Ultimate Gay Fighter

Xenji

Is “the world’s first gay video game” an affectionate homage to a vibrant community or clumsy reinforcement of offensive stereotypes? We speak to creator Michael Patrick.

Homosexuality in video games is problematic. Those that attempt to explore it, even hint at it, run the risk of misstepping, or being seized upon by those who believe it has no place in games. As a result many avoid it altogether, which in itself contributes to the problem. Elsewhere homophobic slurs are commonplace in many online multiplayer games.

Looking to wade through this maelstrom is Ultimate Gay Fighter (UGF) a 2D beat ‘em up for mobile devices developed by New York-based Handsome Woman Productions. It features a roster of characters inspired by the LGBT community, including tanned gym bunny Gogo Gary, drag queen Carrie Cupcake, and ‘no-nonsense lesbian’ Sappho Ethridge. They compete in the Gay Fight Tournament, organised by the nefarious League of Oppressive Self Righteous Zealots (or LOSRZ). Every character is armed with their own ‘Gaytality’ finishing move. It’s exactly as subtle as it sounds.

http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/10/gaytality-ultimate-gay-fighter-kicks-seven-shades-out-of-the-rainbow/

The game is garnering a lot of headlines at the moment, we have seen homosexual undertones in quite a few games, but nothing quite like this, from reading reports the designers reckon they have a massive untapped demographic for the game and reckon it will be a huge success.

CiDeRmAn

Sounds like a list of nasty stereotypes that the LGBT community have spent years trying to dislodge.
The developer himself is gay but, so what, this does not immunise himself from poor judgement and this looks like just that.
Perhaps a healthier approach to the "normalisation" of homosexuality, or at least the de-dehumanisation of it, is to integrate homosexual characters into existing franchises.
Then again, how often is the straight or gay nature of game characters made explicit in the first place?
Therefore, why does it matter?
Are we now to see an Irish developer producing a game based around drunken, wifebeating idiots in bowler hats and smoking a clay pipe?
No, of course not, it's nonsense, just like this product.
In fact, a game like that, could only enforce negative stereotypes, imagine a person struggling with their sexual identity while the rest of his/her peers scoff at the representations in this game?

Xenji

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Sounds like a list of nasty stereotypes that the LGBT community have spent years trying to dislodge.
The developer himself is gay but, so what, this does not immunise himself from poor judgement and this looks like just that.
Perhaps a healthier approach to the "normalisation" of homosexuality, or at least the de-dehumanisation of it, is to integrate homosexual characters into existing franchises.
Then again, how often is the straight or gay nature of game characters made explicit in the first place?
Therefore, why does it matter?
Are we now to see an Irish developer producing a game based around drunken, wifebeating idiots in bowler hats and smoking a clay pipe?
No, of course not, it's nonsense, just like this product.
In fact, a game like that, could only enforce negative stereotypes, imagine a person struggling with their sexual identity while the rest of his/her peers scoff at the representations in this game?

Completely agree with all your points, we will be seeing more and more about this game in the coming weeks, saw a piece about it on CNN last night, even though the developer is gay himself, the community seem to be in agreement he is just doing this to make money.

landsleaving

They could have handed character design to a 14 year old Call of Duty player who screams homophobic slurs and it would be less crass and stereotyped.

And it looks like it plays horribly.

That looks absolutely terrible and the stereotypes are doing nothing for the gay culture. The best and most realistic representation of a gay character in my humble opinion is that of one in Mass Effect 3. They just happened to be gay - no stereotypes or cliches.

JustAddWater

landsleaving wrote: »

They could have handed character design to a 14 year old Call of Duty player who screams homophobic slurs and it would be less crass and stereotyped.

And it looks like it plays horribly.

It looks absolutely rubbish. Very stereotypically gay and looks like it will probably achieve the opposite. It's making a mockery of homosexuality and it's just looks really poor and embarrassing

I can see meme nerds having a field day with it

Retr0gamer

I wish these people making 'controversial' games would concentrate on the game part first otherwise you're left with a piece of **** like this with no redeeming features.

Duggy747

Best way to portray gay people in games is to portray them as, well, people and not raging stereotypes. It feels like something to cash in on a crass angle.

I've seen better efforts for fighting characters in Mugen.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

the best way for a gay man to portray gay people in the gay video game he's making is however he damn well pleases

it does look ****e though

humanji

Anyone else get the feeling that this is all some sort of publicity stunt that's trying to cause outrage, but is failing miserably?

johnny_ultimate

An important first step in representing homosexuality in any medium is to simply make it a normal, unobtrusive part of the experience. It's about - and this word is a bit troublesome - 'normalisation', ensuring that homosexuality is simply an acceptable, convincing part of the game world without being inclined to draw attention to that fact every few seconds. Gone Home is a very positive step forward, for example, not because it's a great gay video game, but because it's a very good video game with a story that just happens to include a down-to-earth, non-exploitative representation of homosexual characters. Similarly, Mass Effect doesn't make a big ****ing deal about allowing the player to romance a member of the same gender as their Shepard: it's a natural, logical part of the storyline that the player is free to pursue if they so wish. The games of Christine Love are another encouraging example.

Look at film as well for some good examples: recent films like Blue is the Warmest Colour or Weekend are first and foremost excellent films. Their intelligent, sensible, deep and non-stereotypical representations of gay characters is to be welcomed, but it would count for little if they weren't very strong films in their own right (although the debate about those Blue is the Warmest Colour sex scenes seem destined to wage on). There'll always be dedicated queer cinema specifically aimed at homosexual audiences (some of which, it should be said, are fantastic films in their own right), but films like the two above are important because they can be enjoyed and appreciated by anyone - although, funnily enough, it's some lesbian audience members who have tended to enjoy Blue... the least :pac:

This project honestly seems like some sort of farcical joke, and if the developer thinks this is a positive step forward he's sorely mistaken. There are already games out there making very positive advances in representation of homosexuality. This game will hopefully be quickly forgotten and ignored. The best 'gay games' will undoubtedly be those that can be enjoyed and appreciated by homosexual and straight audiences alike: perhaps appreciated in different or more in-depth ways (a straight gamer will not connect with a gay coming of age story the way a gay player would, for example), but there's no benefit in ghettoising gay material. If it's strong material, anyone should be able to admire it.

calex71

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

An important first step in representing homosexuality in any medium is to simply make it a normal, unobtrusive part of the experience. It's about - and this word is a bit troublesome - 'normalisation', ensuring that homosexuality is simply an acceptable, convincing part of the game world without being inclined to draw attention to that fact every few seconds. Gone Home is a very positive step forward, for example, not because it's a great gay video game, but because it's a very good video game with a story that just happens to include a down-to-earth, non-exploitative representation of homosexual characters. Similarly, Mass Effect doesn't make a big ****ing deal about allowing the player to romance a member of the same gender as their Shepard: it's a natural, logical part of the storyline that the player is free to pursue if they so wish. The games of Christine Love are another encouraging example.

Look at film as well for some good examples: recent films like Blue is the Warmest Colour or Weekend are first and foremost excellent films. Their intelligent, sensible, deep and non-stereotypical representations of gay characters is to be welcomed, but it would count for little if they weren't very strong films in their own right (although the debate about those Blue is the Warmest Colour sex scenes seem destined to wage on). There'll always be dedicated queer cinema specifically aimed at homosexual audiences (some of which, it should be said, are fantastic films in their own right), but films like the two above are important because they can be enjoyed and appreciated by anyone - although, funnily enough, it's some lesbian audience members who have tended to enjoy Blue... the least :pac:

This project honestly seems like some sort of farcical joke, and if the developer thinks this is a positive step forward he's sorely mistaken. There are already games out there making very positive advances in representation of homosexuality. This game will hopefully be quickly forgotten and ignored. The best 'gay games' will undoubtedly be those that can be enjoyed and appreciated by homosexual and straight audiences alike: perhaps appreciated in different or more in-depth ways (a straight gamer will not connect with a gay coming of age story the way a gay player would, for example), but there's no benefit in ghettoising gay material. If it's strong material, anyone should be able to admire it.

I'm not even going to comment on the game this thread is based on waste of breath imo. You hit the nail on the head there Johnny so I'll just +1 to that. OT: Blue is the warmest colour is great!!!! long film but great. Edit: Though I raise the question of had it been based on 2 guys would it have been as accepted ? I doubt it unfortunately this is a whole other thread though.

I'd like to think it's possible to release the "broke back mountain" of games nowadays where a protagonist is gay and it's part of the story and it would do well, but I doubt it would, society would be to blame in some ways but I think the media would play a bigger role in, i can just imagine the headlines and the "wont someone think of the children".... it's ok to sell sex ... just not gay sex

Mr E

No way in hell that's real. Holy crap....

Angron

Wow, just...wow.

CiDeRmAn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I wish these people making 'controversial' games would concentrate on the game part first otherwise you're left with a piece of **** like this with no redeeming features.

Cho Aniki anyone?

Retr0gamer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Cho Aniki anyone?

Hey Cho Aniki is great!

jill_valentine

Now that all the important points have been covered and this game has gotten exactly as much attention as it deserves, let's talk about Gone Home instead.

_Redzer_

Duggy747 wrote: »

Best way to portray gay people in games is to portray them as, well, people and not raging stereotypes. It feels like something to cash in on a crass angle.

I've seen better efforts for fighting characters in Mugen.

Bill in The Last of Us is gay, but it's not emphasised or made to be a big deal. That's the way it should be because your sexuality isn't your identity and it's largely irrelevant to the story.

It only just occurred to me that Gone Home would be described as a gay game.

nesf

If you can't make a decent game make one controversial enough that people will buy it out of curiosity?


Though I'm still convinced that this was made because someone lost a bet...

Gummy Panda

GOTY

Grimebox

lol

nyarlothothep

It's like something South Park would parody. The fact that the real world and South Park are becoming increasingly indistinguishable is worrying in itself. Mr Popper's Penguins is a real film!

Gandalph

This game looks horrendous

CiDeRmAn

You'd imagine it would at least look FABULOUS!