Bisexual male representation is basically non-existent everywhere. Games, TV, films, there’s a handful. Very much sucks
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This is a very fair point…there aren’t any queer characters in these games who aren’t there just for romance options. Which is itself a problem.
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I was really pleasantly surprised with Stardew Valley allowing you to have a relationship/marry townsfolk regardless of gender. I know it’s not an adventure game but I still thought it was really cool that they didn’t make it “a thing” and the devs didn’t limit you to only having one or two options for a same-sex romantic partner like in Inquisition or Mass Effect.
(perhaps slightly off topic but I could recommend a couple good books with bisexual male protagonists)
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Absolutely, that would be great thankyou
Okay so I pretty much exclusively read garbage fantasy fiction so if that’s not your bag: sorry.
Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Simon is the prophesied chosen one, but he’s not very good at it.
His magic boarding school roommate Baz is evil and a jerk and probably a vampire.
Essentially elaborate Harry Potter fanfic. Charming characters, and a really interesting magic system.
Son of a Witch - Gregory Maguire
Sequel to Wicked, the titular son of a witch mostly stumbles aimlessly round Oz trying his best to get by.
The Edge of Reason/Ruin/Dawn - Melinda Snodgrass
A trilogy! The main plot is about how religion is a scam created by the Old Ones to feed off humanity’s fears (or something), but it’s very VERY character focused and honestly that all mostly just serves as backdrop. Richard Oort is special because he’s one of the rare humans born without any magic. Actually uses the word bisexual. (Fair warning for discussion of rape and suicide, though the actual events don’t take place ‘on page’, as it were.)
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Thank you Party Cat
No problem!
We should celebrate.
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Perhaps some sort of party?
Please do! Been looking for good ones.
EDIT: Just saw you did, thanks
DOUBLE EDIT: Looked up the ‘Edge’ trilogy and it seems unbelievably up my alley. Love dark urban fantasy and the Cthulhu mythos. Gotta check it out.
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Added these to my list! Thank you!!
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I agree with so many points about Cassandra and butch/masc girls in (Bioware) games. It’s definitely a complex topic.
As a butch queer girl myself it’s really frustrating every time a masculine girl is revealed to be straight, in part because they say it’s inverting stereotypes or whatever… Not to say there aren’t masculine straight women but… I dunno. It makes me tired.
I don’t really know of any games that do have specifically queer butch girls… I would love to find some to add to my wishlist or download, though, cause I wanna see NPCs and protagonists who are like, maybe sort of like me.
I really like Emily Kaldwin from Dishonored 2 but I’m not sure she entirely… fits the bill? Nebulous. Tracer I think counts, she’s got some soft butch vibes, but multiplayer games make me anxious lol
I also share a lot of the mixed feelings as other people wrt Bioware. I really like Mass Effect but I have a lot of conflicting feelings about the game, from a queer girl perspective and also from a queer girl who likes character design perspective.
As far as games and butch rep go, in fairness I can’t know every game there is, and I’m sure they are out there especially in the indie scene. Queerly Represent Me has been helpful for finding queer games in general, both indie and less-indie but it’s a little tough to navigate for me, since it’s in list form.
Also, people noted Read Only Memories above and I downloaded the 2064 demo and played it this week and it was really nice to be able to choose from such a variety of pronouns! I wish more games (Sims 4…) (also all games) would do that. Plus it has cute art which is always a plus.
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So, straight male here and I’m not really that well informed on games like this, so I don’t really know if my input is that valuable to begin with. I will say that the ending to Life Is Strange absolutely shattered my soul in a way that I can scarcely remember any type of entertainment doing this side of Mufasa dying in the Lion King. When I was 3 years old.
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i’m still upset about jack from mass effect 2. also i wish anybody could marry/have kids with anybody in fire emblem games. if your adult children can go back in time to hang out with you, i don’t see why two girls or two boys can’t make a baby
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I want to give credit to Bioware for most of their games, especially Dragon Age II and Inquisition. I was out in those games long before I was out in real life and they helped me become more willing to take that step. Thinking about it does make me even sadder about ME: Andromeda’s awful bi/gay selections. Actually thinking about ME: Andromeda just makes me sad in general.
I might be misremembering things, because it’s been a while since I played it but weren’t there also restrictions in fire emblem awakening between some of the men and women? like Robyn was the only person who could be married to Anna? It just seems weird that they would be restrictive like that, 'shipping is like one of the main selling points of that game so why not go all out?
Okay, now, imagine this every time a girl likes another girl in media.
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oh i don’t even know, i just remember i got to a certain chapter and found out i was suddenly married to chrom aka the most boring dude that ever lived. which is kind of a pattern, like in the first mass effect i spent all this time trying to flirt with tali without realizing she didn’t swing that way, and accidentally recruited liara too late in the game to have a romance with her, so at the end it was like oh i guess i’m fucking kaidan by default even tho he’s boring as fuck and i only saved his life bc ashley was an awful space-racist.
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I think Anna Anthropy’s work is def worth a mention here, too. She makes some of the precious few games that deal with BDSM honestly, and Dys4ia was incredibly affecting
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Yeah, Chrom blows. I didn’t even know that the game actually defaulted to marrying chrom if you don’t cultivate relationships for yourself or Chrom. That’s… that’s honestly super fucked up.
I have never played any of the Mass Effect games, but from what I have seen of them through let’s plays the enttire romance system just seems incredibly stilted, regardless of the gender or race of the character you might wish to 'ship. Like, I get that it was a total novelty back then, but it just seemed like it had been treated like a gimmick by the developers. Part of why I like Saints Row 4 so much is because their romancing system was one big, blistering meta-burn on the mindlessness behind the Mass Effect system.
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