Has Queer Representation Improved in Gaming Over the Last Couple of Years?

Take a look at our compiled evidence for why queer representation in games has improved.

Has queer representation improved in gaming over the years? Well, taking a glance through the examples in gaming since the 80’s, there is a predictable pattern. Developers were sneaking them in and hoping only the community noticed. But that ultimately defeats the purpose. So, have things improved?

Well, we’ve put together some examples of the most impactful representations in gaming and you can decide for yourself if developers have got a bit bolder with their queer-coding. Take a look at our compiled evidence for why queer representation in games has improved.

The Sims, just about everyone in the matrix (2014)

The thing about The Sims is that you are a god controlling your own world, and as a god there are very few rules. The developers of The Sims gave you a sandpit, a matrix, a dollhouse, and you get to play in it.

And play, your Sims shall. Sure, they’ll make a house, raise a family, maybe add a dog into the mix, all the stuff we’d love to do if there was no such thing as a recession, but the real fun is the “woohoo”. And Sims characters will “woohoo” with whoever crosses their path. It’s truly a pan/demisexual utopia.

However, the thing here is that, as the designer Will Wright said, it’s a virtual dollhouse. Applying societal rules goes against that concept. The sexuality of your Sims wasn’t taken too seriously. There wasn’t going to be any Tinkie Winkie-type scandal because this was just teenagers, and now adults, playing dollhouse.

The Last of Us, Ellie in the casino arcade (2013)

Thanks to the countless re-releases and the recent addition of the only game adaptation that is actually good, The Last of Us has been a pillar of LGBT representation for 10 years now.

Ellie is tough, she’s a smart mouth, she’s touchingly vulnerable, and she is gay. There is no hint of her being interested in any man throughout the initial narrative-driven game. However, she gives no indication of being interested in anything: she’s 14.

And because she’s 14, we don’t think about it. She’s Ellie. That’s it.

Until the DLC. In an extra chapter taking place mostly in an arcade in the past when Ellie was bitten, we see her relationship with Riley, Ellie’s “best friend”. Amongst the casinos with no deposit bonuses, Ellie and Riley get close, but are interrupted before they can really take that further.

Luckily, by the time The Last of Us Part II was released in 2020, the developers had grown a spine. Not only does Ellie have a steady girlfriend in Dina, but there is also Lev, a trans man in a post-apocalyptic zombie world. Oh, did we mention there are zombies?

Life Is Strange, Max and Chloe in a time warp (2015)

Ah, a game all about choices, except one important one: who you love. That’s a pretty powerful message considering we’re talking about a girl who has the power to rewind time and therefore has nothing but choices ahead of her. In the meantime, the LGBTQ community has been trying to explain their lack of choice in who they love for years. Max has all the choice in

And this was a milestone game. As yet, as mentioned, games offered your sexuality up as a choice, like Mass Effect, was assigned to a character you’d barely pay attention to, or like The Last of Us’ Ellie, would be merely hinted at.

Max Caufield is the main character of her own story. And her story’s only other lead, her “best friend” (wink, wink) Chloe, is more than her best friend by the end of the tale. The story ends with a train trolley type choice: Chloe or the town.

Crucially, whether you decide Chloe or the town, there is no hiding from the fact that Max loves Chloe. Literary analysts can decide if the vice versa is true, considering there is another “best friend” (wink, wink) in the mix, but there is no denying they are both card-carrying women who love women, leading their own story of women loving women.

Hades, Hades and others in the underworld (2020)

Hades, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction. In fact, it was quite refreshing playing a game that did the LGBT thing with a graceful balancing act.

Zagreus is gay. Or at the very least, bi. He doesn’t need to say it, he doesn’t have to make his entire identity about it, he simply tries to make nice with Thanatos, and a few other characters, but definitely to a greater, more intense effect with Thanatos. There is dialogue about an old rift that’s still sore, and when you make up again, there is a mention of meeting back at Zagreus’s chambers.

And of course, there is a side mission where your job is reuniting Patroclus with Achilles, just to really give fans of Song of Achilles a squeal.