“We Need To Pull Every Lever We Have” - Insomniac's Narrative Director Discusses Lack Of LGBTQ Content in Video Games - We talked to Mary Kenney, associate narrative director at Insomniac Games about the lack of LGBTQ representation in gaming.

Highlights​

• LGBTQ gamers still don't feel seen in the gaming industry.
• Insomniac associate narrative director Mary Kenney emphasizes the importance of designing games that make players feel accepted and important.
• The gaming industry has a long way to go in terms of queer representation, despite the significant number of LGBTQ+ players.

It can be easy to feel shunned when it comes to queer representation within gaming. Not only do LGBTQ people put up with endless derogatory, homophobic, and transphobic comments littered around every grimy corner of social media whenever a queer character crops up in a game, but a recent report showcases just how little this group is represented in the medium.

Things have changed significantly, the tides have turned, and developers are including fleshed-out and interesting queer characters in their games. Still, it hasn't been enough. According to GLAAD's recent study, more players than ever identify as gay, bisexual, queer, or transgender, and yet, only 2 percent of games on major consoles and PCs include queer characters.

Mary Kenney, an associate narrative director at Insomniac Games, opened up to me to give her opinion on the "heartbreaking" state of LGBTQ representation amid GLAAD's report.

LGBTQ Gamers Don't Feel Seen​

Kenney, who started her career as a journalist, has written for some of the industry's most popular video games. From Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Batman: The Enemy Within to The Walking Dead: The Final Season and the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine. Kenney has helped construct some of gaming's most diverse characters, like Clementine and Violet from Telltale's The Walking Dead, but freely admits that more needs to be done in game development to make LGBTQ people feel like they are an important part of video game structure now and also its future.

In a moment of reflection, Kenney credits the late great Danielle Bunten Berry, a trans woman and pioneer game developer who created one of the first successful multiplayer games on the Atari platform, M.U.L.E., Kenney says that Berry's influence on the game industry was a powerful presence as she often "spoke about video games as a means to create connection" due to her unwavering advocacy for online community spirit. "In the decades since, this has proven true in fan communities, conventions, and multiplayer games," says Kenney.

Delving into GLAAD's latest report, Kenney offers up two important insights. While one is a positive and welcoming outlook as often the LGBTQ community wants to seek out safe spaces so they can feel accepted, the other is extremely worrying and disheartening. "The GLAAD report tells us something key - games are a way for LGBTQ people to socialize. But it also tells us something heartbreaking: that LGBTQ gamers don't feel that developers are thinking of them when they design games."

Thankfully, there hasn't been a shortage of LGBTQ developers over the years. We have seen incredible talents coming from the minds of people like Maddy Thorson, who created the transgender character, Madeline, in the game Celeste, Cathryn Mataga, a transgender programmer and founder of the independent video game company Junglevision, who worked on X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse as well as Spider-Man 2 and also D.E. Chaudron from Larian Studios, a queer and nonbinary video game developer who worked on Baldur’s Gate 3 - to name only a few.

We Need To Pull Every Lever We Have​

Kenney echoes this evidence by saying "There are so many LGBTQ developers, and we want what players want - to design experiences that tell the player we're here, we're important, and we belong." This could become increasingly difficult as we see more and more pitches turned down amid one of the worst years ever for gaming. However, Kenney remains adamant that something has to give way to allow change to happen.


"We need to pull every lever we have," Kenney says. "Characters, community support, mechanics, to make it so. It's a subject she's clearly passionate about, and her insights are thought-provoking.


Even though the gaming industry is touted as the modern entertainment giant and is worth more than film and music combined, it has a long way to go in terms of queer representation. Only 2% of games feature an openly LGBTQ+ character, in comparison with 28% of films released in 2022, and 11% of primetime TV characters in 2022 and 2023. Surely it makes better sense for gaming studios to want to include the queer community into their games due to 1–5 players identifying as LGBTQ+, since, at the very least, the financial pull is there, so what is the issue here?

Although just throwing queer characters into games isn't what the LGBTQ+ want either. Representing these characters in a meaningful and authentic way through deeply woven stories to really feel understood is what will always be needed, and more than anything, allowing LGBTQ+ people to feel truly seen in the process.



Link

 

[Fatsuit Shinji]

Troons, rest of the LGBT and their useful idiot allies rather have everything be burned to the ground then to allow the non-Marxist heterosexual nonpedophilic Christian (and other religious) "chuds" a win.

You need to get back in the fucking closet.

They need to be permanently put into the forever boxes not back into the closet. As being in the closet was when they learned how to be subversive on the mass scale. Plus no where near enough people kept a thorough watch on them while they're in the closets cause of the whole "out of sight, out of mind" mindset. Hence all of the homophobia attacks on those who did kept the watch on the gays when they're getting out of the closets back in the 70ies, 80ies and 90ies.

 

[Grub]

According to GLAAD's recent study, more players than ever identify as gay, bisexual, queer, or transgender

Hmmmm

GLAAD’s finding that 17% of active gamers are LGBTQ,

GLAAD partnered with the Nielsen Games team for the custom survey portion of this report

Nielsen fielded a 10-minute survey among active PC/console gamers in the United States with a boost sample of LGBTQ+ gamers to help GLAAD better understand the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and the game industry in terms of representation, harassment, and overall attitudes and behaviors.

Well that doesn't sound very fucking scientific to me at all.

 

[Jack the Nigga]

Insomniac fell off hard after the PS2. Nu-Ratchet is safe and boring as fuck

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

There are far more Christians and Muslims and Hindus who play games than there are PedoTroons, Pooners and Pedogays. Where are the games that specifically refer to them?

Does Digital Devil Saga count as a Hindu game?

 

[Pokemon Conquistador]

A story with gay people in it immediately becomes "A Gay Story" because gayness is like rape or cancer - a plot event that everything and everyone in the story has to revolve around once it is introduced. There used to be these things called "ABC Afterschool Specials" which were shows that taught teenagers about controversial social issues by featuring them prominently. Imagine something like that, only less subtle and more smarmy. This is what the SJWs want to do to the video game industry.

 

[Moths]

Yeah i just don’t get this at all. It’s something I think perhaps relates to this lack of sense of self. I don’t need every film I watch to have middle aged women in it as the main character, I just want plot and character. For books or films. Just write a good story. I do t care if the main character is a man, a woman, a rat, whatever. Just make it a good story.
I have asked quite a few people this; WHY do you need to see yourself on screen? They never have a good answer for that at all.
One person on here (I can’t remember who) made the point that some people watch a film and then imagine themselves as the main character or a character in it, and others need that character to be them. So the difference between kids watching a superman movie and half are pretending to be superman while the other half are pretending that superman has become them, or they’re inserted in the movie making changes for them. I think there’s probably a fairly profound point about self here somewhere if anyone can articulate it better than me

Probably something related between being able to effectively 'Empathise' ie 'relating to other people's experience by imagining yourself in their shoes' and those who instead turn the stories into something about themselves.

Hmmmm




Well that doesn't sound very fucking scientific to me at all.

17% of retards who answer surveys were lgbtq

 

[The Ugly One]

Hate to break it to you but the only thing game developers think about when they design games is your money. They don't give a single flying fuck about you.

No, they actually do think a lot about how to make you look at niggers, faggots, and ugly chicks.

 

[FrancineCansMcGee]

A story with gay people in it immediately becomes "A Gay Story" because gayness is like rape or cancer - a plot event that everything and everyone in the story has to revolve around once it is introduced. There used to be these things called "ABC Afterschool Specials" which were shows that taught teenagers about controversial social issues by featuring them prominently. Imagine something like that, only less subtle and more smarmy. This is what the SJWs want to do to the video game industry.

In current year, every episode must be a very special episode.

 

[Dysnomia]

I don't care about LGB included but I don't wanna play as T.

When making trannies how do you model the character to be believable but not so realistic that trannies have a fit over it? With pooners it's not too bad. But with MtF, if you make them like this it's transphobic:



Never mind how realistic it is. I mean look at those hands. You gotta make them look like real women or else. And in that case why even bother? They'll probably just troon out some characters that were originally supposed to be women and call it a day.

 

[The Ugly One]

The idea that unless what's on the screen is a carbon-copy of you, you can't possibly enjoy it?

If they actually believed it, they would only make games with straight, white characters so they could hit the largest possible audience.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

No fun allowed, because fun = distraction from the "real issues plaguing marginalized communities", or some such nonsense.

Sounds to me like some commie revolution with "no bourgeois luxuries allowed", because "there's work to be done" making the "glorious people's republic" a horrible reality.

 

[Big Brown Schlub]

Yeah i just don’t get this at all. It’s something I think perhaps relates to this lack of sense of self. I don’t need every film I watch to have middle aged women in it as the main character, I just want plot and character. For books or films. Just write a good story. I do t care if the main character is a man, a woman, a rat, whatever. Just make it a good story.
I have asked quite a few people this; WHY do you need to see yourself on screen? They never have a good answer for that at all.
One person on here (I can’t remember who) made the point that some people watch a film and then imagine themselves as the main character or a character in it, and others need that character to be them. So the difference between kids watching a superman movie and half are pretending to be superman while the other half are pretending that superman has become them, or they’re inserted in the movie making changes for them. I think there’s probably a fairly profound point about self here somewhere if anyone can articulate it better than me

It's a narcissism thing, pure and simple. Narcissists have no empathy and can't conceive of anyone or anything existing beyond themselves, that's why insults from narcissists are often confessions. I'd also like to add that every fucking weirdo I've ever known who made themselves in every video game with chargen was a raging narcissist. I can understand doing it sometimes, or only doing it in sports games or something like that, but EVERY game? There's a good reason Zoomers have renamed NPD to "Main Character Syndrome"

 

[LeChampion1992]

They will never feel seen because they're psychopathic narcissists and they can never be satisfied. They would burn the fucking world down for head pats and "validation" on Reddit. They pushed their degeneracy to the limit-and beyond it-and now people are revolting.

Maybe optimistic but I feel like any sort of revolt will play into their narrative they've created so if you resist against queer dudes deciding they can fuck your child without your consent they will portray the situation to make you look like the evil bad guy.

Troons, rest of the LGBT and their useful idiot allies rather have everything be burned to the ground then to allow the non-Marxist heterosexual nonpedophilic Christian (and other religious) "chuds" a win.

Honestly dealing with a lot of these people they tend to put themselves on a we're at war with the far right who just want to murder us. Never forget that this worldview is enforced by progressive parents, the media, and public school teachers who all want to own "le heckin chuds"
For them they think if we don't make the world queer we will all die off from bitter homophobia. When someone is already in their own hysterical world they will get angry and think you're far right because you're not outraged like they are.
Before you ask a lot are theater kids, spend time online and watch only anime and capeshit.

 

[Atlas Sneezed]

Yeah i just don’t get this at all. It’s something I think perhaps relates to this lack of sense of self

No, it's just that these people don't have an ounce of imagination and empathy which is required to roleplay for fun

 

[Gottahavemysips]

Every single game puts this shit front and center now. What fucking "lack"? When they did MW2 in 2022, the only title cards available in multiplayer at launch were ones you unlocked for doing the campaign (which most people probably didn't even bother earning) and every last variety of fag flag. I'm tired of these stupid fucking faggots pissing on my leg and telling me it's raining. The only reason a backlash formed to this shit is because it's so blatant and poorly done to anybody who doesn't subject themselves to living in an ultra left leaning bubble. I guarantee you, if you put in the effort to give your precious flamer characters even a quarter of the character development that several characters in New Vegas had, nobody would give a shit. I hope the industry crashes, and none of these hacks can ever get a job that puts them above the poverty line again.

 

[Whiskey]

I don't care about LGB included but I don't wanna play as T.

When making trannies how do you model the character to be believable but not so realistic that trannies have a fit over it? With pooners it's not too bad. But with MtF, if you make them like this it's transphobic:

View attachment 6019975

Never mind how realistic it is. I mean look at those hands. You gotta make them look like real women or else. And in that case why even bother? They'll probably just troon out some characters that were originally supposed to be women and call it a day.

A tranny doesn't want trannies in games or media. They want a female anime character to say they used to be a man before some weird ass magical shit effortlessly made them into no less then a 9/10 woman.

Barring that they will take a cute cartoony ghost like that paper mario shit show.


Troons never want troons they want their fetish

 

[Incecticyder]

WRONG LEVEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!

 

[Sister Miriam Godwinson]

I am getting the Looney Tunes image of a mad scientist frantically tugging at his hair because his Acme World Domnination Machine is not working so he starts pulling every lever and pushing every button until it comically explodes and leaves him standing there in underwear with blackface.

 

[urr13 account]

Outside of LA, London, Berlin, and Toronto there really just aren't as many homosexuals in the world as these people think. It's an extremely niche market of degenerates. You may as well be trying to 'pull every lever' to get more albino pigmies representation because of the lack of albino pigmies in games.

 

[Well Intentioned]

It can be easy to feel shunned when it comes to queer representation within gaming.

It can be easy to 'feel' anything, particularly if you're a sensitive piece of shit whose skin is about as thin as a wafer.

Still, it hasn't been enough.

They're saying the quiet part loud again.

yet, only 2 percent of games on major consoles and PCs include queer characters

Weird how this distinction ("major consoles and PCs") isn't touted in other studies. Yeah, I'm aware that different studies have different methodologies, but it's interesting that this distinction was consciously made.

"heartbreaking" state of LGBTQ representation

I fucking hate language like this. Is it really, truly 'heartbreaking'? Heartbreaking is finding out your dog was run over by a car. Or your girlfriend was caught in a flash flood and died. Or any other actual significant life event. Not because there isn't enough sodomy in the capeshit vidya game.

Fuck off.

Kenney credits the late great Danielle Bunten Berry, a trans woman and pioneer game developer

Oh. Oh. OH. You mean the same Danielle Bunten Berry whose advice re: the all-important life-changing "gender affirming care" that will totally save and protect trans kids was:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110725030149/http://www.anticlockwise.com/dani/personal/changes/dont.htm

Don't do it! That's my advice. This is the most awful, most expensive, most painful, most disruptive thing you could ever do. Don't do it unless there is no other alternative. You may think your life is tough but unless it's a choice between suicide and a sex-change it will only get worse. And the costs keep coming. You lose control over most aspects of your life, become a second class citizen and all so you can wear women's clothes and feel cuter than you do now. Don't do it is all I've got to say.

Yeah, I'd argue that we need more of that kind of representation in the industry. Good point!

Although just throwing queer characters into games isn't what the LGBTQ+ want either. Representing these characters in a meaningful and authentic way through deeply woven stories to really feel understood is what will always be needed, and more than anything, allowing LGBTQ+ people to feel truly seen in the process.

Here's the fucking problem. Big AAA titles (because, let's be honest here, this is all anyone means when they talk about 'representation in video games') are big schlocky spectacles. Storytelling in general in video games is pretty shit. Even when it's 'good', it's with the caveat that it's good for a video game. There are exceptions, but a big spectacle type game doesn't mesh well with a careful, nuanced examination of real world issues.

Like, this is the same industry whose best approach at handling geopolitical commentary/issues is Call of Duty, Spec Ops: The Line, and turning Gandhi into a genocidal nuclear psychopath.

I don't give a shit if a 'real world' game (or one close to it) features a wide array of people. I just don't get why there's such an urgent need to have more and more and more of this shit or what it's supposed to accomplish. That's always something that goes unanswered whenever this shit gets brought up.

I always viewed 'representation' the same as when a TV show features or makes mention of your hometown (assuming you don't live in New York, lol.) You get a little happy and excited that there's a mention of something tied to you. But you aren't weeping wondering why every TV show isn't making mention of your hometown.