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There are two playersexual characters in this: they can date a main character of either gender, but are otherwise exclusively straight. Some of these negative tropes turn up in Fire Emblem Fates (2015), a game that’s ostensibly about tactical warfare but which happens to have a deep relationship system. Sometimes, that depravity becomes plain evil: it’s suggested that bi characters are really gay or straight, so being bisexual is itself a deception that marks a character as untrustworthy or traitorous. They might be involved in a threesome, or have way too much focus on their sex lives. They might be greedy or promiscuous, dating multiple people at once or ‘putting out’ immediately.
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Bisexuals are portrayed as undiscerning, omnivorous creatures full of lust. The first bad trope is ’depraved bisexual’. Harmful bisexual tropesīisexuality, both in real life and as portrayed in media, is often misunderstood and reduced to damaging stereotypes. Playersexuality makes every relationship identical – and that makes all of them feel less special. But this view of bisexuality is hollow it makes characters feel less alive if they like the player, no matter what. If you can date, why not let you date anyone? It stops players from getting mad that their favorite character is locked behind an incompatible orientation, and it’s easy to use the same dialog for everyone.
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Instead of an identity, bisexuality in games is a mechanic. Games still largely imagine a world where heterosexuality is the norm, and bisexuality is an afterthought – a way for developers to make queer players feel included without having to do any of the legwork to make it feel authentic. But when the gender-blind, sexuality-agnostic version of player-focused bisexuality becomes gaming’s default queer inclusion, it gets old fast. In the real world, bisexuality means being attracted to genders like your own and different to your own it’s a sexuality that’s up to each individual to define for themselves. Clotho doesn’t love your vampire, in all their debonair or bloodthirsty or compassionate choice-based glory she loves the thing marked ‘Player Character’, regardless of gender. But when I replayed the game as a male player character, I realized her dialogue was the same. As a queer teen, I was delighted Clotho wanted to date a woman. Clotho is an African voodoo priestess in 1800s New Orleans, who fell in love with the spunky vampire lady I was controlling.
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Find out more here.Ī decade ago, I met my first playersexual character in Choice of the Vampire: Clotho. During this week-long celebration, we're highlighting topics and voices within the LGBTQ+ gaming community. Welcome to TechRadar's LGBTQ+ Gaming Week 2021.
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