Lesbian Gamers

Biggest Dicks in Gaming

Yes it is about just what it sounds like it could be about. Sick of the consistent and purile 'biggest titties in video games' type of thing, we thought we'd give a shout out to the always forgotten gaming penis. Girl gaming breasts, butts and yes even vagina's get a shout out on a lot of sites, but the poor penis gets ignored.

There are plenty of dicks in gaming, let's face it, most playable characters are male, so let's turn the tables, let's say something no lesbian ever says "let's have fun with dicks". We've compiled a list of the biggest and smallest dicks in gaming in our 'Biggest Dicks in Video Games' article - enjoy the dicks ladies, this is about as close to them as you will ever want to go ;op

Happy New Year from the LG

It's New Years Eve here in the land of kangaroos and sunshine, only it's raining and hasn't stopped for a week--great for the drought and dam levels, bad for the revellers hitting Surfer's Paradise for tonights now cancelled fireworks, but I digress. We wanted to send a big shout out to the people who have shown support for us since our inception a couple of short months ago.

Special thanks to Tracy Whitelaw, Colin Gourlay, Rene Brungs, Aly Johnson, Natalie Hasik, Michael Abbott, Nicholas Cohea, Jean Ha, Judith Krauss, Colvin Anderson, Amanda Whitelaw and Destructoid.com. We'd also like to give a shout out to all of our wonderful forum members who have added discussion on gaming and many other topics over the weeks. Not forgetting people who take the time to leave positive / productive comments THANK YOU!

Alternate Realities - The Queer Question

Here we are with another short LG article. This time we're taking a brief look at alternate realities and how they offer us the chance to enter other worlds, personalities, universes, yet remain entrenched in the here and now.

Why do games that open up new worlds, new races, new lifestyles and social structures stick to the here and now with regards to certain social norms? Why, when we are faced with entering a futuristic realm are there no gay people? If historically it is becoming more accepting to be gay and a game is set in 2100, why are the futuristic rules regarding gender and sexuality largely ignored? This short article looks at these questions and more. you can read the full article 'Alternate Realities - The Queer Question' HERE.

Animal Crossing Character Creation

Games that give you some degree of character creation are superb, to some extent it means we can create and play just what we like. As female gamers we're in the minority, as lesbian gamers we're in the minority of the minority, so character creation is a good thing.

This freedom to create can also lead to other pursuits, such as making 'famous' characters and placing them in the gaming realm. We've all seen the famous Mii's, movie character Mii's and of course Mii's based on ourselves. The ladies at Thumb Bandits did an interesting article some time ago about the innocent title of Animal Crossing Wild World. Worth a look if you like the game and there's even a gay couple in there (in the form of the boyz from Brokeback). You can check it out here: Animal Crossing: Wilder Worlds

Lara Croft Comes Out

Lady Lara Croft was at the recent British Archeological Fieldwork Awards when she surprised the audience by thanking her 'partner' Sydney Barnard stating "my beautiful Sydney who is by my side through the dark days and the light". Croft accepted the award, but the prestigious nature of the event was left in the shadows as the news of her outting herself hit newstands.

Lady Croft generally avoids any talk of her private life, though she and Barnard have shared the same home for years. It's one of those 'lesbians know she's gay, her colleagues know she's gay', but there's a hush in the straight community with many people having no idea. Croft is presently travelling the country with her lecture series 'Hidden Mysteries', at least one mystery seems to have been solved, that of Croft attending all of those previous award shows alone--perhaps Sydney will finally join her for one.

What Would Zoe Payne Do?

It's been a long day boarding the slopes on the Snowboard Supercross Circuit. American Zoe Payne is trailing a close second to Canadian loud mouth Elise Riggs. These girls have been long time rivals on the field and off. 

With her constant flirtation with every guy in sight, Elise stands for everything Zoe doesn't. As a tough, focused and some say... semi-dykey girl, Zoe is all about the competition. Heading back up to her cabin to get some much needed rest and a long hot soak in the tub, she grabs a pack of brews and a vege burger to take in. Peeling off her thick snow clothes and breaking open a beer she heads up to her hot tub to chill out and soothe her aching muscles. 

As she opens the door to her ensuite, she hears "Hey... thought you might want some company to help ease those knots I put into your muscles today" and there in her bubbling tub is Elise, wearing nothing but a smile on her face...

What would Zoe Payne do?...

Gay Girls Who Game - Epi One

We were honored to be asked to present a vlog on AfterEllen.com. As you all probably know already, AfterEllen is the leading lesbian site on the internet. Lesbian Gamers will now feature in a weekly video blog, where we'll be discussing gaming news, reviews and general thoughts on video games and lesbians and video gaming.

If you want to support the video blog, you can become a member of AfterEllen (if you're not already!) and leave your comments. We hope you'll find it not only informative, but also a bit of a hoot--which should go without saying when you're talking two grrl dorks and gaming ;op

You can check out 'Gay Girls Who Game - Episode One' here.

Xbox Live 'Code of Conduct'

I was chatting to a good pal of mine and she said she'd been suspended from XBL because of something she'd innocently written in her motto. The offending words were 'ding motherfookers', a saying stated at leveling up in CoD4 and covered recently by Penny Arcade. This same pal had a guy on her friends list whose motto was 'beat women', though he wasn't suspended.

This got us wondering, is 'lesbian' permitted in your XBL motto, or does that word go against the Xbox Live Code of Conduct? Does anyone have the word in their motto? Has anyone else been suspended for their motto and if so what was the problem? If you can have 'beat women' in your motto, but not something direct from Penny Arcade ('ding motherfooker'), just what is the XBL Code of Conduct worth. To top it off, said friend also gamed with someone with the gamertag 'Bacon z Jews', how does the 'Code of Conduct' view that we wonder.

Lesbian Gamer Comix - Epi One

We thought it might be fun to have a lesbian gamers comic, so we made one. Hopefully you'll think it's fun too. Thanks to our talented artist Amanda, we'll be bringing you the LG Comix, featuring little stories of lesbian gamer characters and their strange little lives.

We're hoping this will be a regular feature if you guys enjoy it and though there's no static publication date (ie once a week, once a month), we'll just dot them about, but place them all under the one tag of LG Comix so you can find all previous episodes. In our first episode two gals get a visit from their friend and her new squeeze.

Check out LG Comix Epi One - It's A Me!

Dyke Doubles - Dani Reese / Carla Valenti

Today sees the first in our 'Dyke Doubles' articles. So what is a Dyke Double, well, glad you asked. A Dyke Double is where we look at a games character and make some connection between them and a real life person who is in some way connected to our lesbian world. Confused? Ahh well hopefully all will become clear in the actual article.

We'll be running these now and again, but our premiere Dyke Double takes on two super cool ladies: Dani Reese from Life and Carla Valenti from the game Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit). The lesbian link comes from Sarah Shahi, who of course played Carmen in The L Word and also plays Dani Reese in NBC's hit cop series Life.

We hope you like the article and if you have any glaringly obvious Dyke Double combos, please let us know either via news tip, or in the comments. We've already got a few on the backburner for future editions, so it will be interesting to see what people can come up with. Enjoy Dyke Doubles - Dani Reese and Carla Valenti.

Lesbian Games and the Male Gaze

When Laura Mulvey first spoke of the ‘male gaze’ in relation to cinema, she referred to the notion that women were positioned in cinematic releases to please men. The reasoning behind this was that men made up the majority of the viewing audience and therefore it made sense from a business point of view to sell to them.

In the gaming industry, this goes a long way to explaining the inherent sexism that has been prevalent over the years where female characters often play the supporting role or that of sexual object. This also explains why titles such as Fear Effect 2, Outlaw Golf 2 and Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude feature such sensationalist lesbian scenes. Lesbian scenes sell to men, but in a time where we’re constantly being told women are now making up around half of all gamers, does this common theme need to continue?

The question remains as to whether for lesbians it is a positive statement to have ANY kind of lesbian content in a video game, or whether it would be preferable to be completely invisible rather than cater to the male gaze. With the recent uproar over Mass Effect’s ‘lesbian’ kissing scene, are we making any forward strides in being accepted as ‘normal’ characters in games or will we continue to be there purely for the male gaze.

Why Lesbian Gamers and Not Just Gamers?

The other day a straight friend of mine was discussing our lovely site here with her straight friend and the question posed between them was – “Why is it lesbian gamers and not just gamers? Why do lesbians need their own gaming site?”

This struck a chord with me, as it made me question the idea behind the site. Why do we need our own space, why can’t we all just be gamers and mingle with other gamers with no problems? Well, I think we all have our own answers to that, but for me it comes down to a few things. Firstly, having an area for ‘lesbian gamers’ means that we all know we’re in the same boat. We all like games, we’re all queer and we all want to meet others in a similar situation. Feeling that immediate sense of safety, where you can be who you are, where you can express yourself as a lesbian and a gamer is a great place to start building a community. Secondly, it’s just nice to let people know we’re here. It’s good to bring visibility to a section of the gaming community that is often overlooked. We’re almost a minority twice over as both women and then as lesbians. Having a branded space for Lesbian Gamers showcases each and every single one of us.

It is still interesting though to hear the thoughts of an uninitiated straight person. In her mind there was no logical reason for our existence, yet in our minds, it is entirely logical that we exist. What does Lesbian Gamers mean to you?