Representations of non-normative genders and sexualities are nothing new in digital games. There are numerous examples (see also here), and many left to be recorded I’m sure. That said, the amount of diversity of sexualities and genders in this medium still seems lacking, particularly vis-à-vis other media. In the past I have written on the cultural production dynamics that help explain some of this relative lag in representation. Since writing that piece, there has been significantly more popular and academic attention to queer content in games, as I discuss here. When it comes to the politics of representation, however, more discussion has to happen that takes into account the particularities of the medium and does not rely on a problematic over-reliance on “realism” as the crux of the analysis. Here I use optional relationships and gender options in the game series Fable as a entry point into the complex dynamics of gender and sexuality in games as texts and structures.

It is pretty easy, but still vitally important, to point out the horrible transphobia in games like Grand Theft Auto V. This type of representation, and in turn its critique, recalls a long history of literature on the politics of representation (specifically Richard Dyer’s essay “Stereotyping”). Games are different from other media texts in key ways however. Espen Aarseth calls video games ergodic texts, which require nontrivial work in order for players/audiences to get through them.[i] Although there is a long history of debate between narratological approaches[ii] to games as cultural texts and the ludological approaches[iii] to games as rule-bound play spaces, I think it is fair to say that most (but certainly not all) games scholars would accept that we can talk about both at the same time and that each is important.[iv]

When it comes to analyzing representation in games, the interactive possibilities of the medium allows for a type of experience unavailable in most media: making the protagonist’s appearance and experience respond to player choices. Many digital games give players the opportunity to create their own avatars/characters[v], make moral choices for their on-screen proxy, engage in a variety of romantic pairings, and choose dialog options that change the flow of the text. This is particularly the case in the roleplaying genre of games (RPGs).[vi] Optional same-sex relationships in particular are one form of non-normative representation unique to this medium. Same-sex relationship options in games (not all of which are RPGs) like Bully, The Sims, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age 2, are almost universally celebrated.

The Fable series in particular has drawn widespread acclaim for its portrayal of “diverse” sexualities (see here, here, and here). Yet, if we look at the changes to the structure of game choices over the course of the development of the Fable franchise, we actually see a persistent shutting down of queerness just as the game itself becomes more nuanced in terms of interactivity and narrative. Spoilers below.

In Fable I, the player-character can marry many men and women characters, and remain married to multiple partners of any gender. According to news articles on the game, this was the result of a coding error. All of the villagers in the game are programmed to be able to fall in love with the player-character (though it does still seem there are more female characters than male characters who fall for my male avatar). This makes same-sex romantic pairings possible but it does not reduce such pairings to identity labels. Although the non-player characters (NPCs) are not given sexuality labels, however, the player-character is marked in an oddly rigid way. Before my male character (the only option in the first game) marries anyone in the game, my character’s stat sheet lists his sexuality as “unknown.” When my male character marries a female villager, the stat sheet screen lists him as “heterosexual.” If I instead marry a male NPC the stats screen labels my character as “gay.” Notably, when I marry any female villager, I receive a dowry and a cut scene of the marriage, while if I marry a male villager there is no dowry and no cut scene. Whatever the gender of my first spouse, if I choose the opposite gender for my second spouse, my character’s label switches to “bisexual.” See images below for what these shifts actually looks like. Significantly, in the game, sexual practice and marriage are two separate actions, making it possible to marry one or more spouses and in turn change sexuality labels without ever even having sex! Indeed in Fable I you cannot have non-commercial sex until you are married, but you can employ the services of sex workers.

In Fable II, the rigid emphasis on labeling and clear distinction between identity categories shifts. Unlike in the first game, I can select a male or female character at the start of the game. Gender choice in games is almost always binary and collapses gender and sex into a single entity. Here when I discuss gender without distinguishing it from sex it is because performance (clothing, gait, etc.) is the only way the game communicates either, and often treats gender as sex (male and female). Interestingly, in the options of young characters you have at the start of Fable II there is not a great degree of gendered difference. The options are relatively androgynous and largely only marked as gendered by the blue and pink borders around the images and clothing colors (see below). Moreover, whom my character has sex with or marries no longer results in a sexuality label in the stats screen. My character can also have sex with or without being married, via seduction of the right person, or by paying sex workers. There are separate stats for marital and extramarital sex however. Non-player characters (NPCs), on the other hand, have specifically encoded sexualities in Fable II (in contrast to Fable I). The player can highlight and scan each NPC to pull up a screen that provides not only information on their personality and sexuality (either straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual), but what types of expressions you can perform and gifts you can give them to win them over. If only dating could be this easy in the rest of our lives!