Question: Are gay characters enough to make you buy a new game? For example: You've never played God of War, but the next GoW game gives Kratos a male lover for some reason. Would you become more interested in the franchise?

Why would it? I think that'd be interesting, for sure, and given the writing of the last game I'm sure it'd be compelling somehow. (Kratos is Greek, and greeks had male lovers pretty frequently, if you remember history) Nobody's buying *Redacted* because The main character's a lesbian, they're buying it because it's fun and well written. Some people will feel more validated knowing that they are being included, but I can't think of any reason anyone would buy a game solely because there's a gay character in it. that would be silly.

The real question is: would you avoid the next God of War if they did that even if you otherwise loved the prior entries? 

The issue here is that gay folks buy games whether they're represented or not, but probably feel far better respected if they are represented. it's inclusion of minorities, not exclusion of majorities. Straight people (or otherwise bigoted people who are for whatever reason uncomfortable with gay/lesbian/queer folk) will VERY clearly avoid games in order to 'not support an SJW agenda' while trying to frame it as their actions being somehow rebellious or righteous. That's the issue. People who are part of the majority acting like they're being repressed because they are subjected to the reality of gay people existing in their bubble. This was never about 'pandering', it was always about representation. 

The way you phrased your question makes it sound like you were trying REALLY hard to 'gotcha' to whoever responded. Like, the way it was asked made it clear like you had a canned response of 'see? so why would you support this?' if anyone said 'No, it's thematically inappropriate' or something. Maybe you weren't planning that and maybe that was never your intention, but I see all sorts of that all the time on this forum and elsewhere. In time you learn to pick up on what's bait and what's a genuine question. whether it was intended or not, your inquiry sounded like bait to me. 

OMG. I literally just asked a question to start a discussion on something I'm passionate about, but you can think of it however you want to. I already said earlier in this thread that I can be added to the gaymer list, so if you think I'm here TrOlLiNg ThE gAyS or something dumb, you should probably get a reality check. I should have just followed my instincts and not posted on this trainwreck of a thread because I just tried to start a valid discussion, and this is the response I'm met with. I bolded the only meaningful thing you said.

Also, in answer to your "real question", I would be way more likely to buy the next GoW game is there was some hot guy-on-guy action. That's the only thing that could make it any better, tbh.

I prefer to say that I've seen far too many examples of people being purposefully disingenuous or purposefully misrepresentating the issues to let this sort of thing slip past. 90% of political discourse today starts innocuously enough, with softball questions or leading questions meant to deliberately guide the thought process to a place where they can dictate the narrative. It's exactly the sort of thing that certain political commentators do to cat innocent. 'I'm just asking questions' or 'think about it'. 

It's such a reprehensible way to push shitty political agendas that I am particularly keen on stopping it in its tracks before it gets any momentum. 

I did not know TopCat was a Gaymer. The question was presented in a way it sounded like he was trying to...

wait, why am I responding to Rolstoppable? NOW I took the bait. 

Yeah, some hot Kratos on Baldur action would be hot, no doubt. Wouldn't make me buy the game, though. I'd LOVE to see that shit on pornhub! 

and dude, you should know better than anyone (Assuming that's you in your avatar, potentially both black and gay) that the question definitely seemed to be very much so a leading question, the kind of question shitty people ask if they're trying to push a very specific narrative. It just seemed like a silly way to ask, is all. 

Seriously, I should get a reality check for trying to shut down what I thought was a disingenuous line of questioning before it gained traction? And, look at this thread: How many people were doing exactly what I was worried you were doing? Defenses are up for a reason, I'm not just flailing about trying to pick fights. I even said at the end that there was a chance this was NOT how you intended it, subtly implying that I knew there was a chance I was off-base and being proactive. 

but hey, I'm the bad bitch here. I'm always the bad bitch no matter where I go because I argue with people. I'm used to being vilified. 

I said it before and i will likely say it again but you are too eager to make negative assumptions about people you do not know and in some cases that is greatly uncalled for because you give offense to the wrong people.

You keep saying it, but it's just plain not true. I am usually an optimistic person, I am usually the person who tries to explain away bad behaviour or justify shitty situations. I'm very much so the kind of person who actually looks for the good in people...

...but my experiences dealing with people on the internet - especially in discussions of gender, sexuality, race, religion, or nationality - have led me to realize that my optimism is wholly misplaced. Too often people play 'devils advocate' or try to guide the narrative by subtly implying things in order to make their point without outright saying things. I've seen far too many strawman arguments to just...not respond appropriately. 

The God of War example just seemed so outlandish and silly to me that it came across like he was trying to mock such a situation. It would not make any sense for God of War to suddenly have Kratos be gay, and the idea of buying a game in a franchise solely because a gay character was put into it seemed so strange to me. I've never met anyone who even considered such a thing, and it seemed far too much like the 'why is x character gay? why does this developer have to force their SJW agenda into the game?!' rhetoric that I see entirely too often. You don't see it, and apparently most people on here don't see it (Clearly I'm the minority), but if that exact same question came out of someone who was anti-gay you know exactly where the argument was going. I had no way of knowing it was coming from a fellow LGBT+ member, I wasn't familiar with him as a person. 

Well Spiderman having the finally unlock being Peter Parker in his underwear made me REALLY want to work at unlocking it (but then those stupid follow the drone missions killed my dream).

I on the other hand was very disappointed at that being the final reward.  Although its power is situationally useful.

Well the lastofus2 leaks shows how bigoted people are. Either they hate gays,bi, or feel like this is a romance game based on dealing with relationships. People need to get all this agenda crap out of their heads when playing a game. Unless someone tries to force you into doing something or believing in something, you should not not be focussing on it, and just enjoy the experience, since it's a game and not something political with real life implications. Playing a game will not alter congress and votes.