Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,479
edits
Gay Option: Difference between revisions
examples template, rationalized headers
m (update links) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (examples template, rationalized headers) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:Bully_Gay_Option.jpg|link=Bully (video game)|frame|Jimmy Hopkins, making the Gay Option work for him.]]
Oftentimes in video games, the option exists for the main character to [[Relationship Values|pursue a romantic relationship]] with some other character. This more often than not happens in more open-ended games, such as [[Role Playing Game|RPGs]] and [[Wide Open Sandbox]] games like ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'', rather than games that follow a tight, "[[Scripted Event|every note must be hit]]" plot, where any romance happens at the behest of the story. As video games are [[Most Gamers Are Male|traditionally a medium for males]], and most males are heterosexual, most of the romance happens between a male character and a female [[Non-Player Character|NPC]] of the player's choice.
Line 9 ⟶ 8:
For games where homosexuality is not just an option but the game itself is themed on it, see the video game sections of [[Yuri Genre]] (for lesbians) and [[Boys Love Genre]] (for gay males). This ''may'' or ''may not'' overlap with [[Optional Sexual Encounter]], since a game won't always go that far.
----
{{examples}}
=== Adventure Games ===
* The sixth ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'' game had a gay option as a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]: If you used Larry's fly on the flamboyantly gay towel attendant or gave him the key to Larry's room, you were treated to a game over screen featuring the two walking hand in hand into the sunset.
* In one of the ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' video games, where you play as Kyon, you can gain or lose favor with each character depending on how much attention you pay to them. Sometimes it's a friendship meter, and sometimes it's a love meter; that last one comes up less often for Itsuki (resident [[Ho Yay]] character) than the girls, but it still appears from time to time.
=== MMORPGs ===
* ''[[Pirates Of The Burning Sea]]'' allows this, in an early mission you get a choice of a number of different people of both genders that you can select to be your romantic interest later in the game with no gender restrictions. This can lead to amusing results as players who don't read the plot text then end up wondering why their character is suddenly gay.
* Parodied by ''[[Gaia Online]]''. A RIG centering on an injured Lex's video-game hallucinations has a dating-sim stage. Lex's options are his female coworkers Becky and [[Tsundere|Jinx]]... and his male coworker [[Smug Snake|Russell Ace]].
* [[World of Warcraft]] added a small example in the Cataclysm expansion. One series of humorous quests involves listening to the [[Unreliable Narrator|awesome exploits]] of a couple of NPCs in the Badlands following Deathwing's path of destruction. One of them starts with the Orc showing off his {{spoiler|flying}} motorcycle to a series of swooning admirers, ladies of various races... and a male [[Bishonen|blood elf]]. When Deathwing appears, you can only choose one of the them to hop in the sidecar with you to safety.
=== Role-Playing Games ===
* ''[[Steambot Chronicles]]'' had an odd version of this. There were three female characters that could be romanced. During the dates with them, the player could ''inform'' the women that they were interested in their male friends, but could not actually date another male character.
* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', Lloyd can end up with anyone in the party as his soulmate. While this editor isn't sure how many of them are actually supposed to be romantic (at least one of them definitely isn't), if the most apparently strait-laced guy in the game is chosen, at one point he says "Put on a show that will make me fall in love."
Line 33 ⟶ 34:
* The ''[[Tokyo Majin]]'' game is full of [[Ho Yay]], but there is a Christmas event where you can date any of the female characters, and if you have a high enough relationship rating with the main supporting male character then you can go on a date with him as well. In fact the main male character can end up with every single party member that joins him - be it male or female - although the male/male endings are certainly open to interpretation, with the exception of the aforementioned male character whom you can date at Christmas who confesses his love for the main male lead.
=== Simulation Games ===
* In the ''[[True Love]]'' [[Dating Sim]], your best friend confesses his love for you at the beginning of the final day if you activated a certain flag earlier. If you say that you love him too, you're treated to a text ending where they both start dating and the main character remarks: "We're really happy together."
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has one or two [[Dating Sim]]-esque [[Alternate Continuity]] games, in which Kaworu naturally plays the [[Gay Option]].
Line 41 ⟶ 43:
=== Stealth-Based Games ===
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]: Peace Walker'' has a couple of [[Dating Sim]] missions where Snake can go on a date with, and get some [[Sexy Discretion Shot|implied action]] with, the adorable Paz Ortega Andrade. However, if [[Memetic Mutation|you don't like guuuurls]], you can do those things on a date with hunky Miller instead. You can even take photos of him in his underwear.
** Somewhat deconstructs the trope in true [[Hideo Kojima|Kojima-vision]] style: {{spoiler|the rewards for mastering these "date missions" with Miller and Paz result in the unlockable skimpy outfits for ''Paz and Snake'', respectively. In order to receive the beautiful young girl's ogling gear bikini outfit, you must complete a mission in which Snake seduces and engages in consensual... ''actions'' with his right-hand man.}}
* The [[Multiple Endings|Otacon ending]] of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', in which Snake shares a romantic scene with Otacon instead of Meryl, is ''not'' a true [[Gay Option]] - it's more of a [[Heterosexual Life Partners|romantic-friendship-confession-type thing]], and it can only be achieved by making a decision that causes poor innocent Meryl to die. All this said, [[Fan Nickname|it's casually referred to by the fandom as 'the gay ending']].
=== Turn-Based Strategy ===
* One of the endings in ''[[Luminous Arc 3]]'' involves the hero Refi and male teammate {{spoiler|Dino}} embracing romantically on a secluded beach.
=== Visual Novel ===
* In the eroge ''[[May Club]]'', one of the virtual reality girls turns out to be a gay man in real life, and if you complete that romance path the two of you become campaigners for the right to gay marriage.
* The [[Enhanced Remake]] of the visual novel ''[[Happiness]]'' had the gay option in the form of [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] [[Wholesome Crossdresser|Jun Watarase]]. Most people ignored the women in favor of [[Attractive Bent Gender|Jun's]] path.
* If the player in ''[[Clannad]]'' has Tomoya ignore all of the main heroines, in the storyline's ending he ends up with Sunohara. There is also the Kappei route, where Tomoya spends the first half or so unable to tell if Kappei is male or female (and having awkward feelings while wondering). After Kappei is revealed to be male, [[Pair the Spares|he gets together with Kyou's twin sister, Ryou.]]
Line 56 ⟶ 60:
* While ''[[Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!|Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai]]'' doesn't have any routes for it (though not for lack of options, as Touma is [[Bi the Way|quite open about his preferences]] ''and'' displays interest in Yamato, and Ryuuhei is [[Gayngster|straight up just gay]]), there is a [[Bad End]] where Yamato admits he has preferences he didn't quite expect, along with an implied scene.
=== Wide Open Sandbox ===
* In ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'', Jimmy can lock lips with any girl to gain health back. He can do the same to a few of the boys, one for each clique. Despite the fact that "finishing" his Art class allows him to romance female students without giving them a gift first, he will still have to hand the guys a present before they will be his.
* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] IV'', Niko can send date invitations to other men on the ingame website ''love-meet.net'', but, like the other website 'filler' characters, they will not reply. One mission involves going on a date with a gay man, but this is not a Gay Option, since this is an assassination mission.
Line 62 ⟶ 67:
=== Adventure Games ===
* The [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[http://jayisgames.com/games/ifiction/game/violet Violet]'' has a text command ('HETERONORMATIVITY OFF') to turn the story into a lesbian romance.
* [[The Problem with Licensed Games|The video game adaptation of]] ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' has a mild one of these. It's a minigame collection. One minigame is like tag... but the person who's "it" is a frog who has to kiss another character to make them the frog. Player default is Tiana, with the other 3 players being Prince Naveen, [[Les Yay|Tiana's best friend Charlotte, and her other friend Georgia]].
=== First Person Shooters ===
* The first ''[[Star Trek Elite Force]]'' game lets you play as either Alexander Munro or Alexandra Munro. Either way, your character flirts with female teammate Telsia Murphy, who might return the flirting in optional scenes.
=== Role-Playing Games ===
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' features Juhani, a female Jedi of a catlike race, as a possible party member. If the player makes their character a female and follows the Light Side path, Juhani confesses her feelings for her before the final battle. The player can tell Juhani she feels the same way, or that she just doesn't swing that way.
* In ''[[Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'', female characters can have same-sex couplings at a brothel in Tarant. It's possible to get a non-violent non-deceptive outcome to the confrontation with the female leader of the Dark Elves by simply responding to her attempts to seduce the main character. Only if the protagonist is especially attractive, mind you (beauty is a stat in Arcanum).
Line 79 ⟶ 86:
** Female summons in both games gain a crush on the main character and playing as a female does nothing to deter them, and in-fact only encourages them (Sugar only gives the famed kiss to a female PC).
=== Simulation Games ===
* ''[[Harvest Moon]]: Korobokkuru Station For Girls'' had a thinly-veiled Gay Option, allowing you to use a [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship|"Best Friends Ceremony"]] to get one of the special wives from the male version to move in with you and eventually bring you a baby, as if they were a husband. This was removed for the US version, ''[[Harvest Moon]] DS Cute'' -- more obnoxiously, Natsume refused to confirm they removed it, and they left in all the related scenes up to actually "proposing", so it's taken hours of work by dedicated players to, in fact, confirm it's not in there. Fans are understandably annoyed.
* In ''[[Princess Maker]] 4'' (possibly only the PC version), if your daughter avoids marrying any men and has a close enough relationship with one of her female friends, she may end up living "happily ever after" with the girl in question.
Line 92 ⟶ 100:
* ''[http://pacthesis.deviantart.com/art/Chrono-Days-Sim-Date-197968878 Chrono Days Sim Date]'' and ''[http://pacthesis.deviantart.com/art/Lunar-Days-Sim-Date-277108306 Lunar Days Sim Date]'' both have a lesbian option included among the [[Secret Character|Secret Characters]].
=== Visual Novels ===
* In ''[[Fatal Hearts]]'', most of the romance options for the female protagonist are male, but your female best friend is canonically in love with you and can get together with you in one ending.
* ''[[Heileen]]'' contains three romantic endings for its female protagonist: a ridiculously easy to get straight option, a difficult to get heavily [[Les Yay]] ending, and lastly another difficult to get [[Girls Love|lesbian]] ending.
=== Tabletop Games ===
* Tabletop Dating Game/RPG-ish thingie ''GxB'' has a Gay Option for Momoko in Risa, the class president. This is despite ''GxB'' being short for "Girl x Boy." Whether she gets chosen depends on a mixture of luck, the tastes of Momoko's player, and how well Risa's player runs her.
==
=== Choose Your Own Adventure ===
* All of the [http://www.choiceofgames.com/ ''Choice Of'' games] allow a gay option. In ''Choice of the Dragon'' you can choose the gender of your mate (or [[Bi the Way|'I don't care']]). ''Choice of Broadsides'' allows you to have an affair with Villeneuve, who is always the same gender as you. ''Choice of Romance'' always gives you the same options for Love Interests, but said love interests are male or female depending on whether you say you are flirting with men or women in an early decision. And in ''Choice of the Vampire'', you are able to have an affair with Clotho on one hand and Silas, your dominus, and to an extent Jesse on the other hand regardless of gender. Also, in all but ''Choice of Romance'' (and possibly ''Choice of Broadsides'') can you be demonstrably bisexual -- and in ''Choice of Romance'' your love interests are always all of the same gender. ''Choice of Broadsides'' is a little odd: when you're asked if you want to get married you can choose to claim you are attracted to your own gender; if you do this, and are friendly enough to Villeneuve, he/she will hit on you and you can accept. If you chose differently, this will never happen. However, after your affair you might have the opportunity to still get married; the text implies at first that you are doing this just to go through the motions or increase your position in society, but after that the description is pretty much identical to what it would be if you truly were interested in these men or women.
* In ''[[Echo Bazaar]]'' your character can romance both male and female partners, including a couple of threesomes.
=== MMORPGs ===
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has a week-long Valentine's Day Special every February where--besides the thematic quests--you can get citizens and guards of the main city to fall in love with you. Male NPCs like people who wear perfume while female NPCs prefer the smell of cologne, regardless of the wearer's sex. As of now, the Love Is In The Air event has been changed so that you no longer have to win over city guards.
=== Role-Playing Games ===
* Probably the first clearly intentional use was in ''[[Ultima VII]]'', which had "The Baths" in Buccaneer's Den and allowed the Avatar to have sex with either males or females.
** Prior to this, the "bad" Gypsies in ''[[Ultima VI]]'' (there were two groups) also offered their bodies for a fee regardless of gender.
Line 139 ⟶ 150:
** However, while there's a perk that allows you to get better prices from a merchant of the opposite sex, there's no way to seduce merchants of the same gender as your character. Even if you have a same-sex partner.
=== Simulation Games ===
* ''[[The Sims]]'' allows characters of the same sex to fall in love and move in together, even if they can't get married like their straight counterparts. (Which suggests that the Sim-universe is [[Everyone Is Bi|populated by bisexuals]].) The problem is corrected in ''[[The Sims]] 2'', which allows for "joining" ceremonies between characters of the same sex.
** There's actually a "hidden" meter for sexual preference for each character in ''[[The Sims]] 2'', from -1000 to 1000, which influences (minorly) just how successful a character is when attempting romantic interactions with another character. If, for example, a character is 1000 points of hetero, and -1000 of gay (for lack of a better term), they are extremely likely to reject all romantic interactions with the same-sex. Of course, a new character has both preferences set to 0, so really, [[Everyone Is Bi]].
** The story goes that this was actually exposed, with the intention that Sims would actually get fixed sexual preferences during teenage/college years, or character creation if created as adults, but they at the last minute they hid it and toned it down where Sims wouldn't get 'locked in'.
** In ''[[The Sims 3]]'', characters of the same sex now have equal marriage rights. EA, only three years behind Canada.
* ''Artificial Academy'' by Illusion allows you to have entire classes filled with school girl lesbians or school boy homosexuals, it's all up to the player and whether the character was set to homo/bi in the Maker.
** The only drawback is the yaoi h-scenes... they simply do not exist, unless someone has already made a patch or hack for it.
* Every [http://nummyz.com/games.html Nummyz] [[Dating Sim]] contains a gay/lesbian character; at least one even has an explicitly bisexual character, breaking the [[No Bisexuals]] rule.
Line 154 ⟶ 166:
* ''Planet Stronghold'' (from the makers of ''[[Spirited Heart]]'') has three possible romance options for each gender, one of which is a same-sex relationship (Joshua and Prince Cliff, or Lisa and Michelle).
=== Turn-Based Strategy ===
* The majority of [[Fire Emblem]] games have support conversations between two characters and, given a high enough support level, can alter both their endings.
** [[Fire Emblem Tellius|Path of Radiance / Radiant Dawn]]: Despite having a lot of male and female admirers, Ike only has two paired endings, both with men: Soren and Ranulf.
Line 161 ⟶ 174:
** From [[Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones|Sacred Stones / FE 8]], Joshua and Gerik. They both have endings with females (Natasha and Marisa, for Joshua; Tethys and Marisa again, for Gerik), btu if they get an A support, Gerik pledges his loyalty to Joshua and stays with him {{spoiler|when he's crowned as King of Jehanna}}.
=== Wide Open Sandbox ===
* The flexible character creation system in [[Saints Row|Saints Row 2]] allows you to do something like this. You set a gender for your character in the presets menu but are allowed to change the body, face and voice actor to fit the opposite gender. When you perform the [[Optional Sexual Encounter|Ho-ing]] Diversion you'll then hear voices from the same sex.
| |||