Nintendo shuns same-sex relationships in new social game

By MICHAEL LOGARTA

Published May 26, 2014 5:34pm

Nintendo’s “Tomadachi Life,” a social game that allows gamers to form friendships with one another, will not include same-sex relationships as an option.

“Tomodachi Life” for the handheld 3DS was originally released only in Japan, where it has sold over 1.83 million copies. When the announcement was made that the life and friendship simulator was going to get an international release, fan requests poured in for Nintendo to include same-sex romances and marriages in the game.

Nintendo, however, issued a statement basically saying that this will not be happening in the English language launch of the title:

“Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of ‘Tomodachi Life’,” stated Nintendo of America Inc. “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.”

The unchanging code

A massive success in Japan, “Tomadachi Life” lets players personalize their in-game avatars, called “Miis”. Players live on virtual islands, from where they can hop onto other islands to meet and interact with new people. They can then shop, enjoy amusement parks and minigames, and come into contact with celebrities such as Shaquille O’Neal and Christina Aguilera. And of course, they can also date, fall in love, get married, and even have children. That is, as long as the relationship is heterosexual.

What the original “Tomadachi Life” basically lacks is the option to let gamers play as homosexuals. And Nintendo’s statement implies they won’t be altering the game’s code to implement such an update.

“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 said.

Campaign for equality

Tye Marini, a homosexual gamer and fan of the Tomadachi series, recently started a campaign called “Miiquality.” Its purpose was to get Nintendo to add same-sex marriages within the game. He even created a video to spread awareness about the issue.

“I want to be able to marry my real-life fiancé’s Mii, but I can’t do that (in the game),” stated Marini. “My only options are to marry some female Mii, to change the gender of either my Mii or my fiancé’s Mii (and other male Miis) or to completely avoid marriage altogether and miss out on the exclusive content that comes with it. But none of these are a real solution.”

Marini added: “It’s more of an issue for this game because the characters are supposed to be a representation of your real life. You import your personalized 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.”

'Behind the times'

Marini isn’t the only one who is unhappy with Nintendo’s decision to rule out homosexual unions in the game. GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy group, criticized Nintendo and the game.

“In purposefully limiting players’ relationship options, Nintendo is not only sending a hurtful message to many of its fans and consumers by excluding them, but also setting itself way behind the times,” said Wilson Cruz, the national spokesperson for GLAAD.

“It’s been over a decade since The Sims – the original ‘whimsical and quirky’ life simulator – allowed its users to marry any character they wanted, and many other mainstream and massively popular video games have followed their lead since. Nintendo should do the same.”

Those “other games” include “The Elder Scrolls” and “Fable”, which allow players to court and marry characters belonging to the same sex. “The Last of Us” and “Gone Home” have also featured LGBT characters in prominent roles.

Others were less forgiving of Nintendo.

“The beating, bigoted heart of Nintendo’s statement is this: Nintendo does not care about its lesbian, gay and bisexual audience,” wrote Samantha Allen, a writer for the feminist gaming blog, Border House.

“Same-sex relationships are not a ‘social commentary’; they are a cultural reality,” she continued. “Calling the erasure of this many people a ‘playful alternate world’ is both offensive and scary. To position straight relationships as self-evident while sidelining the actuality of same-sex relationships as ‘social commentary’ is one of the most transparent indicators of heteronormativity at work.”

Heteronormativity holds the idea that heterosexuality is the only natural sexual orientation.

“By constructing an ‘alternate world’ in ‘Tomadachi Life’ that explicitly prohibits all but the most normative of relationship structures, Nintendo is foreclosing the value of play and alternate forms of reality for a wide swath of gamers,” she expounded. “Exclusion is not playful and more alternate realities should function as safe havens from the bigotry that defines our own reality, not as a way of pretending entire populations of people don't exist at all.”

A better representation of all players

Nintendo has since apologized for their previous statement:

“We apologize for disappointing many people by failing to include same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to change this game’s design, and such a significant development change can’t be accomplished with a post-ship patch. At Nintendo, dedication has always meant going beyond the games to promote a sense of community, and to share a spirit of fun and joy. We are committed to advancing our longtime company values of fun and entertainment for everyone. We pledge that if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series, we will strive to design a game-play experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players.”

This new statement seems to suggest that future installments of the “Tomadachi” series might include features based on fan feedback.

Sarah Kate Ellis, the CEO and president of GLAAD, commented on this new development. “Nintendo has taken a first step, but if the company’s longtime values are rooted in ‘fun and entertainment for everyone,’ then it needs to catch up to peers like Electronic Arts, which has been inclusive of LGBT gamers for years,” she said.

On a recent episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver, Nintendo’s apology became the subject of a spoof. The segment included same-sex pairings of iconic Nintendo characters, such as Mario and Link, who immediately lock lips as soon as the scene opens.

Slated for a June 6 release in Europe and North America, “Tomadachi Life” promises that players can “give Mii characters items, voices and personalities, then watch as they rap, rock, eat doughnuts and fall in love.” — TJD, GMA News

Tags: nintendo, homosexuality, samesexcouples, genderequality, videogaming