About eight days ago, “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” was announced to have same-sex relationships. “Skyrim” is a massive role-playing game that allows the player to do battle with dragons while existing in a believable world with micro-detail on the smallest of flowers and macro-detail of the mountainous region. The appeal to “Skyrim,” as was with past Elder Scrolls games, is that if you can see it, you can go there. When I first heard about this news I remember saying aloud, “Wow! That’s really cool, they are letting you play a role in the world as you see fit.” But as I thought about it, I started noticing a trend when it came to role-playing games.
I thought it was strange that the only setting same-sex relationships can exist is with swords and sorcery akin to the Lord of the Rings and the days of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. My experiences with franchises such as Dragon Age and Fable, which all take place in the setting of swords and sorcery, have made it blatantly obvious that a same-sex relationship is possible. But why only this setting? Yes, same-sex relationships existed back in the days of swords and armor but they continued throughout history. Why not modern or present day games in which same-sex relationships exist? I’m not proposing that the next Call of Duty game have a character that is homosexual just for the sake of having one but they could at least acknowledge that these kinds of things exist in modern times.
In May, it was announced that “Mass Effect 3” would support same-sex relationships. “Mass Effect 3,” for those who have been sleeping under a rock for the past four years, is the conclusion to the massive space opera in which the player saves the galaxy from utter extinction as one Commander Sheppard in the 2100s. At Theglobeandmail.com, Chad Sapieha reported that according to GayGamer, Casey Hudson revealed through a tweet that he was: “Happy to confirm ME3 supports wider options for love interests incl. same-sex for male & female characters, reactive to how you interact with them in-game.” I give Bioware, the developers of both the Mass Effect and the Dragon Age franchises, credit for breaking the mold of including same-sex relationships in the future. If games are to be represented as an art form, then homosexuality needs to be at least acknowledged in them, not just restricted to swords and sorcery.
