LGBTQIA+ representation in mainstream video games has gone from strength to strength over the past couple of decades, both in terms of NPCs and the ability to portray your own character’s gender and sexuality through customisation options and dialogue. In a remarkably short period of time, we’ve gone from Mass Effect’s lesbian romance being the subject of a positively quaint outcry, to the big, gay love-in of Baldur’s Gate 3, complete with more dragon willy options than a custom sex toy vendor.
Unfortunately, progress is neither linear nor equal. Gay representation in video games was pretty well established before trans folks even got a look in. And while that’s beginning to change, it’s another example of society’s tendency toward cycles of acceptance and backlash – as groups become more visible and are then targeted by bigots and reactionaries. If you’ve wondered why transgender people suddenly became a hot topic a few years ago, it’s just history repeating.
Which brings us to the ‘A’ at the end of the LGBTQIA+ acronym, standing for ‘asexual’ or ‘aromantic’. It’s perhaps one of the least discussed and least understood identities within the queer umbrella and has very little representation in any medium as a result.
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It’s something I’m acutely aware of as an asexual person (when I say Netflix and chill, I’m not being euphemistic!), and even as I began thinking about this piece, I was struck by how few examples of asexual or aromantic representation there are in video games today. That’s why Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds is so important, and why it has a special place in my heart; when creating Parvati Holcomb, an asexual lesbian and the first potential crewmember for your jaunt across Halcyon, the studio absolutely knocked it out of the park.