Fictional Equality

The full review of Skyrim I intend to do is still forthcoming. But I do have a Skyrim story to share today.

Among the many, many, many things you can do in the game, your character can get married. And as a few game writers and bloggers have noted, you can actually get married to someone of the same sex. It's not legal in most U.S. states, but it's legal in Skyrim.

In fact, it's pretty much a non-issue in Skyrim, and much of what has been written on the subject is praising software developer Bethesda for their simple, matter-of-fact stance on this in their game. The thinking seems to be (for both game makers and critics commenting on it) that if it's just a simple, non-momentous matter of course in the game, that's one stride closer to changing real world attitudes to make it just a matter of course in real life. And setting aside the fact that most people in the "need their minds opened" demographic are not likely to be in the "playing Skyrim" demographic, I think I agree.

But, I actually did have my character enter into a gay marriage in Skyrim. And having gone through the process, I do have some quibbles with how the game handles it.

Without going into elaborate details, the way it works is that a certain pool of around 60 characters in the world are "marriage eligible." And regardless of whether you are playing a male or female character, all of these chararacters will accept your wedding proposal (provided you do enough to woo them).

While I applaud Bethsda's "it's just not a big deal" approach, the fact that these characters all just swing either way feels to me like a subtle reinforcement of the mistaken belief that sexual preference is a voluntary choice. All these characters could choose to be in a "traditional" marriage; they're "choosing" to be in a same-sex marriage with your character, if that's your desire as a player. Which, as far as the real world goes, is total crap. The authentic approach would be that of the pool of 60 or so marriage candidates, some small percentage of them would be open to the possibility of a same-sex marriage (and not to an opposite-sex marriage, save perhaps one or two truly bisexual characters).

Now, since we're talking realism here, let's be realistic. The most likely scenario is that the game designers just wanted players to have as many marriage options as possible, and subdividing the total pool would just make things tougher -- for programmers, for players, for everyone. I don't think it's likely that the game makers were intentionally making a bad statement here.

I mean, if they were really trying to make a statement, then I think they'd have put a few other same-sex married couples in the game. (Not that I've seen every character in the game -- has anyone? -- but from what I've seen, if you and your spouse are the same sex, you're the only such couple in the entire world.) But gays and lesbians are hardly the only underrepresented demographic in the game. For example, where are all the overweight people in Skyrim?

Let's not forget, Bethesda was ultimately making a "slay dragons and save the world" fantasy game, not a "role play marriage" game. So no, I'm not really upset with the game designers over these points I'm making.

I'm just saying, let's put this supposed "statement" they were making about same-sex marriage in a more complete context.