General:Representing LGBT+ Characters in Games: Two Case Studies

Representing LGBT+ Characters in Games: Two Case Studies
(link 1 2)
Medium/Format	Online Presentation
Date	March 2020
Interviewee(s)	Tori Schafer
Hosted By	Game Developers Conference

Hello, everyone. My name is Tori Schafer and I will be talking to you about my experience representing LGBT+ characters in games. So first of all, let's talk about who I am. I am a writer/narrative designer. I currently work for Spellbreak, a PvP fantasy game which is currently in beta. In the past, I worked for Elder Scrolls Online, an MMORPG set in the Elder Scrolls universe and a game called Backbone which was an indie "you are a detective" narrative set in a dystopian future. I also wrote for the quest Manor of Masques for Elder Scrolls Online which included a character named Alchemy who was Elder Scrolls' first openly transgender woman and that quest ended up winning a GLAAD award for outstanding video game in 2018. GLAAD is the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and works to help endorse respectful presentation of the LGBT+ community in media. And this is my contact information. You can see my website, my Twitter, and my email. Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or comments about this presentation.

So, how can we ensure respectful LGBT+ representation in games? So, we're gonna talk about "What is LGBT+ representation?", "What does good representation look like?". I'll use examples of my own work to show how I respectfully represented the LGBT+ community and I'll give you some tips and tricks to help you create LGBT+ representation in your own games. So first of all, what is LGBT+ representation? So, it's characters in medias [sic] who have a minority sexuality and/or gender. So: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, but also asexual, demisexual, non-binary characters. Any character who is not straight and/or cisgendered. It has a very troubled history, obviously. I think that's something that's well-known. There's been a lack of representation in media. There's been stereotypes, harmful tropes. And because of this kind of lack of representation and negative representation, the LGBT+ community can be very sensitive to how they are represented, which is why we need to work as game developers (and anybody who creates media) to make sure that their representation that we are putting out there is respectful to the community, moreso than, you know, people who are not LGBT+ - characters who are not LGBT+. And we need to ensure that we are understanding and cognizant of those issues and of that history when we are creating these characters.

So, you know, what does respectful LGBT+ representation look like? I'm gonna be giving you some pillars of good representation that would also apply to other marginalized groups, if that's something that, you know, you're interested in as well. So: realistic. Is this portrayal accurate? It's a portrayal that avoids stereotypes and makes sure that the character isn't defined by their sexuality or gender. And this is helped by research, making sure that, you know, game developers who are working on this content are as diverse as possible, and also consuming community-approved LGBT+ media: things that have had a positive response from the LGBT+ community and making sure that you understand - kind of - the types of identities that you're representing.

Is this considerate? Is the narrative considerate of past and current LGBT+ issues? Making sure that characters are not inherently bad because of their sexuality or gender. The narrative should not punish a character because of their identity, even if the society that character is a part of does. Two very different things. How you represent that person, how you present them in the game, can really define if something is considerate or not. And, obviously - once again - mindful of the LGBT+ community in the past representation, making sure that your narrative is sympathetic to these characters. So, question: How is the narrative treating this character? What's the message the narrative is giving to the player about this character and their identity? Being mindful of all that.

Explicit. Are characters explicitly stated to be LGBT+? You know, do they openly say, like, you know, their identity or openly talk about their identity's experiences. But you have to be mindful of doing this without the characters consent. Having other characters reveal a character's identity can be, you know... it's just something that you want to avoid both in games and real-life, making sure that you have the consent of that individual that their identity can be openly talked about or shown, and just the best way to do that is to make sure the character is the one telling the player who they are and what their identity is.

Respectful. Is the character's identity respected by the narrative? Making sure that LGBT+ identity is never the butt of a joke. You can have these characters be funny. You can have these characters make jokes. But not in a stereotypical, harmful way. You have to be respectful of the LGBT+ community and, kind of, their experiences and making sure that you're not relying on, you know, those harmful things. And being respectful to the community as well on social media, making sure that on social media your studio, your developers are not making harmful, you know, jokes or comments about the LGBT+ community. And just being mindful of how that community, the LGBT+ community, reacts to your characters and interprets your characters in your stories. If somebody has a headcanon that a character identifies a certain way or two characters have a certain kind of relationship, making sure that you respect that, because that is how that player is deciding to consume your content so that they are represented and making sure that you never feel like they're wrong for doing so or that they're ^(?) for doing so, I suppose. So just being cognizant of your community and how they consume media and how you treat them on social media and events and things like that.

So, I'll be talking about my first examples: Elder Scrolls Online. I'll be talking about two examples here. So, my first example is a quest in the Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset expansion or chapter, which is an MMORPG set in the Elder Scrolls universe. A high fantasy setting that explores various themes. From the very get-go in Elder Scrolls Online, it was decided that LGBT+ characters were a part of that universe and they were just accepted by their society as to not alienate LGBT+ players who may be playing Elder Scrolls Online and also just because we wanted representation to be, you know, able to be put in the game very easily, I think, and a lot of characters to identify is that without worrying about societal repercussions. So there's [sic] a variety of LGBT+ characters in Elder Scrolls Online, but mostly, it's gay representation, lesbian, bisexual characters, things of that nature, which is why I was really excited when I got the opportunity to work on the quest involving the character Alchemy, who is the first openly transgender woman in Elder Scrolls. She is respected by her society, she's respected by the narrative - as I'll get into in a little bit. And she's in the quest Manor of Masques for Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset, as I said. She does have some predecessors who are non-binary: the god vivec, the Daedric princes, but we wanted to make sure that that her character reflected a transgender woman's experience and that was how she openly identified as [sic].

So, the Manor of Masques quest - this is just a short description, but - Rinyde, who is shown on screen right here: "Rinyde has asked me to find her brother Larydel and stop him from joining the House of Reveries. I must audition as well in order to figure out who he is." So this is a High Elf, she's a High Elf, who is looking for her brother and she says "Oh no! My brother's trying to join an acting troupe and I want him to be a mage, like I am!" You have to figure out who he is, because everybody in this acting troupe wears masks on their face [sic]. So she says "You should audition as well, see who my brother is, find out ^(?) is so I can talk him out of this nonsense." And, surprise, surprise, Larydel now identifies as Alchemy and is a woman, and that's how you kind of learn through the quest narrative, that Alchemy is transgender, because you're introduced to this character as Rinyde's brother Larydel and then you learn about this character Alchemy, and eventually it's revealed that she used to identify as Larydel, and she used to identify as a man, and she now identifies as Alchemy, a woman.

So, just kind of going through this question and kind of seeing if it's respectful. You know, is this realistic? Is this a realistic representation of a transgender woman? So first, we made sure that Alchemy was a fully fleshed out character with her own hopes and dreams. She does feel that she must keep her identity a secret from her sister, but hopes for her sister's acceptance. Now, this is because she's an actress when her sister wants her to be a mage. But yes, it is supposed to reflect the fact that she is a transgender woman and that she wants her sister's acceptance as that identity as well. She felt uncomfortable in her old identity and now feels happier with her new one, in more ways and just her gender. You know, she was also very unhappy as a mage, as a scholar, but, you know, we wanted that to reflect her kind of change over to her new identity as a woman, as Alchemy. And she's connected to, and supported by, other transgender characters off-screen. She talks about those experiences and how those people have helped her, kind of, you know, embrace and really love her new identity, but we never show those characters in the quest just because of time constraints and character constraints and things like that.

Is this considerate? So, we made sure that alchemy was an ally to the hero and accepted by her sister. We wanted to keep it very positive for this kind of first ^(?), this first time representing a transgender woman in Elder Scrolls Online, in Elder Scrolls period. We make sure that the player never reveals Alchemy's identity without her explicit consent. The player does advise Alchemy if [sic] she wants to talk to her sister or not, but the player never says her identity or tells other people about her identity, it's all Alchemy doing that. And Summerset, her society, you know, her homeland of the High Elves, Summerset, accepts her identity and doesn't really care that she's transgender, which is again going with that overall theme of LGBT+ characters being accepted by the society, or their societies, in Elder Scrolls.

Is this explicit? Alchemy openly admits that she is transgender. She talks about her past identity and her current identity. She discusses other transgender High Elves in Summerset that she's met and she talks about their experience as well in dialogue after the quest. And she speculates that there are many such individuals all over Tamriel. This was something we wanted to write into the quest because we wanted to make sure that players who are transgender, whatever race they decide to play, if they were an Orc or a Nord or a Dark Elf, that, yeah, you exist too in the world, it's just not [sic] High Elves, you know, it's everybody! Every race has these individuals. And she talks about that and we just wanted to make sure that players felt comfortable role-playing as their own characters, you know, as a transgender identity.

So. Is this respectful? Alchemy's identity is never spoken [sic] in a joking or harmful or mean-spirited way. You know, she's referred to as a woman, as she is. The player never is able to make harmful comments, because we didn't want to like upset LGBT+ players who may be playing as that character for that option even exist, just to make sure it's very respectful all the way through. She's featured in a number of marketing materials for Summerset, but she was also included in our International Woman's Day posts last year, which a lot of players were really, really happy about, that we included her in this community picture. Just this small little token meant so much to so many people. Again, making sure that social media is also respectful and representing LGBT+ community is very important in games as well.

Nothing is perfect. We did have representation concerns. I think you're always going to have concerns about the content you produce and the representation you produce, you know, in any media.

Stereotypes. Yeah, it's a stereotype that LGBT+ people are actors, that's truth. I don't think it's a particularly harmful stereotype, but it is something that a lot of media does [sic] or talks [sic] about and things like that. And that was just something that we decided that she fit in well. We created the acting troupe and the lore of the acting troupe before we introduced Alchemy, so this was just something that we felt she fit into well, but we had to be cognizant that this was a stereotype.

Her appearance. Alchemy wears a mask. Everybody in the Manor of Masques - or, sorry - everybody in the House of Reveries (which is her acting troupe) wears a mask. They talk about it all the time, they talk about why they do that, but, you know, we have a trans character who is wearing a mask, and it's never really shown, her face. Again, this was part of the lore before we introduced Alchemy, but we were cognizant that that may have been something that was, you know, something that we wouldn't have wanted to do, but it did fit into the lore in the game, you know. And that's just something that we had to kind of be cognizant of, but, unfortunately, you know, we did have a character whose face was covered.

The resolution. The ending resolution is very quickly handled. We wanted to show that Rinyde accepted Alchemy and loved her still and just have a very positive experience. But yeah, it happens very quickly because that's kind of - the quest is only so long and the narrative is only so long, so we wanted to make sure that the resolution kind of came together in a very positive way. We're aware, you know, of these issues, but, you know, sometimes the gameplay just kind of - you can't have perfect representation the way that you really want it to be.

And she's the one and only. At the point of this quest, Alchemy was the only transgender woman in the game, which creates much higher stakes, it's less realistic portrayals [sic] of the many facets of transgender people. The more representation you have, the more rounded your representation is, because you can show different sides of that identity, different facets of it. But yeah, definitely, you know, wanting to include Alchemy in this content and then build on her representation, which I'll talk about in just a little bit.

So as you can see, fan reaction was super positive, super great. I was really happy with how the community accepted and just loved this quest. You can see these these comments that I'm including here. Just like super excited. I've had fans come up to me and be like "Oh at the end of the quest when they hug I cried, because it meant so much to me. So just, you know, it's a quest that means a lot to me, a character that means a lot to me because of how much it means to other people." Which is what representation is really all about: representing the LGBT+ community. It's for the LGBT+ community, first and foremost, that they feel a respectfully represented. And they're gonna be excited and happy to be represented. Here's some fan art. I just wanted to include this. I really like these pieces and how they came out - of Alchemy. And then we won a GLAAD award in 2018, which I'm super honored that we were able to win this. And they just kind of really caught on that the story reflects the reality of transgender people today, even though it doesn't explicitly talk about like, you know... Rinyde accepts her sister for who she is, you know, accepts Alchemy, but, you know, we used that kind of narrative about being a mage and a scholar to kind of show that without explicitly showing that, I suppose you could say. So, yeah.

And then building on representation. Murkmire was the DLC came [sic] right after this. It's about Argonians, the lizard people in Elder Scrolls, and their lore just has that they can change gender, that they are able to do that with the help of their tree gods. And in that society, Argonians are really all about change and accepting change, so I was able to create a - I concepted and wrote for a quest, a small quest where there was a transgender man and a transgender woman character, and then I also wrote a book called A Grand Transformation just talking about how society celebrates this and celebrates when Argonians - when one of their members of their tribe changes their gender.

[Tori talks about LGBT+ representation in Backbone.]

So, just some tips. How can we ensure that our games have respectful LGBT+ representation? Research, research, research. Making sure that you understand these identities, you understand their history, you understand kind of where these characters are coming from. Hiring for diversity and making sure that your studio welcomes that diversity. If you have LGBT+ people in your studio or in your creative team they are able to give a much more... a better insight into that community, into that representation. Studio initiatives to create that diverse representation being, you know, leads need to be the one to say "Hey guys, let's make sure that we're creating a diverse cast, a diverse story" and supporting designers who want to create that representation, giving them the time to research, giving them the resources needed, making sure that you're positive about that initiative of creating those characters can go a long way. As I said, your social media presence needs to be LGBT+ positive as well. Making sure that you are not saying anything rude or degrading and keeping that LGBT+ positive representation going throughout all of your studio initiatives: marketing, things like that. And consulting the experts. I talked, you know, about diversity readers, but... and there are a lot of individuals who you can hire on as a diversity reader to play your game and to play through the narrative to give you, you know, notes about the representation that you are presenting. Another group you can talk to is GLAAD. They are a media group. They are bared for consultation and to give you advice about your game. GaymerX is a group that talks about a lot of gamer perspectives, but they are another resource that you can reach out to. This website, Queerly Represent Me, has great examples of video game representation, a lot of information that you can read through, just another resource that I found very helpful in my own research. Yeah, so just - the takeaways I want to kind of say here is that LGBT+ characters and narratives deserve a place in games. They deserve to be represented and representation does not need to be perfect to be respectful. You know, you're going to have hitches within your gameplay, within your narratives, and you're just going to have to try to use as much, you know... as much of those pillars as you can to ensure that, even though there might be, you know, some issues, that overall you are giving a respectful, you know, story for this character to be a part of, a respectful role. And fans will respond positively to respectful representation. I know it can be scary, because when you get it wrong the LGBT+ community is very upset, but you've got to, you know, know that when you really try to put yourself out there and create that diverse representation, you will get a lot of you know excitement and cheers, honestly, and it's just very important for the community to be represented and to be shown in media, and video games is included in that.

Right, so. Let's work together to ensure that every game has respectful LGBT+ representation. Like I said, you can contact me if you have any more questions or comments. You know, I have my website up here, my Twitter, my email. Feel free to reach out. I'll answer as best I can. And thank you so much for sitting through this presentation and, you know, hearing what I had to say! I hope you have a good evening/afternoon. Thank you.