Sexuality in games is a contentious issue. Romances that feel meaningful and have direct player involvement have only been around for a decade or so, and because virtual relationships inspire very real passion, sexuality and dating in gaming is often the subject of controversy. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect, initially praised for its embrace of queerness at launch, has been criticised for its Legendary Edition remaster, which keeps relationships as they were back in 2007-2013, rather tha✨n expanding Shepard’s options to meet more modern standards. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Boyfriend Dungeon meanwhile came u🔯nder flak for featuring a charꦫacter who stalks you, despite offering a trigger warning for that exact storyline. One of the steadily bubbling under controversies when it comes to sexuality and gaming is the idea of ‘playersexual’. Fear not, reader - 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange: True Colors’ Alex Chen is not pla🉐yersexual, she’s a regular bisexual mess.
Playersexual basically means the protagonist has a sexuality that aligns with your own, or at least with how you choose to play that character in any given game. If you’re a male character, you can be gay and romance male characters or be straight and romance female ones. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea - it means a greater variety of people can relate to the romantic conquests of the hero. But it also means the character themselves isn’t really queer. Most players will play the character as straight, because most people are straight. Being gay is not just being a girl that kisses girls instead of kissing boys. It’s an identity much, much bigger than that, and as soon as I learned Alex Chen could kiss girls or boys, my heart sank. My Alex would be gay, but it didn’t feel like the real Alex would be. Make no mistake though, Alex Chen is a chaotic bisexual right down to 🅷her flannel shirts.
The game presents Alex with a choice between two characters - Ryan and Steph. Ryan is a birdwatching himbo with protective, caring instincts who takes the weight of the world onto his shoulders to spare those around him, while Steph is an equally chaotic gay DJ who gets super into LARPing and�⛄� Dungeons & Dragons. She’s weird, kitschy, vibrant, interesting, and passionate about what she loves. It’s very clear that Alex is attracted to both of them, and that both of them are attracted to her back. You’re not forced to choose between them early on in the game either - you get to maintain a friendship with both that’s deep, complex, painful, joyful, and flirtatious as you rediscover yourself in Haven Springs and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:come to terms with your brother’s dea⭕th.
When it finally comes to choosing, you aren’t deci💯ding if Alex is Straight, Actually, or in fact a Massive Gay. She’s bi, whether she chooses to kiss Steph, Ryan, or nobody. It’s refreshing to see a character written from the ground up in this way, with all of the dorky shyness, raised guard, and I Am Extremely Online energy that comes with being a 20-something bisexual in the 21st Century. I could argue the case for my personal choice (STEPH, STEPH, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CHOOSE THE DJ NOT THE BORING BIRDWATCHER) but it doesn’t really matter. Whichever choice you make for Alex is the right one - not just for your Alex, but for every Alex out there.
Alex Chen is a very special character, even for a series that is known for producing iconic heroes. All three Life is Strange leads to date have been bisexual, but Max and Sean feel far more playersexual. Max was clearly written for a relationship with Chloe, with a straight option tossed in there as an afterthought. Give the straighties a taste of tokenism for once, eh? Meanwhile, thanks to Finn's friendship with Daniel, Sean always seemed better suited to a fling with Cassidy. Tyler, from Life is Strange's cousin, Tell Me Why, only has Michael to choose from, but the layers in the ice fishing scene on the lake still allow you to build Tyler's sexuality much more naturally, whether he be gay, bi, or pan and into Michael, gay, bi, or pan and not into Michael, or straight, ace, or anything else. Deck Nine seems to have been paying attention to Tyler, and has taken this layered, nuanced approach to romance and applied it to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange's choice based gameplay.
Here's to Alex Chen - the gayest video game character of 2021, even if she picks Ryan.