The world has seen a steady rise in gay characters in video games over the last several years, though critics of the industry believe it still has far to go in terms of inclusion. A gay romance was removed from Mass Effect 2 for fear of backlash, and the games that do go ahead with gay characters unfortunately often face some amount of criticism on social media. Recently, there has been some discussion on Twitter about having gay representation in the God of War franchise, and one of the series' creators, David Jaffe, has taken to YouTube to share his thoughts on the matter.
For the uninitiated, the God of War games see players taking control of Kratos, a Spartan warrior who fights armies and mythical creatures in Ancient Greece. The series never gets too deep into the sexuality of the characters that occupy its world, but that didn't stop one Twitter user from tweeting at Cory Barlog, a writer and designer for the God of War games, asking him not to make Kratos gay.
Barlog responding by joking, "What about bi?" and among the many replies to the tweet, some supportive, some homophobic, it was eventually suggested that someone should ask the series' original creators. It was then that David Jaffe uploaded a YouTube video recapping the whole situation and giving his take on gay characters in video games. Jaffe is quick to mention that God of War is in Barlog's hands now, but that he thought it would be cool if Atreus, Kratos' son, was gay. The next God of War game will likely feature a grown-up Atreus, so it would be the perfect way to introduce better representation into the game series without having to retcon anything.
Jaffe goes on to call out those who had homophobic responses to the idea of having Atreus be a gay character, and suggests that such people should look within themselves and confront their views on the matter. In a tweet of his own that is visible in the video, Jaffe also states that there needs to be more LGBT characters represented in games. While franchises like Mortal Kombat have introduced gay characters, many other games are still woefully lacking in representation.
Unfortunately, the games that do introduce gay characters are still often met with homophobic responses. When the Mass Effect series finally introduced gay relationships in Mass Effect 3, EA received a multitude of hate-filled letters.
Still, many fans were thrilled by David Jaffe's suggestion to have Atreus be gay in future games. Though, as he points out, on the verge of God of War: Ragnarok's release, he no longer controls the God of War series, so it might already be too late.