According to a very scientific study that I conducted ten minutes ago, the video games that most commonly feature positively represented LGBT characters are fighting games and RPGs. This is not surprising; both games emphasize diversity and character over testosterone-fueled gun fights with clumsily veiled jingoist overtones. Whereas RPGs put the player in control of a character whose actions and speech they control (within limits, whether you're a coward or a smart-assed tough guy you still have to fight the boss in the end), fighting games give the player a gallery of fully-fleshed out characters to choose from, with varying nationalities, fighting styles, and backstories.

Both are forms of escapism. One puts the player in role of protagonist and allows them the freedom to enforce their personality on the docile main character, while the other lets players gravitate naturally towards the character that best suits their personality/playing style. There is also a degree of self idealizing projection in both. Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII and Zangief from Street Fighter II are both strong, capable men with above average abilities and physiques. It's not above the realm of possibility to imagine that players might identify with, and possibly idolize the tenacious but charitable rogue King from Tekken or the time-traveling bad boy Chrono from Chrono Trigger. But does such a relationship between player/character facilitate attraction?

In Vampire Savior: Jedah's Damnation, an installment in the Darkstalkers series of fighting games, the character Demetri Maximoff has a move known as “Midnight Bliss” which briefly seduces his opponent before blowing them up. If the opponent is male, then the move turns them into a female version of themselves before blowing them up. When Demitri was featured in SNK vs Capcom: Chaos, this special ability came with him, meaning players could now see what Ryu and Terry Bogard would look like as women. What's interesting is that the “female versions” are not made to look comedic or gaudy, they retain all the seriousness and poise of their “true selves” but with the features that media would have us believe are attractive on a woman. The animation for the move features Demetri bowing in a courtly manner just before he strikes, suggesting that he maintains his respect for his opponent rather than using the ability to humiliate and objectify.

This has become quite a popular subject of fan art and fiction amongst fans, and now with Youtube, players can use M.U.G.E.N. (a computer program that allows you to create your own fighting game using pre-existing and created characters) to make videos of Demetri using his powers to turn Peter Griffin or even Mario into women before brutally pwning them.

If we accept the theory that video games are marketed to heterosexual men, then it's not too far of a stretch to imagine that at least some of the artists, writers, and Youtubers perpetuating this phenomena are also straight-identified men. Is it possible that this trend illustrates the latent homoerotic overtones that exist between the male video gamer and the muscle-bound killers they control with a joystick? These “femme-selves” retain their boy names and personas, their “sex change” being more of a palette swap than a genuine transition. Does providing a plot twist by which Akuma or Mr. Karate could become a woman make it more acceptable for a straight male to fantasize about them? Is fantasizing about a male character who is magically transformed into a female one really all that straight? Is this a case of a “man crush” going to the next level?

And does it work in reverse? If by some strange occurrence Lara Croft or Samus Aran were transformed into androgynous boys, would men still retain their interest in the game? Would women become interested? Would we see a similar trend in straight female players fantasizing about turning Chun Li or Aya Brea into handsome gents? Furthermore, if some of the contributors to this niche are women, then what does that say about their attitudes towards male video game characters? Does making Guile into a girl make the games less of a "boy thing"? Does the fetish lie in the emasculation? Is the aim to justify male/male couplings in fan fic? Are we trying to step around the sexuality? Do straight women find it more acceptable to fantasize about a woman if it's actually "a man" underneath? Does this apply to other forms of media? Do straight women want to see Harry Potter or Edward Cullen magically turned into awkward females? Is this an example of same-sex attraction or just an attraction to transformation fetish? Can you be attracted to the idea of a man becoming a woman and not be attracted to women? Or men? What does it all mean?

Back on the topic of RPGs, a similar fad has emerged in which artists depict Cloud, who cross-dressed in Final Fantasy VII, as a transgendered woman. Is there a significant demographic of tranny chasers in the video game community? And why was that quest featured in the game? Does making the pensive protagonist dress up as a lady serve an actual purpose, or is it just comic relief? Is it meant to explain why Cloud constantly rebukes Tifa's advances and ends up alone in the game and subsequent crappy CG movie? Is Square Enix trying to hint that he was bi/gay without alienating their "hetero male audience"? And what was with Squall in FFVIII and Tidus in FFX? Are they providing an "in" (or is it an "out") for people regarldess of gender or orientation to find their brooding, pensive protagonists attractive?

Is the sexuality of the average gamer more fluid than the media and the onslaught of space marine blood orgies would suggest? Are video games (RPG and fighting games in particular) providing the arena through which the “straight” audience can express their homoerotic desires? Are games encouraging the fetishization, othering, and ignorance about transsexualism? Or is sexuality not a factor here? Is this all a harmless joke? Is the fan-inspired art that comes from video games a different animal entirely and not reflective of the original media?

Is any of this making sense to anyone else?

Creative Commons License