For those of you who have read/played Threadbare: Is it “a queer game”?
Could I legitimately post it to the LGBT Games community and similar?
7 thoughts on “For those of you who have read/played Threadbare: Is it “a queer game”?”
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Not an easy question. On one hand, your design philosophy is to make games that are inclusive to all gender identities, but on the other hand the theme of the game to me doesn’t feel especially marketed to LGBT gamers.
But letting LGBT gamers aware of games where they aren’t judged or mocked is a good enough reason to post it I think.
I think that sometimes that’s a design philosophy for my games, and sometimes it isn’t. For example: Escape Pod One is not a gender-aware game.
A lot of my games aren’t really gender-aware. Threadbare is aware, in the sense that it says “pick your own gender– it doesn’t have to be male or female.”
Does that make it “queer enough?” I don’t know. It’s something I think about.
It probably depends on the venue you’re sharing to? I would have said (based on my read of the last rev, not the most recent one) that it’s an inclusive game, but it isn’t particularly about telling queer stories.
Yes. I’d never say it’s “a queer game” in the sense of being about queerness. Thanks.
When I read it, I felt like the level of inclusiveness you are shooting for made it a queer game. It’s not a sexy game at all, but that’s kind of cool, since queer identities aren’t just about sex. The way Threadbare lets’ players transcend gender and several other human concerns and the emphasis on non-violent resolution felt transgressive.
I agree with Jeromy French that the open attitude of the game makes it one that would appeal to LGBT+ gamers without putting sex and gender at the forefront. It’s more of an easy going game where you can just play and be free from the prejudices and problems of the world for a while.
I would not identify this as a ‘queer game’, gender does not seem to be a major factor in this game. I will agree on some previous comment made that this is a game that can be played free from prejudices and problems of the real world. This is a good thing.
Honestly, how you have designed your is really good as its appropriate for gamers of all ages.
I suppose I should specify that when I said “queer stories” I didn’t mean “sex stories”. Queer people have lots more range to their unique stories than just their sex lives. :/