Gay marriage comes to world of Final Fantasy

Nintendo may have dropped the ball on the gay marriage front by neglecting to include it in Tomodachi Life, but the good news is that there are other options. Specifically, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

According to The Advocate, producer Naoki Yoshida announced that the upcoming 2.4 patch would allow players to enter “bonding ceremonies” with anyone they wanted to, no matter their sex. Think of it like Canada’s Civil Marriage Act, if Canada happened to be overrun by Chocobos and Moogles.

As Yoshida explained during a question and answer session, “We realized: Within Eorzea, why should there be restrictions on who pledges their love or friendship to each other? And so we decided to go this way.”

Personally, I kinda wish they had this back in Final Fantasy X. Not to go into detail or anything, but I had a thing for Kimahri’s strong, stoic warrior thing, and I feel like he’d make for a very stable virtual life-partner. And he wore a loincloth. Do you have any idea how few men can pull off a loincloth? That’s a catch.

Point is, if marriage or life bonding or whatever you’re going to call it is going to become a more regular feature in video games, why not make it more inclusive? It’s a tiny detail, but it’s a detail that helps flesh out the world you’ve created and opens it up to a broader audience. And really, it’s all pretty much a matter of programming anyway. How much harder could it be?

Keep Reading

Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Perez in Emilia Perez. Gascón wears black with colourful embroidery, has long hair, and a brown purse and delicate chain.

Trans cartel musical ‘Emilia Pérez’ takes maximalist aesthetic to the extreme

REVIEW: The film’s existence raises intriguing questions about appropriate subjects for the playful machinations of French auteurs
Dorothy Allison sits behind a microphone. She has long, light-coloured hair and wears glasses and a patterned button-up shirt.

5 things to know about Dorothy Allison

The lesbian feminist writer passed on Nov. 6

‘Solemates’ is a barefoot stroll through the history of our fetish for feet

Queer historian Adam Zmith’s newest book allows us to dip our toes into the past of a common, yet stigmatized, kink

‘Masquerade’ offers a queer take on indulgence and ennui 

Mike Fu’s novel is a coming of age mystery set between New York and Shanghai