While I agree that tokenism and gay tropes would be bad, I don't think they are at all necessitated by having a gay main character. There are countless games with unambiguously straight main characters that don't make a big deal about the character's sexuality. There's no reason a game can't star a gay character that simply has a same-sex romantic interest without making the game "about" the character being gay. It wouldn't even be terribly difficult to write.
I agree. I've just yet to see this in AAA games because the nature of a AAA game is to appeal to a broad audience, whom you could probably assume are mostly heterosexual.
Of course, games with customizable avatars and dialogue choices offer some more leverage, but it's often just not as fleshed out as it could be in a game that leans more toward an overt LGBT audience.
I think we'll get to the point where it's less an exceptional thing and more of a possible variation on the heteronorm, but broader global cultural values will have to move in that direction, too. I think we will get there, it'll just take some time.
Let's return to the subject of craft: as a writer, it's easier to have the viewer, reader, or player to engage with a story featuring someone unfamiliar to them if you can resonate with similar broad values. For example, you don't see a lot of big budget movies about hockey, but the ones that reach wide release often have narratives that emphasize values like teamwork, collaboration and persistence.
If we were to put this in the context of a game, perhaps you are playing as an LGBT person whose relationship with their partner put them at odds with society in some manner that isn't entirely reliant on their deviation from the norm. Perhaps the world is moreso divided by class, species, or another aspect.
In the end, it's normalization and diversity I would like to see, but in tandem with values that are universal.
