Sexual diversity in games and why 'Borderlands 2' gets it wrong.

I didn't know where else to post this. This seems like a Hall of the Elders post, but since it was about video games I thought I should post it here. Anyway, if anyone thinks it should be moved, then move it or something I dunno.



Have you heard of a game called Borderlands? It's an incredibly popular loot based, co-op first person shooter. The first game was a big success, so Gearbox decided to release a sequel a few years later. Enter Borderlands 2, a game that was even MORE successful then the first one. I decided to pick up Borderlands on a whim, and to be honest, was not the biggest fan of it. I ended up getting rid of it when I found out that to play 3 player local co-op we'd each need a TV and console. About 3 or 4 years later I decided to try out Borderlands 2 with my brother, and enjoyed it much, much more then the first game. The second game had more characters, more of a narrative, more locations, more guns and just more everything. I still love the game too this day.

During the middle of my playthrough, I decided to look around on the internet and I noticed a few blogs and articles talking about how Borderlands 2 gets sexual diversity right. I didn't know this, but a majority of the characters (including one or two of the playable characters) are not straight. I didn't read any of the blogs or articles, just the headlines and what not (I'm not a big fan of game journalism) and decided to play more of the game. After reading those headlines I started to notice it more, and I realized that those articles were wrong... mostly.

Yes, it has a diverse cast of gay/lesbian/bi/trans characters, but none of them serve any kind of narrative purpose. They just exist to give you a new item and say “I'm gay”. That's it and to be diverse, simply having a bunch of characters that aren't straight is not good enough. It needs to have a narrative purpose of some kind. When it comes to video media, there's always one rule you have to follow, and that is 'show, don't tell' and all that Borderlands 2 does is tell. When all you do is say “I'm gay”, then that is your character.

“But Heizen!” you cry out at your computer monitor. “They are just side characters! What does it matter?” you say to me, tears in the corner of your eyes, and I say you're right, it doesn't matter, but not all of them are merely side characters. Take Sir Hammerlock for example. While not a major character, he's still a narrative important character and all that he seems to exist for is to tell you over and over that he's gay. He has important moments in the game and in his DLC, but that's all he does. That's not a character and that's not diversity. What's his personality? What's his goals in the game? Why is he here? These only get answered in a passing sentence and are over shadowed by him screaming out “I'm gay”.
A good example of good narrative when it comes to this topic would be Dragon Age. You have two options for gay characters, and each one fills a narrative purpose. Not only that, but you wouldn't even know that they were unless you are paying attention. They drop hints as to what their sexuality is instead of raising their arms in the air and shouting “I'm gay!”. These are also plot important characters. Not once does a character feel the need to out right state their sexuality. When it comes to video games, that's good narrative.

Now Borderlands 2 doesn't get it all wrong. Your character's stories are given to you by audio logs that you find laying around the wasteland. The audio logs give a piece about the characters past and personality since they don't talk during the games cutscenes. In these audio logs you find out that a couple of the playable characters aren't straight. Why is this done right? It's because they don't outright say it and it's through a narrative. When you make a game like this, that's how you do it.

So these were my thoughts on the matter. Yeah, I get the feeling I'm going to get a few 'Well you're wrong, you stinky buttface loser!' and whatever. This was just on my mind. I'm a writer and I love writing. I love to read other peoples stories and what not, and I've noticed that this is a running theme in a lot of things lately of characters just stating their sexuality instead of letting people find out about it naturally. Another good example would be The Walking Dead's Aaron and Eric. You don't know that Aaron is gay until he finds out that his partner Eric is still alive and the two kiss, nor is it ever brought up again. That is good writing when it comes to this kind of thing.

Well anyway I think I might have talked about this a little too much. Hopefully I didn't piss anyone off or what not.

 

Well you're wrong, you stinky buttface loser! (Sorry, I just fealt like saying that cause I laughed when you put that in your post. And I'm only kidding about you being wrong... and a stinky buttface loser.)

To be fair though, Sir Hammerlock really wasn't a main character and for that reason, they did have to put more emphasis on his character instead of more narrative. He wasn't going to get much "screen time," so they opted for something more obvious instead of gradual. Some people you can just tell, some you would never suspect and I think that's what they wanted to show. Not everyone is the same, some can reveal more than others. I think they did a fairly good job for some of them being just a side/supporting character with not as much interaction as you would when you're the main character and you speak to different people throughout the game.

You brought up Dragon Age, and I wanted to point out that you're right about needing to pay attention to the dialog. Dragon Age II specifically comes to mind as being a tad easier to get into a same-sex relationship, simply because of the "flirt" icons that show up next to one (or two) of your choices. With Dragon Age: Origins, you have to pay very close attention and explore each dialog tree (which requires multiple playthroughs or multiple re-loads, depending how often you save) because there aren't any "cues" next to your dialog options like in Dragon Age II. I would estimate that you probably have a good 500,000 different dialog tree combinations with Dragon Age that you can try.

However, comparing Borderlands series with Dragon Age would be a bit unfair. They're not the same genre. Dragon Age is a Role Playing Game, with strategic elements (pause during battle for tactics), while Borderlands is more of an Action-Shooter, with an RP element (levels, skill points, gun stats) thus Borderlands doesn't have to focus nearly as much on narrative. Dragon Age needs those narratives as they intended to provide a detailed story, while Borderlands is more of a silly, linear story with little variation in the story. It doesn't matter which character you play, the story won't change. So to say Borderlands does it right I think is pretty accurate considering the genre its in.

That's just my two cents though.

 

It was actually confirmed by Gearbox themselves that Sir Hammerlock was gay, so I don't think he may have said it outright, but his character did scream it. If I recall correctly, fans asked them directly for confirmation because of that one specific line. Up till I heard that, I never thought much about it. It still didn't change the fact I played the hell out of my PS3 with Borderlands 2 though, afterall, my PS3 went to a yellow light with the disc still in it. I foolishly tried to keep starting up the PS3 until the console finally died with a flashing red light. So now I can't get it out as my model doesn't appear to have a manual disc ejection like the newer models do. I have since moved to a better system, the PC. lol

 

Never said I disliked the game, just didn't care for a lot of the writing, though I thought the main story was good. I played the shit out of it with my brother, but we never did all the DLC.

The reason I picked him was because, next to f***ing Tiny Tina, he had the most quests and he had a DLC pack. I didn't mean to imply he was a main character, he just wasn't as minor.

I only used those two to compare the writing. I know they are vastly different game and have different styles of writing due to being different games, but it was the only other game I could think of.

Wow people needed to ask them for sure about it? xD No wonder why they felt the need to have the other characters say it out right xD

 

Better to ask and be sure, than to assume and be wrong. I'm sure some picked up the hint (probably ones that are friends or in very close contact with Gearbox), while others were probably curious if it was done on purpose or not. I'm guessing it was a result of people debated on Gearbox's intention and wanted confirmation if they in-fact intended to make Sir Hammerlock gay. Because Borderlands is a silly Action-Shooter with a story, I guess some people weren't sure if they were serious with Sir Hammerlock's personality or not. It was well received though, so it's progress in presenting fair diversity and Gearbox does listen to their fans. Apparently they had a lot of feedback about "Midgets" being disliked as part of an enemy name. Something about it being offensive (though I doubt anyone who provided the feedback were actually "midgets" and were offended by it, kind of like the Social Justice Warrior attitude), but they went with "Little" or "Lil" (I don't remember which one shows up in the game) as a prefix to the name in the Pre-Sequel when they worked with 2K Australia.

Not sure anyone said you didn't like the game, unless there was supposed to be a post right before yours (and right after mine) and it got deleted?

 

I really want to weigh in on this. But I've not gotten far enough into Borderlands 2 to really speak on it.

I will agree, however, that Dragon Age seems to handle sexuality fairly well, from a writing perspective. Dragon Age: Inquisition, specifically, did very well in incorporating characters of various sexual orientations and even a trans character.

Diversity in gaming is still not entirely common, but has made a lot of headway. Still, you can get experiences that have non-straight or non-cis characters simply for the sake of having a "diverse" character, and it ends up coming across as disingenuous. But, often, even sincere attempts or characters of the like that come about as a result of creative license (i.e. just part of the story that the writer wants to tell) can come across as somewhat cringe-worthy due to poor writing.

Borderlands usually has good writing, from what I have played. It's rather humorous, in particular. But, I have no idea how it handled those characters. Still, interesting to read your thoughts on the matter.

 

It could have been handled much, much better. A majority of the characters only exist to say what they're sexuality is and then give you a quest for a gun, never to be seen again. It's too the point of the writers just shoving it in your face, instead of being genuine IMO. I understand Hammerlock and and the characters that you do multiple quests for stating their sexuality, but if you are never going to see a character again, then why bother? It makes no sense to me what so ever. It feels like they are trying to be manipulative with it, saying we have a diverse cast of characters but none of them leave an impact on anyone. Yes, it makes sense for Borderlands to do it the way it does.... somewhat, but to do it over, and over and over again with unimportant characters, that's not world building or character building, that's bad writing.

Oh Jesus Christ....

 

Whoops. Usually when someone says 'well I liked the game a lot' after something like this, my brain reads it as someone saying that they didn't like it. Sorry bout that >.<

 

My thoughts exactly. I couldn't help but think that some people are just coddled way too much, like a spoiled brat demanding everything be done his/her way. Interestingly, the Pre-Sequel wasn't too well received by some fans. I'm not sure if it was too much "politically correct" focus instead of making it a typical Borderlands experience or what.

 

@Vashnik I just heard that the game was bad. Like it was not nearly as funny as Borderlands 2. It had a lot of Aussie humor in it if I recall.

 

We can all agree, Mr. Tourge best character!