Studying the history and portrayal of trans people in gaming media
Joined January 2020
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While many studios have attempted to do a better job representing trans people, some have decided to go the other way with intentionally negative portrayals. This thread highlights one example of this
I’m extremely disappointed at how transphobic the latest special event in @GuardianTalesEN is. I’ve got a screen recording of the whole thing that I need to trim down, but here’s a screenshot of what happened to the villainess of the event.
ALT A game screenshot depicting a disgusting-looking fat man with glasses, and a caption saying “Carmen was actually a 43-year-old male illusion-maker”
I'm blown away by this step taken by the Tell Me Why team. This is a FAQ page they created to talk about how trans representation is handled and what kind of themes are shown.
Click a question to see an answer, minor spoilers but extremely well done
tellmewhygame.com/faq/
Laura does a fantastic breakdown of trans representation in the SWERY games over time and recurring issues. Game developers can and must do better
A Trans Woman Discusses SWERY, Trans Representation, and Deadly Premonition 2 - Access-Ability youtube.com/watch?v=YtU2_P26…
It looks like the new Cyberpunk game is back in press, now talking about character customization options including genitals, so I figure now's a good time to talk about the last time they were in the games press for crotches: Sexualization of trans people 1/8
A challenge in localization is keeping the intent of the original language while also understanding the culture in the destination. "Tranny" is a slur, "newhalf" is... complicated. The localizer choosing to translate in this way takes bad representation and makes it worse
After the first trans characters appeared in 1988 and 1989 there was a gap before any new characters were introduced. Only Yasmin had been mentioned directly within the game itself, with Birdo and Poison only being called trans in supplemental materials
This is the second time trans people are mentioned as a concept in a game, and it is framed in a directly hostile way. Continuing a trend found elsewhere in media at the time, this is an early point in gaming where trans people are portrayed in a sexualized yet villainized way
Surprisingly, the first three instances of a trans character in a video game occurred all at once, over 2 years in the late 80s.
Everyone knows Birdo, from the US release of Super Mario Brothers 2, but there's also Poison from Final Fight and Yasmin from Circuit's Edge
1989's Final Fight introduced Poison, who has a more complicated history in localization. For the US release, the developer was worried audiences would not react well to violence against a woman, so she was made into a trans woman so that it would be OK to hit her