Tag Archives: video game

Discover Queer San Francisco in New Adventure Game ‘Read Only Memories’

In Neo-San Francisco, you can be whatever you want, from a queer bartender to a lesbian robot hybrid.

In the near dystopic future, complete human customization is possible. Groups of people called “hybrids” have begun experimenting with cybernetic augmentation and gene splicing. And in a world with sentient robots, hybrids feel right at home pushing the boundaries of what it means to be human.

This cyberpunk noir game Read Only Memories takes place in the very LGBT city of Neo-San Francisco, where you play as a young journalist. A robot named Turing (named after the real-life gay scientist whose Turing Test is used to determine levels of artificial intelligence) comes to visit you. Turing needs your help to track down his creator.

Throughout the traditional point-and-click adventure game, you will interact with all of Neo-San Francisco’s queerest locals, some of whom are hybrids and some of whom are just proud queer people. You’ll build alliances, solve puzzles, and learn the dark truth about the future. The 10+ hours of gameplay will lead you to one of many endings based on your narrative choices, so Read Only Memories offers plenty of room for playthroughs.

The game’s main draw is the complete control you have over your character’s sexual orientation or gender identity. You can choose with personal pronouns the game will refer to your character as – he, her, they, xe, ze or even a custom pronoun of your choosing.

The game was developed by MidBoss, a groundbreaking LGBT gaming company that produces the annual LGBT GaymerX Convention, and which produced the documentary Gaming in Color about the growing community of LGBT gamers. This is MidBoss’ first foray into developing their own games.

Founder Matt Conn said,

Instead of waiting for Sony and other big companies to include gay characters in their games as more than just tokens, we should just do it ourselves.”

And Read Only Memories was born.

Read Only Memories is available on Playstation 4, Windows, Mac, and Linux. The Xbox One, Playstation Vita, Android and iOS versions are coming soon.

Visit the official website to learn more, or preview the game by watching a playthrough here.

Trailer:

Controversial Lesbian Sex Game “Ladykillers” Now Available

Hit lesbian game Ladykiller in a Bind has made headlines as a “bold exploration of sexual experiences and perspectives” for straight, gay and genderqueer characters alike.

It received rave reviews for being one of very few games to give an honest, unflinching depiction of sex. Created by Christine Love, whis “erotic visual novel” tackles queer sex and sexuality, BDSM, issues of consent, powerplay, trickery and kinks. Dynamic characters take the stage in a gripping and titillating yet complex story about pleasure and power.

The Plot

Forced to pretend to be her twin brother on a cruise ship full of his classmates and enemies, the Beast finds herself thrown into a game of complex social manipulation, as well as literal bondage. An erotic visual novel by the creators of Analogue: A Hate Story about social manipulation, cross-dressing, and girls tying up other girls.

As the Beast, you are a “super cool dyke with a sweet motorcycle and a reputation for being a ladykiller.” You’re also rich and have wear a badass leather jacket.

The Game

Ladykiller in a Bind centers around two main romance storylines, although all characters are available for your sexual pleasure.

The game features a week worth of “explicit, sensual, kinky lesbian sex” aboard a glamorous cruise ship – or you “live dangerously with your brother’s classmates, who just want to fuck you up.”

The game received excellent reviews for its dynamic conversation system, which differs from traditional games in that “instead of hanging off your every word, dialogue options appear as they occur to you and disappear as they become irrelevant to the conversation.”

Your job is to unwind the complex secrets that wrap around your brother and his friend, while you sleep your way through half of his classmates. Characters include Beauty, who is a dominatrix, Stalker, who is a hacker, Swimmer, who is a beach babe, Photographer, who is a spy, Nerd, who is serious and bookish, and Boy, who is a cross-dresser.

The Controversy

Ladykiller is graphic. Very graphic. Characters are depicted naked, tied up, and in other compromising sexual situations. The most popular gaming marketplace, Steam – think the iPhone App Store, but for hardcore gamers – censors the sex out of most games. But Ladykiller simply doesn’t make sense without the sex that drives the plot forward.

Love released the game on Humble, a much smaller marketplace, to widespread success. Fans petitioned for the game to head to Steam. However, the process took months of bargaining and protesting on Love’s part, as the owners of Steam were not immediately cooperative.

Love’s persistence finally paid off, however, and the game is now available to a much wider audience.

Pick up this queer sex game here.

Rescue Your Girlfriend In This Lesbian Adventure Game

Your name is Lupe, you wear a fanny pack, and you have to rescue your girlfriend from the clutches of evil.

In the new adventure game Queer Quest: All in a Gay’s Work, you will point-and-click your way through a Portland gayborhood of quirky characters and strange scenarios. Playing as butch lesbian Lupe, you will also decipher puzzles and practice virtual self-care. Sorry, did I say point-and-click? I meant “point-and-clit.”

Queer Quest has been described as “gay Monkey Island meets feminist Leisure Suit Larry.”

Besides the whole My-Girlfriend-Is-Kidnapped storyline, this game hits pretty close to home for most lesbians. I mean, your character wears a flannel shirt, for crying out loud. Her alternative lifestyle haircut is also very appealing.

Every stage of the game is a different puzzle. One moment, you’ll be pushing your way through a naked bike ride that’s blocking the street, and the next you’ll be kicking “breeders” out of a drag show so that more gay people can get in.

Other locations and puzzle descriptions include:

• Tobi lost his earplug! And without it his ear looks like a butthole.
• Theo has FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
• Femme sex party!
• Hipster coffee shop!
• Lou left her shirt at a girl’s house…but can’t remember which one!

The game’s creators were inspired by a recent hate crime that targeted an LGBT couple in Portland. In response to the assault, the local queer community organized a giant protest, holding hands across a bridge. Queer Quest was created in order to demonstrate how queer communities hold themselves together during tragedies.

Huffington Post expressed interest in the game, saying, “Never in our wildest dreams did we think we’d be playing video games about our actual lives! We’re so ready.”

Ron Gilbert, creator of Monkey Island, was “fascinated and intrigued.” The Cliqist called the game “very clever.”

Unfortunately, Queer Quest did not make its Kickstarter goal. However, its lead creator Mo will continue raising money for the game and funding it out of pocket. Follow the game on Patreon, and get more information at the official QueerMoGames website.

Official summary: Queer Quest is a queer-as-fuck point-and-clit adventure game. Inspired by classic gems like Monkey Island, Kings Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry, but set in a queer community in the pacific northwest. You play as Lupe, a long haired butch with a heart of gold. She lives with her babely girlfriend, Alexis, that is until one day when Alexis gets kidnapped! You gotta help Lupe by deciphering clues, talking to lovable weirdos, and navigating self care.

‘Life is Strange’ Is a Groundbreaking Queer Adventure Game

The list of LGBT video game characters is woefully short. But if you’re a gamer, you now have one more reason to celebrate.

Life is Strange is an episodic saga that exists outside of time. Unlike most choice-and-consequence games, this game allows the player to play with time, and make decisions in the past, present and future.

You play as budding photographer Max. Max saves her childhood friend Chloe – and discovers that she has the ability to rewind time.

The girls find themselves sneaking through the shadows of Arcadia Bay, honing Max’s skills and investigating the disappearance of a student.

As if that’s not dark enough, Max starts having premonitions. This power may be darker and more dangerous than she anticipated. She realizes that the more she changes the past, the bleaker the future becomes…

Spoiler alert – Max and Chloe have a romantic relationship. It’s not hypersexualized; it’s tastefully constructed, feels true to the characters and adds emotional depth to the game. It also complements, not overshadows, the discovery of Max’s powers.

Life is Strange is far from perfect. The dialogue can be stilted and the “typical teenager” problems can seem a bit mundane. The cast list is bloated and you’ll fall straight through some of the plot holes. However, the story is gripping. You’ll be laughing one minute, trembling with fear the next, and berating yourself for accidentally causing a catastrophe right after that. You may also see yourself and your girlfriend in Max and Chloe. It has received 4 to 4.5/5 stars from major outlets such as IGN and PCWorld.

What does this game mean for the future of LGBT characters in video games? Hopefully, it means that there will be more of them. We need more LGBT characters not as minor characters, but as protagonists, like in Life is Strange. Currently, if you want to play a game with an LGBT protagonist, you’ll be picking between The Ballad of Gay Tony and Ultimate Gay Fighter. It’s about time gay girl gamers got to see themselves on screen.

Learn more at the official Life is Strange website.

Cara Delevingne Kicks Ass In New Call of Duty: Black Ops III Trailer

Paper Towns actress Cara Delevingne stars in this live action promo for the upcoming shooter game – Call of Duty: Black Ops III .

In promo we get to see her complete with an ammunition belt wrapped around her, striding away firing a splattering of bullets from the two machine guns in her hands. Awesome

The trailer, which is directed by Wayne McClammy also stars Michael B Jordan who acts as narrator and the tagline is ‘there’s a solider in all of us’.

Next year Cara’s fans are set to see her on the big screen as the Enchantress in the hotly anticipated film Suicide Squad.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III launches this coming Friday, November 6th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ejMqe1WBtEQ

Ellen Page Looked to Take Legal Action Against Sony After Nude Video Game Images Leaked Online

Ellen Page has never appeared nude in a film. She has, however, appeared nude in a video game.

However, according to the Wikileaks archive of leaked Sony emails, because of that nudity in a video game, Page explored taking legal action against the developer and the company.

The game in question is PlayStation 3’s Beyond: Two Souls.

In one scene, Page’s character takes a shower. Her character model is never shown fully nude, nor is it possible to manipulate the game’s camera to see her naked character. However, if you run the game in a “debug” PlayStation 3 mode, players are able to see Page naked.

Page didn’t allow the game’s developers to scan her naked body. Instead, programmers and artists at the game’s development studio, France-based Quantic Dream, created a fully rendered naked model of Page’s in-game character, Jodie.

Here’s the “shower scene” from 2013’s “Beyond: Two Souls” as it appeared in the normal version game:

According to the leaked emails, Page’s legal team got in touch with Sony, and eventually Sony Computer Entertainment America, the PlayStation arm of Sony.

Her attorney attempted to work out a fix with the game’s developer, Quantic Dream, first, the emails say. Representatives for Quantic Dream “would not engage in mediation, and objected to arbitration,” Page’s lawyer wrote in an email to Weil in January 2014.

When that didn’t work, they contacted Sony to warn of an impending lawsuit on behalf of Page.

Responding on February 4, 2014, Sony said they had “started to look into this,” but would need a few days to get all his facts together. Russell said that the game’s developer is ultimately culpable for the content of the game, not its publisher, Sony. Moreover, he said in one leaked email, “The developer has the responsibility, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t get sued.”

The issue was enough for Sony to send takedown notices to websites publishing the images of Ellen Page’s naked in-game character.

It’s unclear where the legal action went, if anywhere, after that. The email thread between Weil and Russell ends there, and we weren’t able to find any legal cases in Los Angeles pertaining to Ellen Page, her legal representation, and Sony (or Quantic Dream). Representatives for Sony Computer Entertainment, and Jeffrey Abrams, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Mortal Kombat Reveals First Gay Character

Video game are not the best advocates of same-sex relationships. A few games feature LGBT characters characters as side characters, but its not often that you get playable ones.

However, in the latest in the Mortal Kombat fighting series (developed by NetherRealm Studios), there is set to be a gay character – well, a closeted, gay character called Kung Jin.

Jin is former thief, who is now monk archer and member of a Special Forces Unit. In a series of flashbacks, gamers will get to see Kung Jin explore his closeted sexuality as he finishes several of his competitors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlTBUiXgqgk

Mortal Kombat X only hints about King Jin’s sexuality. Director Dominic Ciancialo confirmed the character’s sexuality to curious players on Twitter.

I see people are picking up on the subtle exposition contained in Kung Jin’s flashback. Glad we have observant fans!”

Not all fans are happy to hear about the news, though. Kung Jin is a favorite in the Mortal Kombat games, and among those in the gaming community. Although most are open to the fact that he may be gay, there have some that have expressed their rage on social media.

Some Mortal Kombat fans think that introducing Kung Jin as the first gay character is the game’s way of pandering to “social justice warriors.” Other players in the heavily male-dominated gaming community also refuse to play the character after knowing his sexuality.

Overall, the reaction to Kung Jin being revealed as a gay man has been mostly positive from the gaming community. Mortal Kombat has been known for tackling both serious issues and social issues in its videos games, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to most gamers.

Sims 4 Get’s LGBT Filter Fix

Shortly after the launch of Sims 4 last week, players noticed the game would not allow characters with names that contained the words gay, homosexual, lesbian, queer, or other LGBT terms to be shared through the game’s online Gallery system. When the words are entered into the name or description, the game does not allow the character to be uploaded or shared online.
According to the error message, the character “contains a forbidden word”.

Electronic Arts (EA) has since issued a fix for the banned words. An EA spokesperson has said the gaming giant is aware of the issue, and is preparing a fix to remove the issue…

“The Sims has a long history of supporting stories that players want to tell, irrespective of gender preference. The Gallery uses an automated filtering program that filters out certain words, including some of the ones you mentioned below. We are aware of have been working on a fix, which will be out soon.”

Electronic Arts

On launching promotional material for the game’s release, EA boasted LGBT-specific ads telling users to “Be Proud”.

The Sims is a video game franchise that has been inclusive of same-sex romance since the first instalment was released in February 2000. EA Games has been quick to let players know the LGBT filter currently being encountered in the game isn’t a change in policy but a bug plaguing the system that the company is already hard at work fixing.

EA’s response stands in sharp contrast to the statement made by Nintendo of America after the company experienced a wave of backlash for releasing its own version of a life simulator game, Tomodachi Life, which excluded same-sex couples.

“The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that Tomodachi Life was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary.”

Nintendo

Tag Archives: video game

Discover Queer San Francisco in New Adventure Game ‘Read Only Memories’