I'm religious and I need help with the LGBTQ community

Game Development Writing and Content
#22

There are no requirements regarding gender identities to publish, but it is an unspoken expectation among the COG/HG audience (not the company) that a game has options for everyone. We’re a very inclusive forum and I’ve seen games without LGBTQ+ gender/sexuality options or romance options get panned by the audience for not having them. I personally don’t play any games that force me to play as a heterosexual character or insinuate in any way that my character is heterosexual. Many players here hold the same philosophy.

All that is to say that no one will force you to write LGBTQ+ characters/options, but a lot of the audience may not take interest in your game if you don’t. It’s up to you decide if that trade-off is worth it.

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#23

Don’t stress out about it. Just write your story/game and don’t worry about aspects like gender options (MC & LIs), LGBTQ+ and be disrespectful with other people for one’s beliefs.

It’s true that the vast majority of people think that choosing the MC and ROs’ gender is a must but there are a few games that don’t follow through these aspects (for example: male/male, female/female, m/f, f/m, nb/f, etc).

You don’t write a story with the purpose of satisfying everyone’s needs but you give them the opportunity to experience your work and creativity. It’s up to them to decide whether to play/read or not.

7 Likes
#24

I don’t understasnd what this means?
If you mean your belief is that LGBTQ is a wrong “way of living” in the same way you believe having a belief other than your religion is (If that is true), do you mean to say you don’t feel comfortable writing agnostic or atheistic characters as well?

And what is it that you’re asking? That if it’s ok not to include LGBTQ people in your story, or are you asking for tips on how to include LGBTQ people?
If it’s the prior, that’s your choice. There are some games on here that have romance options unavailable to same gender mcs. It should be stated in the beginning though. As for games that don’t include LGBTQ side characters? There is no way of knowing for sure a character isn’t LGBTQ unless it’s stated that they aren’t. We don’t have our flags painted on our faces. Sure we have life experiences (often painful) no non-LGBTQ person would experience, but that’s not immediately visible in a side character.

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#25

@Sel_Lee. To answer your question about the religious thing I’m just not going to really have religious stuff in my game unless just briefly mentioned and for the other I was just kind of asking in general. Also thank you! Ps I know that probably doesn’t explain much

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#26

To me, the question is what do you mean by “uncomfortable”? And if you are feeling this way about writing queer side characters, how can you be comfortable with writing a queer mc?

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#27

I get what you mean, my life Is dedicated to serving God and serving others. I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing or doing something I don’t agree with, and I know people will dislike me for it but It’s just who I am, I’ve never judged or condemned someone for who or what they are I just don’t agree with them and wouldn’t feel comfortable writing them either. I think it’s fine as long as you don’t shed people or things you don’t agree with in a bad way. I think most people come on here to read what others posts to have a good time and get their mind out of the real world at least for awhile. Show respect to everyone and I think everything will be fine, looking forward to what you write :).

7 Likes
#28

I wouldn’t necessarily write a queer mc but give the option for both genders to romance both genders because of coding. And the reason I feel uncomfortable is because it goes against what my Bible says. I do want to make it clear though that I don’t judge anyone for their choices as it’s not my place and everyone deserves to be respected. Also again I’m sorry if this sounded hypocritical it’s just that I’m not really sure what I’m doing yet

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#29

@Blazingdragon read about other authors, about the topic you’d like to write, go slowly so you don’t get overwhelmed (writing a game in text with multiple options is complicated if it’s your first time) but it’s not impossible so I encourage you! if you want to make a game with adult scenes or lgbtq relationships it is recommended that you have an open mind because otherwise it is very complicated to express those scenes in a book in my opinion

2 Likes
#30

I won’t comment on the rest of your statement here, but I do want to say that a same-gender relationship is not going to have the same feel or specifics as an opposite-gender one, and if you don’t account for those differences, at best, your writing will feel stale, or at worst, it simply won’t make sense. It’s not just a case of simply changing a few lines of code. I only speak for myself as a non-binary bisexual, but I personally could not stomach reading something that I can tell wasn’t designed with me in mind. And trust me, people pick up on it.

It’s okay if you’re not ready to write LGBT characters. But please consider your motivations for wanting to: you’re afraid that you’ll lose readership and that you’ll be ‘attacked’ for misrepresenting people. Your desire is coming from a place of fear, and fear is not a good emotion to write from. If you want to write diversity, you have to be invested in challenging your own personal beliefs and developing empathy- not just respect- for people who are different from you.

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#31

Your right thank you if I were to have that option I should have it written right instead of forced so that way I’m not ( I don’t know if this is the right way to phase this) hurting anyone’s feelings or being insensitive to anyone

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#32

Well congratulations, change “religious” to “queer” and now you know how to write LGBTQ side characters. There’s no difference between writing queer side characters and atheistic side characters — both are something you don’t agree with but need not put an effort to represent for it to be present.

Unless, as someone said, it’s the main character. It’s going to show if the mc isn’t designed for LGBTQ options, so if you’re going to make your game queer exclusive I suggest being upfront about it. Your opinion and choice are yours (as long as you’re not trying to enforce them on others), but don’t bait audiences into playing something that’s not for them or prevaricate in fear of negative response.

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#33

This topic’s conversation has run its course, and we are starting to repeat ourselves.