Frustrating relative lack of LGBT NPCs in this game

[Vryn]

FF14 is a wonderful game. It's beautiful, the gameplay is fluid, the lore rich, and the graphics stunning, especially in the Azim Steppe.

Part of the reason why it's so wonderful is because it is possible to fully immerse yourself in this game. Characters all have a backstory, many NPCs are fleshed out, have their own personality, and you really feel like Eorzea is a place you can live in.

However, the lack of representation of LGBT characters in this game is frustrating for a billion-dollar video gaming company. While I applaud SE for allowing the Eternal Bonding to take place between two people of the same gender, there is not much else in this game that represents LGBT characters, other than a token gay couple in Upper La Noscea.

Some people will also bring up characters like Alphinaud (weird) or Haurchefant, and say they're "WOL-sexual". But you know that they're not actually designed as gay characters. They just happened to be perceived as LGBT because of the fandom.

Many other RPGs are already fully embracing the need to represent minorities in their game, because minority representation is an important issue that affects the psychological development of minority youth.

I hope to see Square Enix do more to represent LGBT characters in their game, because by doing so they'll let LGBT youth feel like they have a place in Eorzea and feel welcomed.

I know some people will think I'm joking, but I'm not. As a LGBT PoC myself, I am deeply invested in this issue.

Can I ask how would knowing someone like to stick their sexual origin in another member of the same sex makes your more life anymore fulfilled it doesn't mean you have anything in common with them? I am Bi by the way, but you are really shallow if you think something as amorphous as sexuality needs to be shown in a game when it's no one else business but their own. The Eorzean church isn't barring anyone of the same sex from marrying, I would also like to add the only straight couple we actually see is the parents of the twins which isn't a surprise.

I should also add being LGBT is not the same in Asia or the east as it is in the west, do we need people in drag walking down Uldah because we already have that, it happens in Limsa every ten minutes.

Sexuality is a very small part of life and would see two male or female characters snog in the background or in your newfound adventures patch really make your experience better? Do you need an over flamboyant queen going OH MY GOD! THAT'S AMAZING! There is a lack of any sexual representation and thank the Japanese for that.

Let people have their fantasies about certain characters and move on. Its like asking straight people if they are happy straight people are in media, guess what they dont think about it.

[MellowMink]

Can I ask how would knowing someone like to stick their sexual origin in another member of the same sex makes your more life anymore fulfilled it doesn't mean you have anything in common with them?

Romantic attraction and sexual attraction are two different things, with increased inclusion in the context of this thread’s discussions most likely being about the former. I don’t get why you would specifically bring up sexual intercourse in response to a comment that never mentioned sexual attraction at all; it seems random and vulgar to mention here.

It’s also worth pointing out to anyone else who reads this thread that plenty of asexual people who are romantically attracted to people of the same gender as them exist as well. The discussions in this thread shouldn’t include disingenuous arguments that specifically talk about sexual attraction, which again seems unrelated to what was being asked here.

[KariTheFox]

Sexuality is a very small part of life and would see two male or female characters snog in the background or in your newfound adventures patch really make your experience better? Do you need an over flamboyant queen going OH MY GOD! THAT'S AMAZING! There is a lack of any sexual representation and thank the Japanese for that.

I don't think anyone is asking for sloppy makeout sessions between same sex couples to be shoehorned into the game. When I think of representation, I don't think of a big neon sign saying "I'm gay!" over a character's head, I think of things like:

A Garlean solider is laying a wreath of flowers on a grave, when asked by the WoL who it is for, he says "My husband."

Two women NPCs flirting in dialogue bubbles - there's plenty of men and women NPCs flirting out there.

A character tells the WoL they "hope to settle down with a nice man or woman one day". Things like that, the small bits of flavor and storytelling about romance that already get sprinkled in the game, just a little more inclusive than it is now.

[Hurlstone]

I don't think anyone is asking for sloppy makeout sessions between same sex couples to be shoehorned into the game. When I think of representation, I don't think of a big neon sign saying "I'm gay!" over a character's head, I think of things like:

A Garlean solider is laying a wreath of flowers on a grave, when asked by the WoL who it is for, he says "My husband."

Two women NPCs flirting in dialogue bubbles - there's plenty of men and women NPCs flirting out there.

A character tells the WoL they "hope to settle down with a nice man or woman one day". Things like that, the small bits of flavor and storytelling about romance that already get sprinkled in the game, just a little more inclusive than it is now.

Very well said. There are many examples of NPC's flirting with others of the opposite sex, mentioning their wives, husbands, lovers etc. Would it really be so game breaking and anti-immersive for the odd one to mention their same-sex partners? It just adds a little inclusively that opens the world out a little.

[IkaraGreydancer]

I find it interesting that criticism is by and large encouraged… except for when one points out the lack of queer or minority representation.

Oh no. Please don't try that logic here. You're very slyly trying to call us queerphobes for giving valid points. Also I'm a minority and am saying this xD
What point would it serve to add more other than tokenism? Them being there for the sake of doesn't cut it, and I'd say the same if they just out of nowhere gave us a black main cast Scion. Would I like us to have one? Ofc. Am I asking for one? No. And until we get one I'm the black Scion that I want to see and that's enough for me

The only thing I'll say is I HAVE seen heavy pushback when folks ask for more black characters but thats on reddit

[deadman1204]

Oh no. Please don't try that logic here. You're very slyly trying to call us queerphobes for giving valid points.

Then explain why everyone is against this, but won't crusade to have all instances of married couples removed from the game? Its not sexualization of a game for a quest to help some guy find his wife. Yet the majority of this thread would consider it if it was helping a guy find his husband.

[Toutatis]

Asking to find the husband of a guy is not the sexualization of a game nor is finding the wife. Attributing an orientation to the guy, straight or gay, is sexualizing the guy in the broader meaning of the word, not the game and it’s not pejorative or negative, it is a neutral term to describe a situation. SE did not give an orientation to many npcs and people can make their own stories.

[IkaraGreydancer]

To begin this is a troll post and people shouldn't be reviving it but your statement made me need to correct a point you seem to misunderstand.

You are boiling down the LGBTQ community to just sex but thats not what they are asking for. Romance is not inherently sexual. Knowing more about a characters likes and interest make them more real. I assume you have no problem with Runar's crush on Yshtola or a focus on the married Chia's on the first or Wedges crush on Tataru, or Thancreds old womanizing ways or the tons of other couples we meet along the way. This argument is only have brought up when the LGTBQ ask for a seat at the table. Gay people can be more openly put into the game and it wouldn't be tokenism, you just don't want it and use that as an excuse.

I just don't want it? I don't care about Runar and who he likes or Thancreds ways. Again who they want to be with doesn't matter to me. I don't see Thancred as a straight man. I see Thancred as Thancred.
You speak as if the game just highlights PRESUMABLY straight people when it's already been said here most of that I n both sides is left ambiguous. My point is it shouldn't be put in for the sake of putting it in. And again people say the same when folks ask for black characters or POCs as they call em. Stop trying to make enemies here

[MellowMink]

I just don't want it? I don't care about Runar and who he likes or Thancreds ways. Again who they want to be with doesn't matter to me

Maybe you don’t personally care, but many people do care about Runar, including pretty much everyone in my diverse free company. I find him to be a super cute character personally, and his obvious romantic attraction toward Y’sthola is also adorable to me.

Comments about Runar aside, representation does matter to many people, even if not to you personally; at least for me, I feel more included when my own player character has more options when romance mechanics are present, which is why I’m very glad that Square Enix later removed the arbitrary sexuality restrictions that were originally in the game’s marriage system, and it makes me happy when some non-playable characters show diverse types of romantic attraction as well. It may not matter to you, but it does to others, so it’s definitely something to consider during game design.

[MellowMink]

I would also appreciate if people stopped using the phrase “sexual preference” instead of sexual orientation or sexuality; “sexual preference” is a historically problematic term that implies a choice aspect to same-gender attraction, and I really wish that straight people would actively avoid it.