Electronic Arts has recently been making a very public splash in the LGBT world. They’ve made a public statement this week that due to the use of gay and lesbian characters within their games (including most recently Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3) they have been receiving thousands of angry messages from homophobic individuals incensed about their inclusion. EA in turn responded to this homophobic outcry by firmly stating they have no plans on changing anything in future games regarding the exclusion of LGBT characters, and if members of the gaming public have a problem with this than that’s simply their own problem.
In response to this positive message the website allout.org started a public petition thanking EA for its stance against homophobia, which at this current time has almost 70,000 signatures. Allout spokesman Andre Banks, when asked about the reason to create such a petition, responded by stating “We are not arguing that EA is a perfect company, but we know that today, on this issue, they are taking an important stance that should be celebrated and supported.” Even celebrities are getting in on the act, as British actor and comedian Stephen Fry commented on his twitter that individuals should go and support Allout’s EA petition. A feel-good day for everyone, and a PR boost for a game company that has seen precious little of it lately. Win-win, right?
But this is where thing’s get somewhat more confusing.
There has been a backlash towards EA for their public statement regarding LGBT characters, but not in the way you’d think, and not from the community one would initially consider. Numerous hardcore gamers across the internet, including within popular gaming forums and websites such as Reddit’s r/gaming, have taken exception to EA’s argument that the thousands of people who have been inundating them with messages are doing so because of any sort of homophobic stance; rather this outcry against EA is simply because they’re a terrible company.
EA earning one of its more ignoble achievements from The Consumerist last week
Let me back up here. Last week EA was unceremoniously crowned the “Worst Company in America” by the Consumerist, who each year during the same time as March Madness hold a weeks-long public poll over the worst company in the United States. Thanks to some online marshalling of gamers, EA won handily, defeating Bank of America in the finals (I myself voted for EA, not because I actually think they’re a worse company than a bank which destroyed the lives of thousands, but because I believe the shame of being awarded such a “prize” would more likely shock EA than it would BoA into changing some of their policies. I’m a very naive person). EA, in the eyes of many, responded to this award by creating the current PR event regarding their status against homophobia, and seemingly insinuating (though as far as I can tell never outright stating) that all those who had been voting for EA as the Worst Company in America were doing so because they were homophobes, and EA won this “prize” for the sole reason that their video games include LGBT characters.
The idea that this is a fabricated stunt from EA has some history to it. There’s the fact that this story broke almost directly after the announcement of EA being named the Worst Company in America; mere days later, though that’s certainly not enough to damn anybody. There’s also the suspicious fact that Allout.org recently had to close down the petition in question, as they had found out that hackers had taken control and were spamming thousands of false signatures (though Allout has stated they’re currently in the process of rooting out these false signatures, and it looks that even without these votes their should still be north of 60,000 legitimate names on their petition). While it hasn’t yet been proved, many are convinced that this hack-job was done by sources within EA. And finally, EA has shown in the past that they’re not above riling up controversies in the name of public exposure; a fake protest created by a supposed christian group against one of their titles, Dante’s Inferno, back in 2009 turned out to be created and put forward by EA themselves, in an effort to drum up publicity for the game. Numerous christian groups were less than happy about that little stunt.
You really thought people would believe this to be real, EA? Really?
So to many it looks like EA has created another controversy, using the LGBT community as a lightning rod to convince the public that gamers are nothing but a pack of gay-bashers and homophobes, all in an attempt to hide the fact that they’re currently “The Worst Company in America”. Many gamers are, perhaps reasonably, quite upset about this public smearing (though I feel the need to reiterate, I never once found anything from EA openly stating they won the Consumerist award due to homophobic voters).
So we have EA supposedly calling gamers’ homophobes, the LGBT community thanking EA for standing against homophobia, and gamers doing everything they can to call out EA for creating this controversy. My personal stance on this entire ordeal? Only one part of that last sentence actually matters, and it’s that this entire debacle has created positive public support for the LGBT community.
choose carefully.
For gamers like you or I, this shouldn’t matter. Even if I know I’m not a homophobe, and so do you, the idea of the gaming community being portrayed as homophobes should be seen as by definition laughable. One which, again, helped bring forth further support for LGBT communities.
So with the dust settling I know quite strongly where I stand on this event. Speaking as a straight, white-bred little city boy (who constantly doubted whether he had any clout whatsoever to speak on this topic) I want to thank EA wholeheartedly for bringing forth the discussion that homosexual characters should be included in video games going forward. Maybe this opening of dialogue will inspire other companies to do the same. I also want to thank you for helping to shine a light on Allout.org, who look to be doing some truly great and important work.
