1 With The Rage Comes Progress With The Rage Comes Progress

YouTube

The most ridiculous part of all this is that, in terms of what they want the games to offer, trans people are asking for virtually nothing here. This isn't some demand for wholesale, multi-million-dollar changes in how the industry does business. In the survey, there was a general consensus that, in games like Fallout 4 where you can customize your character, some slight tweaks would do the trick. Modern character creators are The most ridiculous part of all this is that, in terms of what they want the games to offer, trans people are asking for virtuallyhere. This isn't some demand for wholesale, multi-million-dollar changes in how the industry does business. In the survey, there was a general consensus that, in games likewhere you can customize your character, some slight tweaks would do the trick. Modern character creators are extremely robust , so if developers can let you make everyone from Bob Ross to an 1800s strongman who fought Freddy Kruger ...

Bethesda

"Now lets paint the happy little super mutant with a nice even coating of hot lead."

... it shouldn't be that hard to throw in a few more options and pronouns. As one respondent pointed out, "Personally I would get the most enjoyment out of a game that made the trans experience a casual thing. Being able to make a dude without an Adam's apple or a lady with broad shoulders and square jaw is good enough for me." It won't fix gamers' attitudes toward trans people, but it would inch them ever so closer to having to acknowledge that trans people are a thing, both in the game world and the real one.

The good news is we probably wouldn't have had this discussion a few years ago. Not because transphobia wasn't an issue, but because not enough people cared. The fact that we rattled off dozens of examples of hate is, weirdly, an improvement from when it would have gone unnoticed by everyone except the targets. Transphobia used to be the default, not something worth taking note of and calling out. It's also a good sign that Amber was able to write Mizhena into that game without any issues on the developers' end. "The process was smooth internally. No one raised concerns over her backstory. The potential for internet storms certainly adds some tension to those decisions, but Beamdog's always been about great stories. That's not going to change."

This is what progress looks like. Advancement is met with walls of fiery hate hiding behind a thin veneer of "tradition" or not wanting to get "political" ...

YouTube

... as if demanding depictions of trans people be prohibited isn't itself a political stance. Every civil rights movement in history has been met with this exact response ("An interracial couple on a sitcom? Why do you have to interrupt my entertainment to shove politics down my throat!?"). In virtually every case, a decade later, those same people will claim they were on board all along. 15 years after boycotting her show, JCPenney ... as if demanding depictions of trans people be prohibited isn't itself a political stance. Every civil rights movement in history has been met with this exact response ("An interracial couple on a sitcom? Why do you have to interrupt my entertainment to shove politics down my throat!?"). In virtually every case, a decade later, those same people will claim they were on board all along. 15 years after boycotting her show, JCPenney hired Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson

In every case, what the enraged protesters can't seem to grasp is that for audience members who are a part of the marginalized group, their exclusion is what breaks the fantasy -- what's supposed to be fun escapism becomes a reminder that the real world is trying its best to render them powerless and invisible. Every gamer wants to slay monsters, to be that cooler version of themselves. And as one trans gamer told us, that's what the best games do. They let anyone, regardless of how reality treats them, feel awesome. "My first forays into presenting as a gender other than the one I was assigned at birth were in games. I remember Professor Birch of Pokemon Sapphire fondly for being the first person to ask me 'Are you a boy or a girl?' and then accepting my answer without objections."

Nintendo

"Hey, you're alright for a member of the massive child-exploiting energy cartel ."

All they need from the rest of the gaming community is for them to do nothing at all -- to simply not fly into a rage at the mere mention of their existence. Is that too much to ask?

Seriously, is it?

Special thanks to FemHype for their invaluable assistance. Mark is on Twitter and has a book.

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