The global gaming industry has come under fire in recent years for a lack of diversity in some of its biggest titles. While there are a great many different games that include people from real life, like sports simulations, titles that allow the player to custom-build their own character, and ones that barely feature humans at all, many of the biggest titles to release each year feature quite specific demographics as the protagonists.
However, from the transformation of the classic game of bingo into its online realm to characters and choices available in newer games, LGBTQ representation appears to be on the rise. Some use the vehicle of character traits, while others have transformed their entire gaming platforms: but gaming is becoming more openly accessible to the LGBTQ community.
Progress is always slow, particularly when we’re talking about cultural progression, but there have been some very notable strides made throughout the industry over the last few years.
In one of the biggest games of the last decade, The Last Of Us wrote protagonist Ellie as gay, with the actresses of Ellie and her romantic interest, Riley, working under the impression that they were attracted to each other, as shown by https://www.ccn.com/ellies-sexuality. It is also worth noting that HBO is adapting the much-loved game into a television series, and will be maintaining Ellie’s sexuality in the show.
Role-playing games have been open to players choosing their own identity and sexuality for a long time, merely offering a custom character build and several different potential romantic interests. But the game GreedFall went a bit further.
You select the gender of your character at the beginning of the narrative, but this will then determine which of your followers that you can romance, with the male Vasco and female Siora open to being attracted to both male and female characters, per https://www.gamecrate.com/greedfall.
It’s no secret that women once dominated land-based bingo in the halls across the country. Most of these patrons were heterosexual, CIS-gendered women (as far as we’re aware), which perhaps put off some other people from entering the hall and having fun. Now, bingo has transformed, making itself available online to offer the ultimate, inclusive, and accessible experience.
As you can see at platforms like https://bingo.paddypower.com/, bingo has maintained its female-focused themes and layout, but has managed also to bring aspects of the land-based bingo experience that so many people enjoyed. Not only are there several games of classic bingo, but the bingo rooms all feature chat functions to keep the gaming sociable.
Everyone’s welcome to play online bingo, and just in case the classic format of the game wasn’t appealing enough to potential players, the online platforms created new forms of the game. Anyone can now find unique bingo rooms like Cash Cubes, Deal Or No Deal Bingo, Rainbow Riches Bingo, Age of the Gods Bingo, or Housey Bingo to mix up the gameplay experience while keeping the offering quintessentially female-focussed.
While anyone can enjoy any game or gaming platform, in theory, it’s a great sign that some big-name games and platforms are taking the necessary leaps towards greater inclusivity.
