Out Making Games x BAFTA Games Pride Month Twitter Takeover
In celebration and support of everything LGBTQ+ in games, Out Making Games and BAFTA Games joined forces for a Pride month Twitter takeover. Our aim was to highlight the sensationally diverse array of content, resources and talent which exists in and around the games industry. Safe to say there is a lot, so over the course of the month of June, we delivered more than 70 posts. This is just the beginning of our journey together.
How did we decide how much, and who and what to include?
BAFTA Games requested a maximum of ten items per week. For 2022, Out Making Games set four key pillars, which are the driving force behind everything we do in 2022: Intersectionality, community, advocacy and education. As Ellie wrote in her blog OMG 2022 Strategy in March ’22: “Each of our initiatives this year will by driven by at least one of these pillars, and underlying all of this we reaffirm our commitment to supporting everybody in the LGBTQ+ rainbow and most especially those who find themselves most marginalised in 2022 - trans and gender diverse people.” This commitment led us to the four areas of focus:
Week One: LGBTQ+ People, studios and organisations.
LGBTQ+ people don’t always have a role model they can aspire to, particularly when it comes to industries where professionals are not typically in front of the camera. Therefore, we felt it particularly important to shine a light on successful LGBTQ+ individuals working in the games industry, not only to celebrate their achievements, but also to let LGBTQ+ people know the games industry is a place they are welcome, and somewhere they could be in the future. Because studios and organisations which support the industry are so closely linked to the people who run them, we also took this week to highlight a number of key examples. Whilst there were over twenty examples in total, each with a personal quote written personally for OMG, we were exceptionally careful about how we went about spotlighting individuals. Firstly, not wanting to ‘out’ anyone, or draw any unwanted attention to them, we went out to a great many and asked their permission. We exclusively included all of those who said yes, but first went back and checked they were happy with the copy, etc. we were including. Aware of trolling, we were also careful to omit any social media tags or similar, to mitigate antisocial responses.
Week Two: LGBTQ+ Characters and Games
There are hundreds of games with LGBTQ+ themes, characters, narratives, etc. so being limited to just ten games and ten characters was tough! From AAA smashes like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, and Arkane’s recent critical hit Deathloop, both of which feature lead lesbian and bisexual characters, to small indies like hypertext title, Queers in Love at the End of The World, created in Twine. The latter title lasts just ten seconds and challenges you to answer, ‘What would you say to your lover if you knew the world was about to end?’ We look forward to sharing more of these with you all throughout the year.
Week Three: Transgender in Games
As one of our communities which is exposed to perhaps the widest degree of misunderstanding and underrepresentation, we decided to devote an entire week to the transgender community, in addition to including relevant posts throughout the rest of the month. This ranged from links to curated games lists on steam, to resources like Mermaids which has been supporting transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families since 1995, to characters, developers and beyond. Some of the most highly regarded titles out there at the moment, feature transgender lead characters, supporting cast, narratives and/or creatives, these include: Celeste, If Found, dys4ia and Dragon Age: Inquisition, to name but a few.
Week Four: LGBTQ+ Resource week
Our final week drew attention to the many resources available to LGBTQ+ people, their families and friends. There is a lot of support out there, from a caring ear to speak with, to training for businesses and families. Two examples are FFLAG who offer support and guidance to the friends and family of LGBT+ people, and Safe in our World, whose goal is to create and foster worldwide mental health awareness within the video game industry.
There is a plethora of LGBTQ+ content and support out there, and over the coming months and years we hope to work with more partners to highlight and support it. Special thanks to David Dougherty, Emma Wellwood and Luke Hebblethwaite at BAFTA Games for all your support.
As a side note and as a reminder to those who may consider doing something similar in the future, it should be noted that OMG were incredibly careful with how we managed our posts. Anyone spotlighted in the posts was contacted personally for their permission and only mentioned with their express permission, any quotes used were obtained directly by OMG and no social media handles for individuals were included, to try to keep everyone as safe as possible. If you think there are any ways we could improve our processes here in future, we absolutely welcome feedback
We hope you enjoyed it. Next time we hope to go even bigger and better!
James Dodd – Vice Chair
OMG
