To me, majority of the male characters already look sexited. I mean they're all buff, most have no shirts on. They're obviously well-fit and such.

Can't we just say they already have sexified people?

Because it's not true?

Got me there. And I am aware of that.
With that said.

I don't see the fairness of comparing an American made video game against all these Japanese video games people are throwing around.
The pattern is pretty clear, Japanese games are going to sexualize their characters in some fashion.
What we got in Mortal Kombat may be as close people are going to get from American developers, as ignorant that may sound.

Could've sworn I read a bio saying Zangief has a girlfriend. I'll find it.

you know, i've stopped coming to these forums due to the amount of ridiculous character ideas lately... i know i posted some too but it feels like people are going way left that it almost seems like trolling.

i don't ever recall topics like these during the hype of MK9 or MKA (when i began posting on the internet).

should we even care if a character is gay, brazilian, sexy, black, old, or a butch lesbian? idk. i think variety is important but forcing ideas like this to the NRS team is over the top. Characters should fit into the MK universe naturally and not to the extent that there is a "need" to represent everything.

I'm going to guess you aren't a minority.

You don't speak for everybody who is.

There are many who can do just fine relating to or enjoy playing as characters who AREN'T like them, who hate the idea of people needing representation or something that looks like them to self-insert onto, acting like it needs to be forced into everything as if works of fiction need Affirmative Action.

If the gaming community wasn't so homophobic, and there was at least a 10% presence of LGBT people in games, you'd have a point. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

And fucking sexist.

i'm gay and asian if you really want to know :/

i mean, i would love it if they included a much older-looking female kombatant as there is definitely a lack of them in fighting games in general (Sindel is one, even if her body looks otherwise lol). When you look at Namco retiring a bunch of beloved females and replacing them with younger versions but keep a bunch of male characters like Wang/Heihachi/Mitsurugi/Siegfried/Kilik. It really does seem unfair. Is there any reason to retire Taki/Xianghua/Jun/Michelle just caused they're in their 40's or something? And the females who stay are the ones who stay the same age appearance wise.

but i've realized that something like this is not exactly necessary or a "must-have", it would be nice though. I'd still love MK regardless. And i'm already liking the newcomers!

Plus i feel NRS are already a bit different from the japanese fighting games,

Is the gaming community all that homophobic, though? MK fandom has had a healthy gay community for at least a decade. Granted, we could all do without the pre-teen set on XBL and PSN calling everybody faggots, but even then, there's a difference between saying something stupid in the heat of the moment and legit homophobia.

So far as "at least 10%" goes, your argument is skewed by the sheer number of games that allow you to create your own character, or leave their protagonist as enough of a blank slate to insert yourself into their shoes.

Yes. The gaming community is extremely homophobic and sexist, especially with the anonymity of the Internet. Game companies hear sentiments like those made here, that it would make them uncomfortable, gay "stuff" doesn't belong in games, or that it's unnecessary, that it'd just be better to keep things the same - and it scares those companies away from making progress. That's a fact, I've watched tons of interviews and convention videos where Devs have said they WANT to be more inclusive with LGBT characters and storylines, but they're being told by the higher ups that it would affect sales. It's always "not the right time" to do it.

Most of the games that let you create or customize a character, historically, have not allowed gay romances. Or if they do, they're often censored, unconnected to the story, or poorly written compared to the straight counterparts.

It took three sequels of fans begging to get a gay romance option in Mass Effect. And that was greeted with a huge amount of hostility, threats of boycotting, anti-gay debates in their forums, etc.

Things are getting better, but only with certain companies. EA, BioWare, Bethesda, Rockstar, etc are all making big moves with gay characters and romances. NRS should do the same.

They'll do whatever they want. Just because other companies are suddenly adding more and more gay characters into their products doesn't mean that every single company should do the same. While I support the gay community, I don't think video games needs to make a point to reach out to their viewers that they need to accept. People are going to dislike them and sadly, you can't really do anything to change their minds. Video games are not the kind of media that needs to shove out a political view to their customers and say, "Hey, we want you to support this." They don't need to, even if the creators are huge LGBT supporters. It's a game, not a political statement.

If Netherrealm Studios wants to make a character that is gay, they'll do so, otherwise, who cares. The characters' sexualities in this game wouldn't make a different anyways. Why include them when it wouldn't play a major role in this game?

Like, does it really matter if a character, such as Kenshi, shows his sexuality at any point of the game? I can see what they would most likely do. Liu and Kitana briefly flirted every now and then, they would most likely showcase a gay character doing that with another.

Really, it wouldn't make that much of a difference in a game like this, where a game like Grand Theft Auto would make more of a difference. We don't get to see that much interaction with the characters in this game where a game like Grand Theft Auto shows more character and personality with their characters.

A) Lesbians are gay too and B) the writing for Cortez sucked, that's why people didn't like his romance.

Why does a character's sexual orientation have to be important to the plot to be included? Do we need to know the injustices Jax has gone through as a black man to have him in MK? I mean, why include racial minorities? Let's have everyone in MK be one race and gender too. I mean, skin color and sex have nothing to do with their stories, right?

Why did you include an intelligent, valid point in the middle of a ridiculous strawman rant?

There's no need to act like a smart ass when I was just saying that I don't see a major point to include to their character if it's not going to have an important role.

I mean, look at Liu Kang. I see him as a dull character, and with them trying to add a little romance with his character didn't make him look any better. Sure, not everyone sees the same way, but I've seen people say that sexual preferences doesn't make that much of a difference to a character, especially in a game that's mainly known for its violence.

Sure, it would show more definition to a character, that's great, but when you actually play the damn game, would you be sitting there, fighting against your online buddies and be like, "Oh yeah, I'm playing as a gay guy"?

Would it really make that much of a difference to know every single freaking thing that happened to a character? Next I'm sure we'll be asking if any of these characters were hit as a child to become the way they are for this.

The problem I have with this argument is that a site like this makes up such a tiny portion of total MK buyers. So gut reactions seen here are unlikely to sway Warners in either direction.



Historically, games handle hetero romances equally as poorly. That's not so much an issue of developers being anti-gay, but rather being socially inept nerds.



Razor beat me to it, but there's been lesbian romantic subplots in Mass Effect going back to game one. Steve Cortez was so widely bashed because his character was completely hollow and his romantic plot was sub-Lifetime in terms of presentation and writing. When another game from the same dev house, Dragon Age, had male homosexual relationships, no one cared because they weren't total garbage.

If you don't care, then why poo poo those who do care and would get a lot of it?

As for lesbians, I'm not stupid. I said gay and not LGBT for a reason when talking about Mass Effect. Lesbians have always been more socially acceptable than gay and bi men. ME1 and Dragon Age, and even The Sims all had protests and boycotts against them. At the time ME1 came out, there was a very anti-gay political climate. Gay marriage was a very hot button issue. It still is, but it was worse then.

It's not as much about what the game companies think about gays, it's about money, and they don't want to do anything that will take away from their profit. You'd be foolish to think this isn't something discussed during production. Like I said, Devs and other insiders have confirmed it.

MK is sold specifically to straight males. All you have to do is look at the women in the games, compared to the men.

Congratulations on being the only person on the internet to defend EA

Who said I didn't care?



Which amounted to nothing more than increased interest in those titles. All three sold like hotcakes regardless of controversy. So the opinions of a few bigots meant nothing in the face the greater consumer base. Which was my point all along.



Fixed that for ya, champ.

It doesn't seem like you actually disagree with me.

Like any topic of discussion, I agree with some of what you've said, and disagree with some. I'm with you on the devs needing to find (naturalistic) ways of being more inclusive, this being why I brought up "create your own hero" games or titles with self-insert protagonists (think Gordon Freeman, Chell or Mater Chief). I wholeheartedly disagree with the nature of the greater gaming fandom being inherently homophobic.

Any of the characters that haven't had a romance or marriage as part of their storyline could be gay. Anyway, who gives a fuck? It's ridiculous to put a gay character in the game, just to put a gay character in the game. In almost all cases, a character's sexual orientation is irrelevant and unimportant. People in today's society need to quit being such little bitches. Quit being ridiculous. Get a backbone.

We aren't "bitches" for wanting representation.