Why Are We Afraid Of Queer Characters In Video Games?
Calling out censorship in the Arab world.
After ten years of not playing video games due to poor mental health, I found myself taking a course at the American University of Beirut on writing for video games, where I was introduced to Hollow Knight, a game that literally, not figuratively, saved my life.
I found peace within its somberness, and it showed me that even when the world can get absolutely horrible, there is still hope. It taught me that I have a purpose, even when I don’t know it yet; even if it is small, my existence is valid. Hollow Knight was there for me when nothing else was, and I am so grateful to its developers, Team Cherry.
In Hollow Knight, you play as a genderless character re-discovering who they are in the fallen kingdom of Hallownest and the role they are destined to play. I am going to refrain from giving you any spoilers because this game is a genuinely beautiful thing to get lost in, and playing it will be the best decision you could possibly make; if nothing else, for its gorgeous inclusion of LGBTQIA+ identities(#notsponsored).
Solace
“In Hollow Knight, when you get to know a character, their sexuality (whether queer or otherwise) does not change their story much. ”
Besides having an agender protagonist, you meet a queer knight who tasks you in a side-quest to fetch a flower to place on her late girlfriend’s grave. Fulfilling this quest grants you an achievement simply called “Solace”.
Solace means to bring peace to someone in grief, and I can tell you, this game brought peace to me, someone in grief. In grief for being born queer in the wrong place at the wrong time. A few months after playing the game, I also came out as non-binary to my closest friends, and I recalled the genderless protagonist and how they made my story, my life’s narrative, valid.
Interestingly enough, the game explores the concept of living in a place dominated by a hive-mentality (cue intense eye-rolling at Lebanon - or any similar Arab country - plagued by forms of extreme sectarian, religious, or generally divisive mentalities).
If you are familiar with these mentalities, that is more of a reason to check the game out. To me, this game was essentially Lebanon but with queer characters respected, accepted, and treated as members of society; not the current Lebanon, with baseless arrests of queer people and raiding of their safe spaces.
Credit: Ari Gibson under Creative Commons License
Hollow Knight normalized inclusion of queer characters. It didn’t need to outright shine a spotlight on them and write in a 96-sized font, “THESE CHARACTERS ARE QUEER”, although there is nothing wrong with that. What the game did, however, is show how they are ordinary people combating this concept that heterosexuality is the only ‘normal’ and valid sexuality (which is prevalent in Arab society).
In Hollow Knight, when you get to know a character, their sexuality (whether queer or otherwise) does not change their story much. On the contrary, it was simply an added detail that was part of their much more complex identity and wider story, driving home the point that queer folk are not just queer, they are people too, and their sexuality or gender is just another part of their lives. Just like how some people happen to be vegetarian, “simps” for 2D men (me), or quirky moustache aficionados.
Most of the other characters in the game leave their sexuality or gender ambiguous or unspoken, which creates a lovely space for headcanon and more queer ships (usually based on gaming lore or Easter eggs). This also allows for asexual and aromantic representation and thus creates a safe space for people to be themselves in and feel welcomed and included.
I bought Hollow Knight off the Lebanese Steam store. Generally, indie games are less likely to be censored (which helped me find it), and this is why they are a powerful tool for advocating queer rights and sneaking queer content into places where they are often less welcomed.
Other amazing games to check out include What Remains of Edith Finch and If Found…. The former game allows you to choose the sexuality of one of the characters, allowing you to include yourself in the game in a way or another, and the latter game discusses the struggles a trans person faces in being accepted in conservative Ireland (a country also plagued by sectarianism), both of which are accessible on the Lebanese and Kuwaiti Steam stores.
The game If Found… has the #LGBTQ+ tag on the game’s homepage to inform players that this game’s story is based on something queer-related, and yet, it went un-noticed by censoring bodies. This is something awesome for queer activism, and gets more people playing games that have queer characters in them. However, indie games are still less likely to be played by the straight-dude-bro-League of Legends gamers that plague this world (just kidding, you’re also loved), and it’s time that these games, whilst they are still available, are used as an educational tool to inform people about queer lives and bodies.
Unfortunately, Steam itself has issues which mask the impact that these queer-affirming indie games do. Clicking the #LGBTQ+ tag on Steam directs you to XXX related games and other sex-based games, (whether they have straight or queer characters) which I personally am quite surprised are not censored from Steam stores across the Arab world.
“Censorship does not protect, it only propagates hypocrisy and ignorance. ”
This signifies a major issue within the Arab world and globally where terms such as Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual are more recognized as categories of pornography rather than different types of sexualities. It signifies how trans people are fetishized rather than seen as everyday humans. Although there is nothing wrong with ethical explicit content, making it seem like queer people are just about this particular topic is not okay, as it reduces queer lives and queer characters to just sex, and essentially objectifies them. This makes it harder for straight and closeted people to see queer characters as people.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and LGBT History
The Arab world is a cesspit of hypocrisy when it comes down to censoring queer bodies, lives, and narratives in games. Let’s take a look at Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, a beautiful, open-world, historical-fiction game taking place within the time of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Emphasis on Athens and Sparta. For the first time in the history of the franchise, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey allows you to romance characters of the same gender.
The gender of the protagonist is also chosen by you. Yay bi-visibility! This was an amazing decision by Ubisoft (the company that develops Assassin’s Creed) that allowed for an experience that was entertaining, educational, and inclusive.
Ubisoft also made this happen with their latest instalment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, that takes place during the Viking invasion of Britain, i.e. Norse times. Odin, Loki and all that jazz.
However, this inclusive entertainment was not experienced by all four corners of the world. Ubisoft Middle East, based in the UAE, which localizes the games published by Ubisoft for the Arab world (i.e. translating them and ensuring that they respect cultural norms), removed the option to romance people from the same gender. It also censored genitals on statues of gods. There are many problems with this.
Firstly, a common criticism of queer people as afore-mentioned is that same-gender sexual intercourse is against nature. Sex in its entirety is natural, whether it is heterosexual sex or sex between two people of the same gender, and has been documented several times in the animal kingdom too. As such, censoring genitals is contradicting the common argument made by homophobes, as censoring genitals is censoring nature. Also, whenever you try to censor, you get more of the act you are trying to stop from happening. This isn’t news, porn viewership is high in the Gulf.
Another example is sex-work. It is in countries that advocate for the rights of sex-workers and have healthy laws surrounding sex-work that you see less sex-work.
Secondly, and to return to the main topic of the article, censoring queer lives does not change the fact that queer people exist and have always existed throughout the entirety of human history. In fact, censoring queer people in a game like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, that takes place within Ancient Greece, is basically changing history.
Homosexuality was incredibly prevalent throughout Ancient Greece, with one of the Greek deities, Apollo, being known for his relationships with both men and women. Also, in Ancient Sparta, homosexuality was actually seen as a sign of masculinity and was thoroughly encouraged amongst soldiers, also refuting people that criticise men who have sex with men as encouraging femininity.
Femininity is gorgeous, but you cannot generalize all men who have sex with men as being effeminate. You cannot deny history simply because you do not agree with the events that happened in it. In fact, forcing your religious beliefs upon a historical time is just another hallmark of colonization. This is not just something that is exclusive to the Arab world; Europeans and North Americans have butchered indigenous peoples over history that believed and accepted the third-gender, such as in Hawaii.
So, has our fear of queer characters and queer people gotten so high that we choose to deny and erase history? If you choose to do that because of religious belief, no deity in their right mind would allow that; Humanity did not start when Islam or Christianity started. The religions themselves, I am sure, have no problem with queer people, and in fact, have no text against them in their scriptures, at least the original ones.
A leading Muslim charity, Imaan, compiled a booklet explaining how the Quran is not against queer people. Translating religious texts in fact has been one of the biggest reasons to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ folk. The people instead, did bad things in the name of religion, such as using it to promote the genocide of peoples who had different beliefs across the world. How come that many pagan and spiritual belief systems affirm queer people and respect them?
To move away from games from a second but to drive the point home, archeologists back in 1964 excavated the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, and were presented in that tomb in the many ways that heterosexual couples would be presented, such as holding hands or kissing nose-to-nose. Archeologists tried their very best to present them as ‘just best buddies’ as European scholars tend to do with any text, poem or anything in human history where a woman or man proclaims their absolute devotion and admiration to their same-gender partner. ‘They were just roommates!’ Yes, Jonathan, yes, they absolutely were. (Rolls eyes again).
You cannot deny queer bodies simply because you don’t respect them; they still exist, and are more natural than ever. There is no ‘gay agenda’ being spread, only humans simply trying to exist. Including LGBTQIA+ characters in games does not ruin the story, as many parents and ‘3arabi’ (arabic) versions of Karen try to say. If anything, they are a reminder that queer people exist, deserve representation, and deserve equity, especially when it comes down to games that are based in historical fiction. As Rick Riordan once tweeted:
‘If the reader is wondering why I put gender fluidity in a Norse Mythology story...that reader does not know much about Norse Mythology’.
The Good News
It is not all sadness and tears though. I actually completed a recent survey by an Arabic game development studio asking me on how I would translate the word ‘Non-Binary’ in Arabic, and my suggestions on how to tell a story (in Arabic) about a person who is non-binary. Having doubts about something but being open to learning it, is very different from choosing to ignore something, or choosing to erase something in its entirety.
Plainly said, homophobia or transphobia is not something that you are born with, it is something that you are taught, and we could do more with indie games like Hollow Knight that show you that we are people too, and nothing deranged or weird as others might have you think. You want to maintain public morality? Protect queer people, protect humans.
Is that not what religion mandates?