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| Russian MPs are not the first to try to write LGBT people out of video games Russian MPs are not the first to try to write LGBT people out of video games | |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| In 2013, Russia’s parliament unanimously passed a law forbidding “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”, essentially making it illegal to distribute any material on gay relationships or gay rights via the internet or any other kind of media, or to hold gay pride marches or rallies. | In 2013, Russia’s parliament unanimously passed a law forbidding “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”, essentially making it illegal to distribute any material on gay relationships or gay rights via the internet or any other kind of media, or to hold gay pride marches or rallies. |
| The move led to an immediate rise in homophobic hate crime. So far, targets have included Ikea (for the crime of including gay couples in its catalogue), sports events run by LGBT-friendly organisations, and perhaps most famously, the Sochi Olympics. | The move led to an immediate rise in homophobic hate crime. So far, targets have included Ikea (for the crime of including gay couples in its catalogue), sports events run by LGBT-friendly organisations, and perhaps most famously, the Sochi Olympics. |
| This week, Russian MPs took aim at what might seem like an unlikely target: EA Sports’ Fifa 17, the latest entry in an annual series of football games that routinely sells over 20m copies year. | This week, Russian MPs took aim at what might seem like an unlikely target: EA Sports’ Fifa 17, the latest entry in an annual series of football games that routinely sells over 20m copies year. |
| What’s so gay about Fifa, you might ask? There’s no mention of anything remotely approaching an LGBT issue in Fifa 17’s narrative mode. The issue is developer EA Sports’ support for Rainbow Laces, a Stonewall campaign tackling homophobia in football through challenging homophobic language and supporting LGBT fans and players in the sport. | What’s so gay about Fifa, you might ask? There’s no mention of anything remotely approaching an LGBT issue in Fifa 17’s narrative mode. The issue is developer EA Sports’ support for Rainbow Laces, a Stonewall campaign tackling homophobia in football through challenging homophobic language and supporting LGBT fans and players in the sport. |
| For a limited time a few weeks ago, players could download rainbow uniforms for use in the game’s Ultimate Team mode, in which players build their fantasy teams. (I wouldn’t read the replies to EA’s tweet announcing this, unless you need to depress yourself.) | For a limited time a few weeks ago, players could download rainbow uniforms for use in the game’s Ultimate Team mode, in which players build their fantasy teams. (I wouldn’t read the replies to EA’s tweet announcing this, unless you need to depress yourself.) |
| Show your support, get your FREE Rainbow kit in FUT now! More on the #RainbowLaces campaign: https://t.co/2NohXaloXe pic.twitter.com/xSbY9G8wAp | Show your support, get your FREE Rainbow kit in FUT now! More on the #RainbowLaces campaign: https://t.co/2NohXaloXe pic.twitter.com/xSbY9G8wAp |
| The demand perhaps reflects wider attitudes to sport in Russia. Sport in the country has very strong traditional gender roles: women’s football or ice hockey are relatively rare, for example. A couple of years ago, one of the country’s biggest football fan groups at Zenit St Petersburg published a manifesto pledging, among other racist and objectionable things, that they would never support a gay player at the club, although it never gained much actual traction in society. | The demand perhaps reflects wider attitudes to sport in Russia. Sport in the country has very strong traditional gender roles: women’s football or ice hockey are relatively rare, for example. A couple of years ago, one of the country’s biggest football fan groups at Zenit St Petersburg published a manifesto pledging, among other racist and objectionable things, that they would never support a gay player at the club, although it never gained much actual traction in society. |
| Specifically, the Russian MPs in question want EA to either remove this “offensive” gay code, or face consequences involving either a higher age rating or restrictions on the game’s distribution in Russia. This could theoretically have financial consequences for EA, as the video games market has been booming in Russia in recent years and is now valued at more than $1bn, although it doesn’t represent one of Fifa’s biggest audiences. | Specifically, the Russian MPs in question want EA to either remove this “offensive” gay code, or face consequences involving either a higher age rating or restrictions on the game’s distribution in Russia. This could theoretically have financial consequences for EA, as the video games market has been booming in Russia in recent years and is now valued at more than $1bn, although it doesn’t represent one of Fifa’s biggest audiences. |
| This is the first time that the 2013 law has been invoked against a video game, but not the first time that games have fallen foul of Russian parliamentarians. | This is the first time that the 2013 law has been invoked against a video game, but not the first time that games have fallen foul of Russian parliamentarians. |
| Previous calls to ban video games include Pokémon Go (over fears it was being used by the CIA to gather video footage of the inside of Russian government facilities), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (over the infamous “No Russian” mission [in which Russian terrorists indiscriminately murder civilians in a Moscow airport]), Company of Heroes 2 (for its less-than-heroic representation of Russian forces), and assorted shooter games, which have provoked panic over players shooting people in real life. So far none of these games has actually been banned, but publisher Activision voluntarily removed the “No Russian” level from copies of Modern Warfare 2 that went on sale in the country, as well as in Japan and Germany. | Previous calls to ban video games include Pokémon Go (over fears it was being used by the CIA to gather video footage of the inside of Russian government facilities), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (over the infamous “No Russian” mission [in which Russian terrorists indiscriminately murder civilians in a Moscow airport]), Company of Heroes 2 (for its less-than-heroic representation of Russian forces), and assorted shooter games, which have provoked panic over players shooting people in real life. So far none of these games has actually been banned, but publisher Activision voluntarily removed the “No Russian” level from copies of Modern Warfare 2 that went on sale in the country, as well as in Japan and Germany. |
| EA Sports has not responded yet to this demand. However, the publisher has a long and admirable history of visible support of LGBT employees and players – it has been named one of the best places to work for LGBT equality several years in a row – so although video game publishers regularly comply with special regional regulations in, say, Germany or Australia, where violence in games is more strictly regulated, it is highly unlikely that the company will comply. This is hardly the first time that someone has suggested that the presence of LGBT people be censored out of a video game: the only difference this time around is that it’s a government making the demand. | EA Sports has not responded yet to this demand. However, the publisher has a long and admirable history of visible support of LGBT employees and players – it has been named one of the best places to work for LGBT equality several years in a row – so although video game publishers regularly comply with special regional regulations in, say, Germany or Australia, where violence in games is more strictly regulated, it is highly unlikely that the company will comply. This is hardly the first time that someone has suggested that the presence of LGBT people be censored out of a video game: the only difference this time around is that it’s a government making the demand. |
| LGBT themes and characters have been appearing in video games since the 1980s, but until recently, both developers and publishers were rather shy about it. Nervousness about the potential reception of gay or non-gender-conforming characters in Japanese games led to fairly widespread censorship in America in the 1980s and 90s, affecting games as varied as Super Mario Bros 2, Streets of Rage 3 and Dragon Warrior II. As recently as 2008, when the Japanese RPG Persona 4 was released, localisation of Japanese games often downplayed the sexuality of queer characters, or made it deliberately ambiguous. | LGBT themes and characters have been appearing in video games since the 1980s, but until recently, both developers and publishers were rather shy about it. Nervousness about the potential reception of gay or non-gender-conforming characters in Japanese games led to fairly widespread censorship in America in the 1980s and 90s, affecting games as varied as Super Mario Bros 2, Streets of Rage 3 and Dragon Warrior II. As recently as 2008, when the Japanese RPG Persona 4 was released, localisation of Japanese games often downplayed the sexuality of queer characters, or made it deliberately ambiguous. |
| Recently, though, developers have been less tentative about including LGBT characters and themes, and they feature in games ranging from teensy indie projects to blockbusters. A great many role-playing games let you form romantic relationships with pretty much anyone you have the hots for, regardless of gender. The Sims has always included gay relationships, and actually included gay marriage before most real-world societies decided it was acceptable. Ellie, a main character in 2013’s the Last of Us, is gay. In 2014, Nintendo came under fire for not including the possibility of gay relationships in its cartoonish life-sim Tomodachi Life. We’re still some way off from the kind of diversity that players are increasingly demanding, but progress is happening quickly. | Recently, though, developers have been less tentative about including LGBT characters and themes, and they feature in games ranging from teensy indie projects to blockbusters. A great many role-playing games let you form romantic relationships with pretty much anyone you have the hots for, regardless of gender. The Sims has always included gay relationships, and actually included gay marriage before most real-world societies decided it was acceptable. Ellie, a main character in 2013’s the Last of Us, is gay. In 2014, Nintendo came under fire for not including the possibility of gay relationships in its cartoonish life-sim Tomodachi Life. We’re still some way off from the kind of diversity that players are increasingly demanding, but progress is happening quickly. |
| This has sparked a bit of a backlash, largely from the same people who bafflingly believe that the dreaded social justice warriors are ruining everything about pop culture by suggesting that perhaps women, LGBT people or people of colour should be included in it. They whine about “forced” LGBT representation in, say, Tom Clancy’s The Division, in which a character mentions her wife exactly once, or the fact that characters of the same gender sometimes hit on them in Dragon Age. It is odd that these people should demand ever more realistic video game graphics and technology, but that their representation of the actual people who make up society should remain stubbornly stuck in a mythical past where nobody was gay and women were only ever in the background. | This has sparked a bit of a backlash, largely from the same people who bafflingly believe that the dreaded social justice warriors are ruining everything about pop culture by suggesting that perhaps women, LGBT people or people of colour should be included in it. They whine about “forced” LGBT representation in, say, Tom Clancy’s The Division, in which a character mentions her wife exactly once, or the fact that characters of the same gender sometimes hit on them in Dragon Age. It is odd that these people should demand ever more realistic video game graphics and technology, but that their representation of the actual people who make up society should remain stubbornly stuck in a mythical past where nobody was gay and women were only ever in the background. |
| Truth is, though, that neither disgruntled “consumers” nor Russian MPs are going to be able to turn the clock back on this. LGBT people are present in the real world, and in the real sport of football, so it is only natural that they feature in Fifa 17’s reflection of it. Calls for censorship – whether from socially conservative governments or reactionaries who seem inexplicably threatened by the presence of anyone who isn’t straight in pop culture – are not going to change that now. | Truth is, though, that neither disgruntled “consumers” nor Russian MPs are going to be able to turn the clock back on this. LGBT people are present in the real world, and in the real sport of football, so it is only natural that they feature in Fifa 17’s reflection of it. Calls for censorship – whether from socially conservative governments or reactionaries who seem inexplicably threatened by the presence of anyone who isn’t straight in pop culture – are not going to change that now. |