EA Defends Inclusion of Lesbian And Gay Content In Games

Electronic Arts may not be everyone’s cup of tea but you have to admit that sometimes they’ve got their heads screwed on right.

The publisher has reportedly received “several thousand” letters and emails condemning the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — better known as LGBT — content in its games. The company however says that its development strategy won’t be influenced by bigotry.

The report claims that the company’s executive team and creative heads have had messages directed at them by various ‘individuals’ who have threatened to boycott games with same-sex relationship content if the publisher refuses to remove it.

Yeah, right. Remind me again, when was the last time gamers successfully boycotted anything? Well, that one time aside…

Some critics believe that EA has been including homosexual content because of pressure from LGBT groups, going on to say that this content is then forced on children.

This is obviously not at all the same as the usual sexual content that’s “forced on children”. Obviously. Madison and Ethan in Heavy Rain, anyone?

Others have complained that EA has been deleting anti-LGBT posts on its official forums. Because of course, that’s entirely different to racist or sexist posts. Somehow.

Jeff Brown, VP of corporate communications at EA, had the following to say: “Every one of EA’s games includes ESRB content descriptors so it’s hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn’t about protecting children, it’s about political harassment.”

Politicians — and their supporters — do so love hating on games.

“EA has not been pressured by any groups to include LGBT characters in our games,” he continued. “However, we have met with LGBT groups and sponsored industry forums to discuss content and harassment of players in online forums. In short, we do put options for same-sex relationships in our games; we don’t tolerate hate speech on our forums.”

This from a company voted worst in America, mind you.

It frustrates me because I have many homosexual friends who are really nice people, yet they live with the constant belittling and demeaning because they were born a certain way. Here comes some commenter to tell me homosexuality isn’t a birth trait. Fuck you. Treat everyone equally. In today’s world where we strive for diversity and self-expression, how are people oppressed for those very same differences? Or do we only want the nice ones…

Good on Electronic Arts for defending themselves regarding this matter. I can see a lot of religious fanatics and political candidates clamouring for EA’s demise, no doubt spouting some sort of devil-speech in their direction, but really that’s not what this world needs.

The only valid complaints that I can think of are those from LGBT folk themselves, who believe that the homosexual relationships in EA’s games are being done wrong. They have a valid reason to criticise. But even then, it’s not exactly as if heterosexual relationships in EA’s games are being done so splendidly either. Think about it: when last did you watch a romantic relationship in a game and not feel weird about it? Those of you who weren’t secretly wishing it were you in the game, of course. And don’t even get me started on the cringe-worthy sex-scenes in games. Rated adults only for what could be done in a primary school with plasticine.

What are your thoughts on LGBT content in games? Let’s try and be serious about it, as much as I know some of you will troll.