On Transgender Characters
ON TRANSGENDER CHARACTERS
If it were in your power, would you feature a trans* character as a lead, or do you think that that would be putting too much on the writing team’s shoulders? As someone who is highly involved in the game industry, do you think there would be a backlash from the industry or fans if a trans* character was a lead? Is video game culture ready for a trans* companion? — venak-hol
No, I don’t think video game culture is ready for transgender characters— not as major plot characters, and certainly not as a lead. It’s not ready for major characters that are gay, either. Heck, it’s barely ready for ones which are female.
Does that mean the industry should wait until it is? Probably not.
Yet I am also not the one whose money is being put on the line when it comes to making a major game. With hundreds of millions of dollars now sunk into your average video game title, it could perhaps be viewed as understandable why publishers would be risk-averse. The tried-and-true is safer. The audience they already have, and have had since gaming’s inception, is safer. Or is it?
Here’s the thing: our audience is changing. Has already changed. I mentioned this in my GDC talk— there’s an entire portion of the audience out there which is already playing despite being essentially uninvited. The industry’s happy to have them, I imagine, but views them as gravy. A nice extra, but beside the point… and if they’re already playing, then obviously no extra attention needs to be paid to them when the competition for the real demographic is so fierce.
But what if a publisher did take steps to make them included? There’s the real question, and it’s one without a clear answer. Lacking a clear answer, the prospect of a reward is purely hypothetical. Such risk attached to the unknown means that games which make major strides in that direction tend to receive tepid publisher support at best… and, if they fail, the fault is laid at the door of the direction rather than the tepid support. A bit of chicken-and-egg at work, there, but that’s the industry. Either someone eventually figures it out and answers that question for everyone, removing the perception of risk once and for all, or it will continue as it is.
And I’m certain some would ask: “What would be the point, anyway? Is there such a huge number of transgender players out there we should make a game aimed at them?”
Of course not, because there isn’t. I’m not certain the numbers really indicate there being a huge gay player base, either. The numbers are certainly rosier for female players, depending on the genre and game type you’re looking at, but let’s give the doubters the benefit and say the base isn’t really there to make it financially attractive in and of itself for any minority demographic. My point, and I’ve made it before, is that their comparitive size is irrelevant. It’s not a matter of having one over the other.
Here’s a story.
When the Mark of the Assassin expansion came out for DA2, we included a cameo for our favorite brothel prostitute, Serendipity. Why? Because we like her. We never thought of her as transgender, per se— she’s more of a drag queen, in attitude if not in appearance (lacking the appropriate options, else that’s what she would have been). But the difference is moot when it comes to perceptions, and therein lay the problem: due to a bad line link and the fact we’d only ever included transgender characters as sex workers and comedic relief, it really seemed like she was there to be gawked at and laughed at.
A transgender fan lamented this on the forum, and we felt suitably chastised— because they were right. Our intention was irrelevant in light of the fact we’d erred without due consideration. The question was asked on that thread: “Couldn’t you include a real transgender character? A serious one?” And my answer at the time was: “I wouldn’t include one just to be transgender. That’s a pretty thin premise on its own.” But it did get me thinking: how would I go about it, if I ever did?
That’s around the time I started working on “Those Who Speak”, the second Dragon Age comic title for Dark Horse Comics. I needed a contact character for Varric in the Tevinter Imperium, and at first it was just an “old friend”. Boring. A female old friend, someone with a bit of moxy? Better.
Then I thought: What about someone who’s transgender? How would they survive in the shark-infested waters of Tevinter’s Magisterium, where “different” is a sign of weakness? Where everything beyond the accepted norm must be done in secret lest one become a pariah? How strong and defiant would such a character have to be to not only live but thrive in that environment?
That appealed to me, though I still didn’t want her to be “the transgender character”, to jump into view and immediately announce this aspect of her as if it were the sole reason she was present in the story— because it wasn’t. I wondered if maybe I needed to mention it at all, if that couldn’t come up later? In a way that didn’t read like an after school special? I mean, could it?
I included it as part of the pitch to Dark Horse, and they didn’t bat an eyelash. In fact, they thought it was great. “Do it,” was all I got back. I tossed the idea to Chad Hardin, the artist, along with a picture of Mae West (because I have a thing for Mae West and always have). I said “let’s make sure someone can go back and see it in her hips and her body” and he happily included that in the concept. He didn’t make it obvious. He didn’t sexualize her. Everyone was on board, and though Mae’s part in “Those Who Speak” actually got mostly cut, everyone accepted her return in “Until We Sleep” as a given.
And it did give me pause. Where were the expected objections? Yes, someone could say “it’s only a comic, not even the video game”— and thus not ‘the big time’ insofar as BioWare is concerned. While that’s true, it’s certainly serious business to Dark Horse. They consider what appeals to their audience and what’s commercially viable, too. Was the hesitancy all in my head? Was I assuming resistance that wasn’t actually there? Maybe so.
When I wrote the outline for “Until We Sleep”, I was nervous enough about Mae’s reveal and her part in the story to contact Mattie Brice, a transgender fan (and fellow developer— check out Mainichi, if you get the chance), to ask her opinion. Was the reveal (done via Maevaris being found partly-disrobed in a dungeon) too potentially titillating? Were the things she says in the Fade, or her advice to Qunari-Isabella, going to ring a false note? I had no idea. I’d have hated myself if I’d inadvertantly written something stupid— and I’d once been forced to ask the right adjective for “transgender” on Twitter. What the hell did I know?
Mattie helped, a lot. She suggested a couple of minor changes, but anything more would have required space in the comic which just didn’t exist. Which is sad, as there were things I wanted to squeeze in, and some of Mattie’s suggestions gave me thoughts— and that probably means I’m not quite done with Maevaris just yet— but I was happy with the result even so. After all was said and done, it didn’t seem so terrible to run the subject matter by someone who obviously knows better. Maybe having the option to do so would make more creators less nervous about writing outside their comfort zone? My own comfort zone is not very big. I know whereof I speak.
My point is (and I do have one): it worked out. Maevaris was a small character in the grand scheme of things, but she was included. That part of her identity was “AND”, not “BECAUSE OF”. It added to her character and gave her more depth to me, rather than being a paper-thin soap box. Not everyone noticed, as it was never explicitly stated, but many did. Some were surprised. Many were pleased. As an experiment goes, I’m happy.
I mention it now because I think, were you to mention having more minority characters to the average industry person (or fan, let’s face it) who’s not already inclined to think this way, the image that would immediately come to their head would be the wrong way to do it. The gay character who jumps onto the screen declaring “I AM GAY” before they even offer their name. The transgender character whose only purpose is to trick the straight protagonist into a near-sexual encounter, because what other purpose could such a character serve, right?
So they’d say those character concepts are purposeless and stupid, and they’d be right because they are. But they don’t have to be. I don’t have all the answers (by any means), but surely you don’t have to target minorities to appeal to them, or to include them. It doesn’t need to be that blatant, and shouldn’t be simply because blatant is clumsy— some finesse is called for.
Because, back to my original statement, gaming culture isn’t ready. Yes, that generally means straight boys, but let’s include in that the part of the industry which will assume backlash… backlash that will happen if something like this is done poorly, and which will probably happen anyway (to a degree) even if it isn’t.
With all the expense going into making games nowadays, however, it seems short-sighted not to try— if not because it’s the right thing to do, for the cynical sake of potential earnings. To get all the paying customers you can possibly scramble for from every single corner. To shout from the rooftops “we want EVERYONE to want to play this game”. And if some fans get irked that they’re no longer alone in the clubhouse— well, they can either start ponying up $100 to $150 for their videogames (since games appear to be immune to inflation and cost the same now, if not less, than they did 10 or 15 years ago despite the costs of making them having risen exponentially) or kindly stop being mystified at why publishers are interested in making money from more places than they used to.
Even after all that, though, I still cringe at the idea of introducing a major transgender character. Not for the idea or the potential, but for the character itself. What they will be subjected to in the court of fan opinion, and the ugliness that would inevitably get exposed. What transgender fans would have to read, dare they venture their public support. My heart aches at the weight such a character would bear, far more than any character should ever have to.
Doesn’t mean it shouldn’t ever happen.
While it’s not my money on the line funding the game, it is my livelihood— so I’m hardly without investment in the outcome—and I still think it’s a worthwhile risk. If not transgender just yet, then gay. Or black. Or female. You have to start somewhere. One can see the edges of that change happening in the industry now, and we need to keep pushing at it… or we’ll never get over the backlash that inevitably accompanies this kind of change, and get into a place where fans of all kinds feel welcomed.
Or maybe that can never happen? I’m sure some believe so, but I’m not so cynical that I give up hope just yet. Things are changing all over. In some places, kids will grow up with gay marriage having always existed in their lifetime. They will stare quizzically at their parents when it’s mentioned that it was ever an issue. In that world, something as simple as a video game character who happens to also be transgender doesn’t seem like such an impossible unicorn, does it?
EDIT: Follow-up post is here here
