A very serious question - I'm thinking about adding a gay character to my game as a playable chararacter. He isn't flaming or anything like that, just a normal person like everyone else. Do I run the risk of turning off the majority of people to my game? Is the gaming community (or verge community) at large mature enough not to play my game because they think it is "gay"? Please, only serious replies.

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Well, one of the things was that this character was the friend of the other main characters since childhood, and they know that he was gay, and they got so used to there not being any difference between him and normal people that they kind of forgot about it, until a particular situation comes up, when all the other characters have someone to be with, and he is alone. I thought it might make someone empathize(sp?) with him a little better, and understand that gay people, just like hetero people, can't necessarily be put into catagories. I'm certainly not out to make a statment of any type, I just thought it would be interesting.

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I've thought about doing that somewhat. Like having the main character be gay but not reveal it to the player openly. I don't know enough about psychology to do it good though. :P

At any rate put all the controversy, intended or not, that you want in your game. We'd see alot more of it in commercial games if us Puritan Americans weren't so uptight about it.

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choris@verge-rpg.com

"Heck, Forgotten Kings is going to have a naturist in it -- a character who chooses to remain completely nude in order to stay pure, to keep close to her roots as a mammal, and thus an animal."

That's fine with me! Unless she's ugly, then it's out of the question! :D

-Falth

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My mom thinks I'm cool.

Well, for starters I'd bet that at least 10% of the Verge community has to be LGBT, if you think about it. It's a simple fact of life that LGBT people make up a certain percentage of any population, and that's a fact of nature, not something weird or unusual. (Of course, here in Ithaca NY it's closer to 40%. =) So I say go for it. Just remember to treat them like any other member of your cast -- like a normal person. It'd be even more balsy to include a gay romance as a sub-plot, but I don't know how far you're willing to go. =)

As for the community, fsck 'em. Some people are going to be turned off. Nothing you can do about that. Your job isn't to play to the community, but to release the best story you possibly can. Don't cut corners because you're afraid of a few immature critics. Those who do like what you've done and can appreciate it for what it is are the ones that matter anyways.

Oh, and don't make it a girl who's been molested by a man in the past and now turns to women. It's cliche and quite frankly insulting.

My verge-partner Cloud wants me to write it in here that he's not gay and he's single. He also says something about "G4y? Th4t f5ck1ng rul3z. T00 m4ny str41ght p30pl3 in RPG'5 4nyw4ys." I'm going to throw him off my couch now.

- the Lady Vesper

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I figure BluesZodiakos, himself, is... Or, well, considering to censor his own game.

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- Sungam
 Ancient Ex-VERGEr
 Possible Retro-VERGEr..?
Formerly known as:
 Sephiroth/^_^Sephiroth/Magnus

Well, that is exactly what cencorship is, isn't it? Pardon me if it isn't... I haven't actually looked it up or anything.
To exclude something solely because it may be found offensive, or somehow hurt certain groups.
Homophobics would probably find a homosexual character offensive. They then might further their belittlement (is that a word?) of homosexuals in real life, which would hurt that minority. Hence, some might decide to cencor it, to avoid conflicts.
I find it difficult to believe that anyone would find a talking horse offensive... But then again, there's some strange people out there ;)

But hey, I'm no lingual expert, so it's very possible that I'm wrong.

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- Sungam
 Ancient Ex-VERGEr
 Possible Retro-VERGEr..?
Formerly known as:
 Sephiroth/^_^Sephiroth/Magnus

I don't think anybody whose opinion you'd value would care one way or the other, unless you're succumbing to "Captain Planet" syndrome. (i.e. including every damn race, religion, sex/sexula preference, age, and other minority possible, in equal parts when possible in order to be PC/enlightened.) Or just doing it to be unique. However, from some of your earlier posts, it sounds as though you've got plot elements already set up that don't remind me of "A very special episode of" whatever, so I'm game.

Urf. Summary. Don't be preachy, and don't try to make the gay guy the main selling point, and it'll be fine. :)

-GMW-

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As long as your ok with it and it's not there just to be around. Then go for it. In my game twilight there was a gay character, two actually (they were going to be lovers) but that game never was finished. I wanted to but I couldn't get around to it. In any case, as long as you do it intelligently. it shouldn't matter...

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All I have to say on this is, I wish this wasn't even worth bringing up. But hey, the world is full of closed minded people, so....

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