So there has been a spike of conversation on tumblr about modding a character's orientation outside of their original state. For clarification, basically what this means in video games that have possible love interests (ie. Skyrim, Dragon Age, etc..) there exists mods to change a love interests orientation. (ie. Turning a heterosexual interest bisexual/gay, or a homosexual interest straight, etc) I'm just curious what this community thinks on such mods. Do you believe they should exist for creative freedom? Do you think mods should only exist to turn heterosexual characters gay? Do you think they should not exist at all? Or do you not even care all too much? I'm curious to hear what you have to say!
Normally I would say "It's just fiction, and I wouldn't mind" but I always felt a bit differently about the gay characters in Dragon Age. Not once have we lesbians ever had any positive representation for us. Lesbians in media are not "real" lesbians, they always have to sleep with men, and generally get their sexuality invalidated. But Sera does not fit these tropes, so I feel like for the first time in my entire life, I actually RELATED to someone. And seeing her modded with men takes it away and puts her back in that negative trope I'm sick of seeing. Of course I don't believe in double standards either and I would prefer seeing the straight characters be straight as well. So I guess people can do what they want, but I generally don't like seeing it and I ignore it since Dragon Age is the only positive representation I ever got in my entire life. Plus, as a writer myself I'd rather just respect how other people make their characters. If I didn't like the romance limitations, then I can just make up my own stories and characters.
I don't think that orientation mods are bad at all. I mean, mods in general are made to help out players who feel that there needs to be something altered or changed to the game without making much change to the overall feel of the game itself. Mods are optional, so therefore I don't think that it makes sense to be against orientation mods. People should be able to interpret characters the way they want to, so if they would like to change a character's sexual orientation, then let it be! ---------- Post added 1st Jul 2015 at 10:24 PM ---------- Clearly we have been exposed to different things in media because this statement is not entirely true at all.
The only time I'd use such a thing, is if the game is one of those that is 100% straight people everywhere, around every corner; then I feel left out. I generally dislike it if I already know a lot about a character, and it just doesn't fit in with them. This tends to happen a good bit. The more generic/background characters that don't really say or do much on the topic, could be used to add a bit of variety.
It saddens me that on other social medias people are choosing to make it a double standard. I am personally against them too. But not just one side of it, but both sides of it. I think that the canon should be left as is. And the rest should be left as headcanons. Though at the same time, I don't have the energy to fight with people who want to play their games their way. I just don't agree with them if it's brought up.
The thing that i find to be a problem with these type of mods are people who connect with the non-straight/non-bi characters. Its kinda like getting a slap to your face that your sexuality isnt valid enough over again. This is even more so with characters who's backstory is involved with their sexuality (looking at dorian here). Your basically erasing the problems that others have who connect to him. I do not mind others using these mods (since i knew the feeling of alistair being straight and being uncomfortable romancing him as a female although i never went with the bi mod since it felt wrong to alter someone's sexuality to me) as long as they know how much of an affect the mods have on people who do mind.
If they have the games on their computer, the can do whatever they want with it. I mean, you can even play skyrim with lightsabers, so i'm fine with that.
I'm pro-mods in general, with the exception of cheating in multi-player. So I see no reason not to be fine with them. Ubiquity of mods are an underrated benefit of gaming on PC.
I never knew these mods existed. I'm in favour of mods as it adds a bit of variety to the game or adds functionality that wasn't there before. However I am against mods that are used for cheating, especially in multiplayer games. It's nice that the LGBT community is getting recognised in games.
Most video games seem like they are created for horny straight guys...so I'm not sure how well that would go down with some people. But personally I don't really care.
