, and I've been looking forward to that for ages. And there are still indie games like SOMA that are single-player only. So I guess I'm not too worried about it. But it is concerning. – Jonathan Leiter9 years ago
With videogames becoming more popular among a wide variety of people, is it possible this new competition based lens for videogames is trending towards it becoming seen as a competitive sport? Starcraft is a national sport in S. Korea, and ESPN already aired a "Heroes of the Storm" tournament. Couple that coverage with the emergence of twitch, and it would appear very obvious competitive gaming is quickly becoming a huge economic force. With the influx of what seems to be a very neo-liberal idea in competitive gaming (both in the nature of competition and the economic implications), I worry that we might see the end of artistic "AAA" games. I really like this topic idea, and I think one more direction it could go in is whether or not this now puts the onus on indie developers to keep the 'heart' of gaming, if you will, beating. – Ftelroy9 years ago
It's a fairly dismal outcome of the past several years, with more games eschewing story for favor of a vast multiplayer experience. While I assume this serves to cut down on costs and build a bigger community faster by devoting more resources to a comprehensive multiplayer network, this approach seems to have backfired on the developers as much as it's slighted the consumers. Quite a few people I know bought games such as Titanfall and others of its non-campaign ilk, and although they reveled in the the multiplayer for a short time, they came to tell me that it felt weak and baseless because they had no idea who they were, what they were fighting for, or why they even existed in the first place. What many developers seem to be ignoring is that campaigns help give players a foothold in the story world of the game, something an online database or quick summation in the Users Manual cannot do, at least not to the extent of an eight-hour single player story mode. Without that foundation, players flounder because, again, they have no idea why they're even doing what they're doing. Now, some games can survive on this lack of campaign, such as Battlefront--which is buoyed by its ties to the Star Wars Franchise--and MOBAs such as League of Legends or Counter Strike which have garnered reputations for their online experiences. So, obviously, the sans campaign system works, and quite well, it appears--for PC Gamers, where it's easy to install a mod or download new third-party content, affix it within the game files, and find yourself playing an entirely different game. Console games such as Titanfall are incapable of the more sophisticated modding communities PC Gamers are privy to thanks to the design of the consoles themselves. This hindrance prevents any kind of new community-driven development from taking place in most console games, and is therefore why console developers should not be so swift in their shirking of campaigns. – JKKN9 years ago
With the recent release of "Rise of the Tomb Raider" Lara Croft is once again thrust into the spotlight. Explore the history of the Tomb Raider series. Highlight the highs and the lows of the series, and how the series changed gaming. There should also be an exploration of how the Tomb Raider herself changed the face of gaming and became a new gaming icon.
I very much agree with this. Maybe it's just my opinion but I'd like to see the older storylines adapted into the more recent developmental models and gameplay. – TheBrunette777 years ago
Years ago, gaming was considered a much smaller, niche hobby, mostly for introverts and "nerds." Now, the gaming industry is on a rise, both financially and socially. Analyze the factors influencing why video games have become part of the "mainstream." How do different video game styles (i.e. MMOs, point-and-click, etc.) help catapult the gaming industry into the mainstream? How do they encompass diverse social groups and bring them into the industry? Does the movie-like quality of games nowadays play a part in the mainstream, too?
gaming is life at times of depresion – GanjaKing04209 years ago
Very interesting topic!!! I think that one of the reasons games are more mainstream is because of the sheer multitude of diversity in gaming now. Back in the day you had fewer companies and fewer programmers and fewer games. Now we can make specific games that appeal to specific people which entices more and more people to play. I think you have to at least mention *shudder* facebook games. These low commitment games give the opportunity for normally not interested people to pick up a game. It doesn't take much time, thought, etc. If you leave it for a week, you aren't tragically behind everyone else. And as for the movie-like quality. Hands down agree. I had my mother walk in on me playing a game during a cutscene and she actually stopped to watch thinking it was a show haha. Not that she'll ever pick up a controller, but at the very least it intrigued someone who usually wouldn't bat an eye. – Tatijana9 years ago
