Nintendo stands firm: no same sex marriage in life sim. Alex Yarde wonders why.
“Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of ‘Tomodachi Life'”. The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that Tomodachi Life was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary.” – Nintendo of America Inc.
“It’s more of an issue for this game because the characters are supposed to be a representation of your real life.”- Tye Marini
In excluding the LGTBQ community by not allowing same sex relationships and leaving no options for exclusive content only available to couples in game, isn’t Nintendo providing social commentary? Do companies bear any responsibility toward their customers or society as a whole in regards to inclusivity?
In the article entitled “Nintendo Says No to Virtual Equality in Life Game ” by Derrick J. Lang for AP, reports Nintendo said it wouldn’t bow to pressure to allow players to engage in romantic activities with characters of the same sex in English editions of Tomodachi Life. This follows a social media campaign launched last month seeking virtual equality for the game’s characters, which are modeled after real people. Tye Marini, a gay 23 year-old Nintendo fan from Mesa, Arizona, launched the #Miiquality campaign last month, in the hope Nintendo would add a same sex relationship option to English versions of the handheld Nintendo 3DS game.
“I want to be able to marry my real-life fiancé’s Mii, but I can’t do that,” Marini said in a video posted online that attracted the attention of gaming blogs and online forums last week. “My only options are to marry some female Mii, to change the gender of either my Mii or my fiancé’s Mii or to completely avoid marriage altogether and miss out on the exclusive content that comes with it.”
Gay character creation options for games are nothing new. EA makers of The Sims, and Bioware, maker of Dragon Age 2, The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect & Skyrim, have allowed players to romance characters of the same sex, marry and have children. Many games have included specific gay, lesbian and bisexual characters. Game makers like Bioware have gone as far as making their box art gender and race neutral, acknowledging gamers are a variety of genders, races, and sexual orientations.
You can change virtually every aspect of a Mii character: gender, race, body type, height even hairstyles, eye color and clothing options are available. It begs the question as to why have such robust character creation options if your avatar isn’t representative of you? Why not just make the only option being either a Japanese male or female? The English-language packaging for Tomodachi Life–-“tomodachi” means “friend” in Japanese—proclaims: “Your friends. Your drama. Your life.” A trailer for the game boasts that players can “give Mii characters items, voices and personalities, then watch as they rap, rock, eat doughnuts and fall in love.” However, only characters of the opposite sex are actually able to flirt, date and marry in the game. As noted by Mr. Marini, “You import your personalized Mii characters into the game. You name them. You give them a personality. You give them a voice. They just can’t fall in love if they’re gay.”
“We have heard and thoughtfully considered all the responses,” Nintendo said of the #Miiquality campaign. “We will continue to listen and think about the feedback. We’re using this as an opportunity to better understand our consumers and their expectations of us at all levels of the organization. The ability for same sex relationships to occur in the game was not part of the original game that launched in Japan, and that game is made up of the same code that was used to localize it for other regions outside of Japan,” Nintendo noted in an emailed statement (Tomodachi Life has been out for over a year in Japan). Plans are going forward to release the game, as is, June 6 in North America and Europe. Nintendo alluded to include same sex relationships in future games.
As geek culture grows more mainstream, manufactures and businesses that want to stay culturally relevant and survive in an ever crowded marketplace ignore market share at their peril. Who does Nintendo think is buying these games? Public opinion polls have shown majority support for same sex marriage. What does Nintendo’s hard line say to LGBTQ youth? Doesn’t it devalue them and make a statement by exclusion that their relationships aren’t “normal” and don’t matter?
I wrote about precisely the same thing regarding DC Comics choices and backlash about Batwoman. Businesses have the right to sell whatever product they choose for the most part. Consumers also have the right not to do business with companies that don’t cater to them. LGBTQ’s and Allies have long memories and deep pockets. Justin Amirkhani of Vagabond Dog asked GLAAD to include a video game category this year. In a crowded game market, if Nintendo wants to leave money on the table, (quarterly losses for Nintendo suggest otherwise), a more savvy developer will gladly do the right thing regarding inclusivty. Moral obligations to a more just, representative society aside, money is a surefire motivator for businesses to clean up their acts.
You can follow Miiquality on Tumblr or Twitter .
—all art Nintendo