A Complex Situation: Videogames and Gay Rights
Krish Raghav -
Thursday, August 27, 2009 10:43 AM
Shadow Complex is a new action/adventure title for the Xbox360 Live Arcade, a game that attempts to combine fast-paced side scrolling a la Metroid or Castlevania with crisp 2.5d visuals.
That combination, of course, is an incredibly enticing one, and Shadow Complex has garnered quite a bit of critical acclaim for its gameplay and mechanics, with an average score of 89/100 on aggregator Metacritic.
So far, so normal.
The game however, is based on the fiction of science fiction author Orson Scott Card, who is a known campaigner against gay rights. Card is a member of the US-based National Organization for Marriage, a group that opposes same-sex marriage. (Card himself once called the legalisation of same-sex marriage a 'potentially devastating social experiment")
While its at yet unclear if each copy of the game sold/downloaded means more money for Card (the agreement is shrouded in the mists of contract confidentiality), some gamers are proposing a boycott of the game.
Gaming blog Gaygamer has an excellent, reasoned roundup of the issue here, and raises several important issues on the choice of boycotting the title as a measure of protest. The site also offers an alternative: buy the game, but donate money to gay charities to offset the cost.
The very presence of such a discussion, itself uncommon for videogames, is a sign that the medium is prepared to engage with more serious subject matter, and is not afraid to confront problematic political and social content in the videogames people play.