I have been wanting to get back into blogging. I have A LOT of thoughts on A LOT of things… and an IG story and/or tweet doesn’t give me the room to properly express myself. So, here we go…

This morning Behaviour Interactive announced David King, one of the characters of their game Dead By Daylight, is the game’s first gay character. And chaos is ensuing…

Something about me, I’m a lurker. Always have been, probably always will be. It is fascinating for me to go through comments and see how people react to certain topics. If you don’t know, a lurker is someone who rarely interacts in comments/posts/blogs but reads them. Now, I’m going to share my thoughts.

From my years of lurking, there tends to be a typical response when diversity representation comes into play (read that as an originally white character being a different race and/or an originally straight character coming out). It is usually met with “this is diversity for the sake of diversity, why not just make a new character that is (insert race and/or gender and/or sexual orientation)”… The same people would still argue “this is diversity for the sake of diversity” if it were an original character.

Then you have the “I’m part of X group, and I agree that it isn’t necessary,” I call those the Tokens. In this instance, “I’m gay, and I agree that David shouldn’t be gay, or they should have made a new character that is gay.”

A few people in the comments made some sense. The gaming world, like all realms of entertainment, and, well… life, was initially developed for and catered to the straight white male. Times are changing, and people are evolving. No longer is straight and/or white the default. While some find it arbitrary to make David gay (to be completely honest, I don’t play as any of the men, other than Chris Redfield, so I didn’t even know who David was, I think Dwight would have made a better choice, but that’s my opinion), I find it arbitrary that people assumed he was straight.

I saw a comment from a Token asking, what does being gay have to do with the game anyway? Does it help him finish generations faster? Does it help him escape? I’ll take a moment to briefly explain the game, if you don’t know it, though I assume you do, since you’re reading this, Dead By Daylight is a game where 4 players must restart 5 generators that will allow them to open an escape door to … well, escape, all while avoiding a killer coming after them.

This Token saddened me. I assume they aren’t aware that a common criticism of the LGBTQIA2+ community is that we “make it our identity”. No, being gay doesn’t relate to the mechanics of the game itself… but neither does being straight, and everyone was A-OK with believing all the characters were straight. People claiming they would prefer Behaviour Interactive create an original gay character would have been just as upset. They still would wonder what sexuality has to do with the game. The answer is nothing, it has nothing to do with the game, but it is good to have one’s assumptions shaken every once and a while. For the most part, we are going to go into an experience assuming people are straight unless told otherwise (there are obvious exceptions to this, such as going to LGBTQIA2+ designated spaces, but you know what I mean.)

And that’s the funny part, we are so indoctrinated, that we don’t even have to think about it, which is sad. I’m a black gay male, when I read a book unless the book specifies, I assume I am reading about straight white people. When I play a video game or watch a TV show or movie, I assume I am playing/watching straight people. Even with the amount of representation as far as gender, race, and sexual orientation, there are STILL times when I’m shocked because it will be so subtly thrown in sometimes. I’m like, wait, that man just said he has a HUSBAND?!? And sometimes, it is never brought up again. Some may ask, what is the point if it isn’t important to the story? To that, I say, because that is life. Sometimes you meet a man who has a husband, and you may never see that man again. It is art imitating life. I’m so used to straight being the default that I actually tried to explain away what I heard or saw. Take, for instance, Tommy from The Last of Us. It took my second playthrough to “accept” that he was gay, and not just talking about his “best friend.” Instances where a brief moment or piece of dialogue lets the player/viewer know a character isn’t straight is so beautiful because sometimes, that’s how it happens in real life.

This is why representation matters. I think it is more powerful to make an existing character gay (again, Dwight would have been a better choice, but, hey,) because it forces you to reexamine your thoughts of the character. I never thought much of the character, one way or the other, but now I see a new depth to David. He is the macho-looking straight dude, and honestly, I feel that is why people are so upset, because he was likely the character the straight white dudes gravitated towards, and they are shook.

I’ll sum this up by paraphrasing a comment I saw and loved, but there will be more to come regarding representation in media, the commenter simply (and beautifully said), “dude, chill, people come out.”