Over 20 years ago, Bridget debuted in Guilty Gear XX. A lot has happened between then and her reappearance in Strive. This video talks about one of the most impactful characters in video game history.
How to see (or hide) NSFW content on BlueSky
Let’s be real – everyone and their mom is jumping ship to Bluesky these days, and honestly? We get it. While Twitter is doing… whatever the hell it’s been doing lately, Bluesky has been quietly building something that actually makes sense when it comes to handling adult messages and imagery. No pearl-clutching, no drama – just features that let you decide what you want to see, and how to best avoid any inevitable online hate.
Before jumping in, I do want to point out that everything on Bluesky (with the exception of ‘Chats’) are public, and there’s no option for a protected or ‘hidden’ account. There are however, a great set of features to put you in control of your experience, just treat every post you make as public to the whole world, and you should be fine.
Bluesky is clearly trying to strike that sweet spot between “do whatever floats your boat” and “don’t be a jerk about it.” Importantly, the platform puts the control where it matters most – with us, the users. Here’s a quick rundown for everything you need to know about managing adult content on your new Bluesky account.
Grindr Unwrapped
Gay ‘dating’ app Grindr has unveiled its Unwrapped stats for 2024, including which countries have the highest percentage of tops and bottoms. It’s the most wonderful time of the year for gay people who love lists. No, it’s not Spotify Wrapped, though that did also drop this week (and was pretty disappointing).
It is, of course, Grindr’s version of the yearly look-back in statistics and figures. But whereas Spotify will tell you how many times you listened to “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan, Grindr Wrapped is here to reveal where the Daddies are, who was the users’ favourite porn star and which sex positions rocked our socks off this year.
As revealed by the app’s official site, the highest percentage of bottoms was found in South Africa, followed by South Korea, then Japan, Vietnam and Denmark. Bossy bottoms rise! And anyone complaining of a top shortage clearly hasn’t been to Jordan, where the highest percentage of tops resided this year. This was followed by Greece, the United States, Singapore and Peru.
The intertwined histories of porn and video games
What do you think of when you think of ‘sex games’? Maybe strip poker. Maybe some of those gimmicky erotic dice couples get each other as stocking fillers. ‘TOUCH’ ‘FEET.’ But what about video games? Probably not that much comes to mind; maybe a hilariously low-res ‘meet ‘n’ fuck’ Flash game, or a pornographic visual novel.
Erotic games have about as much cachet as ‘mature’ AO3 fanfiction – maybe less, even. We’re in the midst of a Gen-Z driven backlash against sex scenes in film and TV, that questions whether they’re synonymous with misogyny and oversexualised culture; games that focus on sexual content can feel like a relic, something seedy, shallow.
Gaming culture and sex has a vexed history when it comes to gender, given the industry’s long history of bad assumptions that ‘real’ gamers are straight men, and that building an adult game audience means sexually appealing to straight men.
Female characters in adult games are often expected to have sexualised designs, with entitled male gamers complaining about characters like Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy or The Last of Us II’s Ellie not being sexy enough; meanwhile, the BBC has reported about female games workers also being affected by a blasé culture around women’s sexualisation, such as graphic, distressing sexual content being thrust upon female games actors without warning. The few semi-famous titillating console games, like the Leisure Suit Larry series or Playboy: The Mansion, don’t exactly seem like they’re interested in feminism.
But understanding sex in video games means understanding it as more than just cheap eye candy for straight guys. Sex is central to how many video games work, including games that don’t technically have any explicit content. Nintendo games present themselves as bastions of childlike, lightly heterosexual wholesomeness – Mario gets his kiss on the cheek from Princess Peach! – but I’ve written about the gay and trans innuendos common throughout the Zelda games, for instance, and how they’re used to both build Link’s androgynous character and to make use of covertly gay and covertly homophobic comedy.
Levels of awareness of sex, from basic focuses on satisfying touch to creating sexual tension, are intrinsic to games in various ways, and the games that play with this awareness often find new and interesting ways to tell their stories, and to reflect on why we play games in the first place.
The Dragon Age series has always been gay as hell
It’s nearly impossible to talk about Dragon Age: The Veilguard on certain sectors of social media without being overrun by people who have a vested interest in seeing the game fail.
There are plenty of criticisms to levy at the fourth entry to BioWare’s fantasy RPG series, such as its lack of choice continuity from previous games and Whedon-esque quips sprinkled through its dialogue. And if you’re a CRPG diehard, you’re probably not too thrilled by it pivoting hard into an action RPG.
But most of the time, these criticisms are buried under (or wielded by) people who are being pretty blatant that their real issue is that The Veilguard features queer characters who are actively presenting as such. To which, I have to ask, have you played a Dragon Age game? If you think this is a sudden pivot, I’m doubtful we played the same games.
A queer guide to video games for new gamers
The world of video games can be a strange place for queer people; we’re everywhere within it – ‘game developer’ is a trans stereotype at this point – yet we’re still marginal to the scene and rarely centred in big-budget releases. We’re also still dealing with the shadows cast by GamerGate and the related right-wing harassment campaigns of the mid-2010s, where fascists sought to drive women, people of colour, and queer and trans people out of the industry.
But they didn’t succeed; gaming is a richer place than ever for queer people, and queer games have massively exploded in the past 5-10 years. Some of the most brilliant works of contemporary gay art and narrative can be found on Steam or itch.io, as can a lot of hours of good, silly, sexy gay entertainment.
So, where can you find good gay games? Almost everywhere – but we’ll give you some good recommendations in a range of genres, for both big, modern-classic, gameplay-heavy games and smaller indie gems, and for gay men, lesbians and trans people.
Gay and trans stories have a close affinity with visual novel and text game forms, which will be reflected here; but we also have a good foothold in all sorts of role-playing and storyline-heavy games, from action-adventure to puzzle-platformer to cosy management sim. We’re focusing on games that have substantial queer content, but it’s also common now for many big games to have customisable queer options or to have gay characters on their roster.
Yup, you can be gay in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will let players have same-sex romances, according to developer Ubisoft. The latest title in the hit franchise will let players romance non-playable characters (NPCs), similar to previous games in the series.
The game, set to be released in November, is set in 16th-century Japan at the end of the Sengoku period. Players can pick to play as either Naoe, a female shinobi warrior, or Yasuke, a samurai originally from Africa.
According to information shared about the game by Ubisoft Quebec, NPCs will be romanceable depending on the character the player chooses, meaning that certain characters will only be attracted to either Naoe or Yasuke. Those options will include same-sex NPCs for both characters, as well as platonic relationships for those not looking for anything overtly sexual.
Mom & son create app to keep queer people safe
A mother and son team in the U.K. have launched an app designed to help LGBTQ+ people find safe harbour when they feel endangered.
The BOBU app (available via Apple and Google) is an extension of Luciana and Nicholas Cousin’s “Back Off, Back Up” initiative, launched in 2021. The initiative provides training for local businesses to become designated safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people trying to escape threats and harassment on the street. Participating businesses, like restaurants and other venues, can post “Back Off, Back Up” signage, letting queer and trans people know that if they are feeling unsafe, their staff can offer support.
Those businesses are also listed in the BOBU app, which provides a map showing venues that have been through “Back Off, Back Up’s” inclusive hospitality training.
Queer visual novel The Hayseed Knight is out now
On Thursday, February 29, solo developer Maxi Molina announced that their queer, animated visual novel The Hayseed Knight is now available in its content complete form for PC via Steam.
This game is set in a medieval world of anthropomorphic animals and follows a rag-tag group of misfits as they try to figure out how a one-eyed, stag farm boy named Ader managed to rise to fame as the most celebrated knight the land of Acazhor has ever seen. Read on…
Baldur’s Gate 3 nominated for five Gayming awards
At this point, it’s fair to say that Baldur’s Gate 3, the magical role-playing game developed by Larian Studios and based on Dungeons & Dragons, has taken the gaming world by storm. Even seven months after its release date, the nominations keep rolling in – this time, from the Gayming Magazine Awards.
Dubbed ‘the queerest game of all time’, Baldur’s Gate 3 features large amounts of LGBTQ+- friendly and sex-positive content, which has resonated with queer gamers across the globe.
![Halsin And Astarion Romance Scene [Bear Scene] (Larian Studios: Panel From Hell Release Showcase)](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/racq1ZEcXbI/0.jpg?resize=560%2C295&ssl=1)
For the fourth year in a row, Gayming Magazine are holding their annual awards, showcasing the most outstanding games with queer content in the industry currently, and Baldur’s Gate 3 has been nominated for five awards, putting them in the lead for most nominations.