The student researcher, Paul Nowak, spoke with Joystiq.com about the survey.

Joystiq: A gay gamer survey has been done before, why do it again?

Paul Nowak: Since Jason Rockwood’s survey in 2006 was the first of its kind, it got stuck with the burden of proving to the academic community that the gay gaming community even existed. Now that he’s been successful at that, we can make a more in-depth study of what exactly gaymers want from their games.

What do you hope to learn from this new survey?

Ideally, I want to learn what exactly it is that gaymers want from their games and how that differs from their heterosexual counterparts. I’ll take that information to develop guidelines the industry can use when trying to make gaymer inclusive games that don’t become offensive or insulting to any gamer regardless of sexual orientation.

Read the entire interview at Joystiq.

Mike Fahey at Kotaku.com then picked up the story and added his two cents.

As for the survey’s motivation, I find myself a bit conflicted. I’ve just never thought of gaming as a pastime that sexual orientation figures into. Nowak makes a valid point about the industry’s stumbling first attempts at reaching a female audience, but are homosexual gamers that much different from everyone else that they need to be catered to specifically? I’m not saying they shouldn’t be…I suppose I am asking if they really want to be.

Read Fahey’s entire piece at Kotaku.

I find two of Fahey’s statements of particular interest.

First, “are homosexual gamers that much different from everyone else that they need to be catered to specifically?” His choice of language is interesting and disturbing. It sounds like the video game variant of the argument that gay rights are special rights. Second, he asks “if they really want to be.” And amazingly, there’s not a clearcut answer to this. There are gay gamers who couldn’t care less, and even gay gamers who sometimes express discomfort with gay content in games.

Joshua Meadows has written an eloquent article entitled, “Missing the point: why we need more LGBT visibility in gaming.” In direct response to Fahey’s statement, “As for the survey’s motivation, I find myself a bit conflicted. I’ve just never thought of gaming as a pastime that sexual orientation figures into,” Meadows writes:

Well no, Mike; as a presumed heterosexual male I guess that wouldn’t be something you’re likely to think of, given that the default sexuality is always straight, whether we’re talking about TV shows or movies or games. As a gay man, I didn’t come out once; I have to come out of the closet constantly because it’s assumed that I’m straight and it’s on me to correct that assumption, unless I want to make things easier by camping it up to such a degree that the assumption is changed to “oh yes, he’s got to be gay.” As an outlier to the default I am constantly face-to-face with how I am different, so “sexual orientation” is going to be a bigger deal to me in places it won’t matter to straight people and I’m going to notice the glaring lack of representation in places straight people didn’t realize something was missing. I would think that this is easy logic to follow but apparent it isn’t, since other gamers constantly wail about how it’s injecting something irrelevant into their particular hobby.

Meadows goes on to encapsulate why gay representation is important, even in video games:

Ultimately it’s just an issue of visibility. Gay characters (and explicitly stating that you, yourself, are a gay gamer) might be irrelevant to many or most heterosexual gamers (and sadly some gay ones; come on guys!) but it is still an elevation for awareness that has a very tangible effect on the people who see it. If one gay teenager living in middle America can look at such a representation, whether from video games or movies or TV shows, and feel less alone because they see themselves reflected in a way that seems “normal” and “okay” then that is a powerful accomplishment. If one straight kid sees the same thing and it changes how they react towards gay people for the better, it’s an improvement for our rights and treatment in a way that political lobbying will never match. That is why this stuff is important and why dismissals about it being irrelevant or out of line hold no weight.

Read Meadows entire op-end here.

As always, my favorite bits of these conversations are found not in the commentaries themselves, but in the comments they engender. (All comments below are from the Kotaku piece)

From Zhivagod:

I do not feel that a gay NPC would be relevant to any storyline unless the story is somehow sexually oriented.

Ed: Okay, when I said “favorite bits” I meant “the statements that madden me the most.” This comment is very common to all media, not just video games, but it adds an extra twist on the end. First, gay people don’t occur in real life where they’re “relevant.” They just exist. That’s like saying you’d only include a black person in a storyline if race was somehow relevant to the story, which is ridiculous and, in itself, racist. Then Zhivagod adds the sexualization bit, reflecting the perception of homosexuality as homeSEXuality. But being gay is a total, encompassing experience. It’s as much or more about affectional attraction and identity than sexual attraction.

From Showmeyomoves!:

So gay people are attracted to people of the same sex… Unless we’re talking about dating sims here, I don’t see how this would be relevant to videogames. Do gay people only watch gay movies, read gay books and listen to gay music?

Ed: Only? No. But sometimes? Yes. As Meadows states, heterosexuality is the default. By default, movies, books, music and games are all heterosexual, and heterosexuals take for granted just universal those media include explicitly heterosexual relationships. Heterosexuality does not just occur in dating sims. Why should homosexuality?

Trigger2 makes an excellent point along this line of thought, by pointing out games that offer het relationship options, but no gay options. (Emphasis mine)

there is a certain type of game where I find myself annoyed with the lack of choices – RPG’s and open-world “grow your own character” style games. In most of those games it quickly becomes obvious that heterosexuality is the ONLY choice.

For example: Saints Row 2 and GTA4. I found myself a little disgruntled that the majority of the options for your in-game personal life are strictly geared to str8 guys, even though both games flirt with the idea of gayness.

In GTA4, why not let Nico use the dating web-site to go on dates with dudes? Who cares? The fact that he could cruise the guys on the site on the computer but the game only let you date the ladies bugged me. I know Nico is “supposed” to be str8, but it actually would have made Nico MORE interesting to me if he could’ve hooked up with dudes on occasion. Why force the issue? If the gamer wants him to date only girls that’s fine. If the gamer wants him to be bi, that’s up to them. But to force the issue like that seemed a little harsh.

Saints Row 2 is alot of fun and gives you alot more freedom, which is why it was slightly annoying that when I upgrade my crib, suddenly there are pole dancing ladies in my crib, and girly posters and photos. It would have been a simple matter to be able to switch out the chicks with dudes etc. Or at least have made the pole-dancers and photos as separate upgrades.

The point is, when games start giving the player more and more freedom to customize, it quickly becomes apparent that the developers have designed all the options around the straight male.

Chagrin makes a good point:

Additionally, it’s easy to forget this if you’re not in a minority – even I tend to forget it, since I’ve moved beyond this as I’ve grown up – but a positive portrayal of a gay character can mean a great deal to a young guy or girl questioning their sexuality. Nevermind video games, there’s still a lack of gay role models in all media. It’s changed a lot, but not enough to wash out the taste of what came before it, really not all that long ago, where being gay in a film (for example) was at best a death sentence. Usually not without having been a lecherous, despicable villain to begin with. (I’m looking at you, Hays Code.)

And beyond all that, there’s a simple reason why it’s a good thing: storytelling in games could use improvement across the board. Nuanced plot, characters, themes.. how many times can we see characters lifted straight out of the Gears of War mold? I don’t mean that as a knock against that franchise, for which it works within the context in which it’s presented; but game developers could stand to broaden their concepts to eschew falling into the same patterns, the same accepted tropes, and produce works which explore different ideas.

So, I guess my point is.. why shouldn’t games be made with a potential gay audience in mind? Not necessarily targeted to them, but at least accommodating of them.

Video games have grown up a lot in the last few years, “but we still haven’t seen the kind of normalization [of LGBT characters and story lines] that we’ve seen in movies and on TV for some time,” laments Brenda Brathwaite, a veteran game designer and the author of Sex in Video Games. “We still haven’t had our Brokeback Mountain moment.”

Read the whole piece here.