So you’ve finished Life is Strange and you’ve beaten Queer Quest. What video games should you play now?
Queerly Represent Me has the answer. This groundbreaking database catalogues LGBTQ video games for Playstation, Xbox, Mac, PC, iOS, Android, Nintendo and even DOS.
It’s notoriously difficult to find LGBTQ video games. While novelty games such as Gay Cats Go Into the Weird Woods offer a mere twenty minutes of fun, and cheesy, campy games such as Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony steep gay characters in stereotypes, gamers have always had difficulty tracking down games that explore thoughtful storylines centered around queer characters. Queerly Represent Me is long overdue.
The database allows users to sort by title, year, database, genre, publisher and platform. Users can also check to see if games are AAA – that is, big name games such as Grand Theft Auto and Assassin’s Creed.
If you click a game’s title, you will receive an explanation of the queer representation it includes.
The database currently has 713 entries. However, that list isn’t exclusive to video games that focus on queer characters – the list includes every video game that has a queer character (such as God of War III), or every video game that has the potential for queer characters (such as The Sims 1, 2, 3 and 4).
In the case of God of War III, the “queer representation” is a short cutscene in which two topless women are briefly seen caressing each other. The women do not speak to the protagonist or add to the storyline in any way. In The Sims, characters are only queer if you design them to be.
The list also includes games that were simply made by queer people; the game Identi-Key instructs players to drop keys onto locks of the same color. There is nothing LGBTQ about that game. However, because the game was made as part of the #RainbowJam diversity in gaming festival, the database includes it.
One of the database’s most helpful features is the ability to filter through all of these games in order to find games whose protagonist is explicitly LGBTQ, games whose protagonists are implicitly LGBTQ, and even the games that have been labeled problematic.
With nearly 1000 entries (and growing every day), this database will ensure that you never run out of games to play. So close your eyes, pick one at random and go have fun!
Check it out for yourself.