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[Majukun]

So, make them gay, but in a way that nobody notices they're gay. Again, please read my first post.
Also, "unequivocally gay" doesn't necessarily mean "spotlight on their sexuality". Unless, of course, YOU are the one shining that spotlight on that aspect, which I'm beginning to suspect is the case.

again. make them gay,don't make their sexuality be a central point of their character,much like being gay is not a central point of a real person,much like being straight.

I'm not even touching the spotlight argument because there's so much twist and turn reasoning involved that it's making my head spin

Wha? Please elaborate on this, because I want to give the courtesy of not assuming you're saying what I think you're saying.

I thought my english was decent enough..if someone asks to not put the spotlight on gay characters' sexuality just like you wouldn't put the spotlight on the sexuality of a straight character (if it has nothing to do with the story of course),he is also ok with the fact of there being homosexuals in said story in the first place

 

[Memorabilia]

Huh. Very unexpected & surprising in a good way. Probably the first thing I've heard about this game that has made me consider buying it. If the DLC wasn't horrid I might just grab it. But I think ill wait for the Komplete edition to hit $30 or so in a year or so and scoop it up then.

 

[Vilix]

I bet his finishing move is fabulous.

 

[SolicitorPirate]

Really tastefully done! About as good as they could have done without straight men complaining about being too 'in your face'.

And even with how subtle it is, you can already see people complaining. I saw one particularly amazing post on GameFAQs with a guy saying that they could have used the time and resources they spent on making Kung Jin gay on additional stages or characters >_>

 

[Shizuka]

I bet his finishing move is fabulous.

Very.

 

[Chie Satonaka]

And even with how subtle it is, you can already see people complaining. I saw one particularly amazing post on GameFAQs with a guy saying that they could have used the time and resources they spent on making Kung Jin gay on additional stages or characters >_>

There's your problem.

 

[SolicitorPirate]

There's your problem.

No argument there.

 

[Arkeband]

If only the rest of the dialogue in Story Mode was worth listening to...

I'm really forcing myself to play it at this point. I think I laughed at one Johnny quip, the rest has been pretty much insufferable and I'm in Ch. 8.

 

[abstract alien]

Glad it was done with some tact instead of being forced and marketed for attention.

 

[Sai-kun]

Also I gotta say that I love people saying that we were reading too far into this. Gives me life.

 

[Razmos]

I'm quite curious, have there been any games where a character being gay was "forced" or "marketed for attention"?

I can't think of any.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

Going through that scene I thought it was pretty straightforward. Kung Jins stealing back a family heirloom, he's a thief, the reason we go into that flashback is because he just defended a thief, kung jin tells raiden they won't accept him(presumably because of stealing from Raiden who is held in reverence by the Kungs) because he steals.

I mean, if the dev says he's Gay, then that's fine. I just don't see how the scene implied that. I mean I guess Raiden saying 'whom your heart desires' but I thought that was about thieving.

 

[Daingurse]

Saw this scene while watching Maximillian's stream, thought they were referring to his past as a thief, but that is nice subtle nod. All for inclusiveness so this is pretty cool to me.

 

[RM8]

Also I gotta say that I love people saying that we were reading too far into this. Gives me life.

You're reading too much into the developers literally confirming he's gay.

It could easily mean he's a Great Archer Youngling.

 

[Shizuka]

I'm quite curious, have there been any games where a character being gay was "forced" or "marketed for attention"?

I can't think of any.

Does stereotyped characters count for your question?

 

[Madness]

I saw the scene. Never thought it was referring to him being gay. It goes quickly, I thought it had to do with something regarding him being an "irredeemable thief" like he was talking about with Kotal Kahn.

Reminds me of the Dumbledore thing. Whereby it's announced outside of the official sources. A lot of people are acting like it was so obvious, or what they predicted but it's just not true.

Kung Jin is gay, and I guess they did it in a natural way onscreen, but there should have been more to draw the conclusion he IS gay rather than a developer confirming it on Twitter. But maybe that's what needs to be done these days to get that kind of representation in games now, and it'll be better going forward. I do like how his being gay had no bearing on who he was as a character or person.

 

[Razmos]

Does stereotyped characters count for your question?

I was thinking more of transparent acts of inclusion that were ham-fisted and obviously done for points. Stereotyped/camp characters are kinda more commonly accepted.

Kung Jin is gay, and I guess they did it in a natural way onscreen, but there should have been more to draw the conclusion he IS gay rather than a developer confirming it on Twitter. But maybe that's what needs to be done these days to get that kind of representation in games now, and it'll be better going forward. I do like how his being gay had no bearing on who he was as a character or person.

They could have done, but the backlash would have been bad. It's already bad enough being as subtle as it was.

Right now there are complaints of "It was too subtle, not obvious enough", but even a fraction more obvious or in the open and the arguments would be the complete opposite, "Too on the nose, too obvious, blatant pandering, ect"

 

[Dany]

Spoiler

Its like Korra and Asami in

The Legend of Korra

I LOVE how they did it there

 

[Linconan]

I'm sorry but that makes zero sense as a comparison. Raiden specifically used the word desire not love. You would never use the word desire in your scenario.

The ..Random.. bit i said?
That wasn't a comparison. That was an example of peoples state of mind on interpretation of Raidens line. (at time of post before seeing confirmation) lol

Desire:
Noun
a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.
Verb
strongly wish for or want (something).

In context of the game Mortal Kombat,
there was nothing with the subject at hand to imply.. GAY.. for that scene. He wanted/Desired the Statue etc.
Raidens comment scene for what he said was all about "Theft" etc.

Anyway,
i updated my post. Thanks to that confirmation post from a Dev someone posted saying Yes he is.
That's fair enough, then.

Moving on.
*exits slowly.....
slams door*
lol

 

[Deleted member 20920]

and why should we improve minorities' visibility?
what would that accomplish exactly..making aware people that gay exist?i think they already know that.
make being homosexual a normal thing,not something to underline...that is the challenge.

Believe it or not but there are still times when people see gay people as invisible non entities that are like the bogey men. I had a classmate tell me that she things that there are no gays in her faculty. She was in Arts,Design and Media;there were plenty and she was just being oblivious or obtused. My friend works in an office that somehow has more gays than the average office and yet she has colleagues who would dismiss and say that gays don't exist in their office and proceed on to make homophobic jokes while being oblivious to how their gay colleagues feel. The guy (s) would be standing next to these people and they wouldn't know or acknowledge their existence. Tell me more about why we don't need more positive and neutral visibility in media.

 

[Sai-kun]

I saw the scene. Never thought it was referring to him being gay. It goes quickly, I thought it had to do with something regarding him being an "irredeemable thief" like he was talking about with Kotal Kahn.

Reminds me of the Dumbledore thing. Whereby it's announced outside of the official sources. A lot of people are acting like it was so obvious, or what they predicted but it's just not true.

Kung Jin is gay, and I guess they did it in a natural way onscreen, but there should have been more to draw the conclusion he IS gay rather than a developer confirming it on Twitter. But maybe that's what needs to be done these days to get that kind of representation in games now, and it'll be better going forward. I do like how his being gay had no bearing on who he was as a character or person.

This is pretty different from dumbledore. That was entirely subtext, and I'm not a fan of it, but whatever. This was about as close to saying "hey but I like dudes" as you can get without literally saying it.

When you grow up never seeing yourself represented everywhere, you pick up on things like this a hell of a lot easier than most straight people do. It was really obvious what he meant.

See: Korra/Asami.

 

[RustyNails]

Kudos to Ed Boon and NR.

 

[Fury451]

I

Kung Jin is gay, and I guess they did it in a natural way onscreen, but there should have been more to draw the conclusion he IS gay rather than a developer confirming it on Twitter. But maybe that's what needs to be done these days to get that kind of representation in games now, and it'll be better going forward. I do like how his being gay had no bearing on who he was as a character or person.

Your last sentence explains why they didn't draw the conclusion more obviously though- it wasn't his defining characteristic, and there was really no need for it to come up any more blatantly because he was just fighting evil with the rest of the team.

Plus all the characters get run through pretty quickly, and there wasn't any plot reason to expand on it clearly.

 

[Labrys]

it's obviously about him being a thief

a thief that steals hearts

hearts of men

Spoiler

it's nice to see inclusiveness, funny it even comes from a game like moral kombat

 

[davepoobond]

When do these people have time to date?


Also, I would have guessed Sindel to not be cis

 

[Arkeband]

This is pretty different from dumbledore. That was entirely subtext, and I'm not a fan of it, but whatever. This was about as close to saying "hey but I like dudes" as you can get without literally saying it.

When you grow up never seeing yourself represented everywhere, you pick up on things like this a hell of a lot easier than most straight people do. It was really obvious what he meant.

See: Korra/Asami.

I'm straight and I immediately knew what it meant.

Wait a second...

 

[BassForever]

Mortal Kombat is a truly bizarre series in that, on one hand it's very carny and written intentionally to be dumb shlock, yet on the other hand you have a fairly well written and tastefully implemented gay character.

 

[Majukun]

Believe it or not but there are still times when people see gay people as invisible non entities that are like the bogey men. I had a classmate tell me that she things that there are no gays in her faculty. She was in Arts,Design and Media;there were plenty and she was just being oblivious or obtused. My friend works in an office that somehow has more gays than the average office and yet she has colleagues who would dismiss and say that gays don't exist in their office and proceed on to make homophobic jokes while being oblivious to how their gay colleagues feel. The guy (s) would be standing next to these people and they wouldn't know or acknowledge their existence. Tell me more about why we don't need more positive and neutral visibility in media.

they know they exist,which is the only thing "just" adding gay characters would teach them .
what they need to understand it's that they are just "normal guys and girls",that don't stand out for their sexuality,they don't make metal detector ring or something like that.

and how you show them this?
by putting a gay character that is FIRST a character,and THEN "oh and he is also gay"

if you put a gay character and you put his/her homosexuality being the focal point of his character,at worst you get this

at best you get a character that people will remember as "the gay guy in mortal kombat"

while instead they should "acclimate" to the idea that being gay is just as being straight,just a preference that in no ways defines who we are

 

[Permanently A]

Mortal Kombat is a truly bizarre series in that, on one hand it's very carny and written intentionally to be dumb shlock, yet on the other hand you have a fairly well written and tastefully implemented gay character.

Yeah I'm surprised, when I opened this thread I expected to see a lot of PR nonsense but this is handled quite tastefully.

 

[DedValve]

Spoiler

Its like Korra and Asami in

The Legend of Korra

I LOVE how they did it there

I didn't like it honestly and I say this as a huge korrasami shipper (my keyboard even recognizes it as an official word lmao)

If they spent more time developing their relationship during book 3 and 4 that would have been great, especially since they had such great chemistry and are so fun to watch (their bickering in book 4 was gold.) It just felt unearned which is par for the course in that show so it doesn't upset me too much. In just glad it happened.

On topic that's cool as hell. Props to nether realm.

 

[Yokai]

Is this the first confirmed gay character in a fighting game? I can't really think of any off the top of my head.

 

[Sai-kun]

they know they exist,which is the only thing "just" adding gay characters would teach them .
what they need to understand it's that they are just "normal guys and girls",that don't stand out for their sexuality,they don't make metal detector ring or something like that.

and how you show them this?
by putting a gay character that is FIRST a character,and THEN "oh and he is also gay"

if you put a gay character and you put his/her homosexuality being the focal point of his character,at worst you get this

at best you get a character that people will remember as "the gay guy in mortal kombat"

while instead they should "acclimate" to the idea that being gay is just as being straight,just a preference that in no ways defines who we are

People will remember this guy as "the gay guy in mortal kombat" because there are literally very few queer characters in video games as is, in 2015. He's not going to be remembered for his sexuality because it was too over the top, too in your face, too subtle, or any other garbage like that, he's going to be remembered because it is honestly still a landmark to have a gay character be done well in a game.

What the fuck does "acclimate" even mean? What a nonsense word. Thank god you don't work in the industry.

Straight people are always trying to dictate how we get represented in media, smfh

 

[double jump]

Haven't played the story but somehow I knew that between the three characters Black, Cassie, and Jin that one of them would be gay. In fact even though I don't have proof that Erron black is gay I'm gonna ship him and kung Jin anyway.

 

[Theanine3D]

This is awesome. Not the series I was expecting this from. If Mortal Kombat of all things manages to be progressive on this, it makes me a bit more hopeful for the rest of the industry.

 

[DedValve]

Is this the first confirmed gay character in a fighting game? I can't really think of any off the top of my head.

Zangeif? Or is that just a rumor?

 

[SolicitorPirate]

Mortal Kombat is a truly bizarre series in that, on one hand it's very carny and written intentionally to be dumb shlock, yet on the other hand you have a fairly well written and tastefully implemented gay character.

It's always for the games you least expect. Kinda like how the modern Saints Row games are incredibly inclusive, and they are the games best known for letting you beat people to death with a dildo.

 

[RM8]

Is this the first confirmed gay character in a fighting game? I can't really think of any off the top of my head.

Eagle's dialogue got censored / changed in the West, but his CvS2 lines were pretty open, lol. Telling Morrigan she couldn't seduce him, telling Cammy he's not into young girls, telling Balrog they could be soulmates, Guile telling him "there are guys like you in the army, but it's not my thing!", and references to Freddie Mercury.

 

[SoraanTribal]

Surprisingly subtle and well done... in a Mortal Kombat game. Love it. lol

 

[Majukun]

People will remember this guy as "the gay guy in mortal kombat" because there are literally very few queer characters in video games as is, in 2015. He's not going to be remembered for his sexuality because it was too over the top, too in your face, too subtle, or any other garbage like that, he's going to be remembered because it is honestly still a landmark to have a gay character be done well in a game.

What the fuck does "acclimate" even mean? What a nonsense word. Thank god you don't work in the industry.

Straight people are always trying to dictate how we get represented in media, smfh

oh well it's not like a single man can change an industry anyway,so you are safe,don't worry

 

[Toxi]

Is this the first confirmed gay character in a fighting game? I can't really think of any off the top of my head.

Venom from Guilty Gear. He's crazy for Zato.

Also a fucking genius character design.

 

[Dany]

while instead they should "acclimate" to the idea that being gay is just as being straight,just a preference that in no ways defines who we are

How the heck do you do that without having a gay character in the game? You don't stress a persons sexuality, like nether realm did. They didn't make it his defining characteristic.

NOR is that wrong. A lot of people give Dorion shit in Dragon Age Inquisition because a lot of his personal quests were related to his sexualitly IF anything, the medium is doing a great job in telling different stories with characters who happen to be gay.

 

[SoraanTribal]

How the heck do you do that without having a gay character in the game? You don't stress a persons sexuality, like nether realm did. They didn't make it his defining characteristic.

NOR is that wrong. A lot of people give Dorion shit in Dragon Age Inquisition because a lot of his personal quests were related to his sexualitly IF anything, the medium is doing a great job in telling different stories with characters who happen to be gay.

I didn't realize people had problems with Dorian... besides, only one of his quests really involved his sexuality and I really enjoyed it.

Spoiler

I might be biased though... <3 Dorian <3

 

[Zia]

I always thought that Johnny Cage was MK's first gay character.

 

[thetrin]

Oh, I thought they were referring to some Romeo & Juliet clan shit in that dialogue. Didn't occur to me that they could be talking about that.

That's cool. Not that it matters at all to the story in any way.

 

[spazchicken]

I can't wait for the day when this isn't a big deal, because it really shouldn't be.

 

[Arkeband]

oh well it's not like a single man can change an industry anyway,so you are safe,don't worry

You're supposed to react like this:

Don't you understand?!

 

[Weltall Zero]

How the heck do you do that without having a gay character in the game?

Good luck getting an answer out of him on that, I've asked him twice so far and he's replied to my every single sentence but those two. Gee, I wonder why?

Spoiler: He's going to answer he's not asking for gay characters not to be included, "only" that nobody acknowledges or discusses they're gay (obviously he won't use these words). Then he'll entirely ignore the part about how to actually increase acceptance, anyway.

 

[Sai-kun]

You're supposed to react like this:

Don't you understand?!

Whoa mind blown

We also would have accepted: an actual answer to my reply

 

[Majukun]

How the heck do you do that without having a gay character in the game? You don't stress a persons sexuality, like nether realm did. They didn't make it his defining characteristic.

and that's exactly why i said they did a brilliant job?
why people keep quoting me without having read my posts first ?_?

NOR is that wrong. A lot of people give Dorion shit in Dragon Age Inquisition because a lot of his personal quests were related to his sexualitly IF anything, the medium is doing a great job in telling different stories with characters who happen to be gay.

it's not wrong per se,it just does a poor job in making homosexuals more accepted..or for lack of a better word ,more "normal" to the public eye

 

[Sai-kun]

and that's exactly why i said they did a brilliant job?
why people keep quoting me without having read my posts first ?_?


it's not wrong per se,it just does a poor job in making homosexuals more accepted..or for lack of a better word ,more "normal" to the public eye

That sounds more like a problem with straight people, to me.

There are a lot of folks out there who's personalities and lives don't necessarily revolve around their orientation, but for some people, their sexuality is a huge part of them! And that's totally okay. That's how people are. Straight people are like that too, you just don't notice as much because you've been exposed to it since you were born.