The whole "authors should write they want" or "respect the authors' vision" rubs me the wrong way. Like, i get it; when you involve non-LGBT folks to write LGBT stories things can go horribly wrong. But also, saying it's incumbent on a marginalized community to create their own representation seems like sweeping a very important issue under the rug. Like, the LGBTQ community cannot simply wish representation of ourselves into existence--at least alone. Sorry, but there isn't enough of us in positions of power to do that because gaming is still a cishet dominated industry. What "respect the authots' vision" sounds like is so long as cishet men are in power, they can do what they want, and if they want to have an erasure of lgbtq characters from their games I just need to live with that. Do you get how shitty that sounds?
Like, look, I don't know what the solution looks like beyond a "make games gayer" (which is something all developers can take to heart), but the specifics are beyond me.
Also, something I think a lot of cishet folks aren't getting here, there isn't a magical library full of great queer games--and like, look, the queer reprensetation is honestly a bit shit. Nearly every game with queer representation has their caveats, (e.g. too many dead partners, no narrative substance, avoids the word "gay" or any language explicitly confirming sexuality, etc.); a very real issue with telling people to go find a queer game to play is realizing that game may simply not exist.
Like, look, I don't know what the solution looks like beyond a "make games gayer" (which is something all developers can take to heart), but the specifics are beyond me.
Also, something I think a lot of cishet folks aren't getting here, there isn't a magical library full of great queer games--and like, look, the queer reprensetation is honestly a bit shit. Nearly every game with queer representation has their caveats, (e.g. too many dead partners, no narrative substance, avoids the word "gay" or any language explicitly confirming sexuality, etc.); a very real issue with telling people to go find a queer game to play is realizing that game may simply not exist.