Howdy! All this week, as you might need observed, Eurogamer has been celebrating Satisfaction with one other collection of options exploring the intersection of queer tradition and gaming. As ever, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to have so many great individuals share their tales on the positioning – a large because of Keza MacDonald, Dom Peppiatt, Ed Nightingale, Caelyn Ellis, Ashly Burch, and everybody who helped out behind the scenes – and we have now gathered up all of this 12 months’s options right into a conveniently digestible record to your leisurely weekend perusal under.
As ever, Eurogamer will proceed celebrating the achievements of – and highlighting the problems affecting – the LGBTQIA+ group in gaming all year long, and we’ll be again with one other week of Satisfaction celebrations in 2026. We hope you’ve got loved this, our sixth annual Satisfaction Week, and when you’ve missed out on any of our earlier 12 months’s festivities, you’ll be able to make amends for all the pieces over on our Satisfaction Week hub. Till subsequent time!
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How far have we actually come since The Sims? A brief, candy historical past of being bi in video games – by Keza MacDonald
On Monday, The Guardian’s gaming editor Keza MacDonald kicked off our Satisfaction Week celebrations with a quick historical past of bisexuality in video video games, looking how the business’s method to illustration has modified through the years – from playersexuality to the studios tackling extra particularly queer tales throughout the likes of Life is Unusual, Hades, and past.
“When queer illustration in video games actually began taking off within the mid-2010s,” Keza wrote, “it started with lesbian tales and romances. Earlier than 2014, once I was in my mid-twenties, I had by no means performed as a teenaged lady in a online game, not to mention a queer one; then got here The Final of Us: Left Behind, with its heart-wrenching depiction of a younger Ellie’s formative relationship along with her greatest pal. 2013’s Gone Dwelling additionally depicted a relationship between two teenaged women, although from the skin – its denouement hit exhausting for me, as a result of at the moment I nearly did not dare to hope {that a} sport is likely to be telling a narrative like this, about queer women in love.”
You possibly can learn Keza’s full article right here.
“The guts has no bounds”: A examine of polyamory in video games, the way it’s performed properly, and the place we should always go subsequent – by Dom Peppiatt
All people’s favorite tousle-haired prince of the underworld Zagreus additionally made an look in Tuesday’s Satisfaction Week function, through which Eurogamer’s deputy editorial director Dom Peppiatt explored polyamory in video games; as builders attempt towards extra authentically queer tales, Dom noticed, it is heartening that well-written poly choices – from Hades and Date All the things to I Was a Teenage Exocolonist – are more and more coming to the fore.
“Given the dearth of poly illustration throughout well-liked media as a complete, I’m really fairly shocked with how properly video games deal with it,” Dom wrote. “It seems like a whole lot of video games are literally higher poised to watch and discover non-traditional relationship constructions than many TV reveals or motion pictures. Maybe it is as a result of there is a larger degree of company in video games, and that participant selection naturally lends itself to divining the suitable relationship – or relationships – as a mechanic in an interactive media comprised nearly totally of, you guessed it, overlapping mechanics.”
You possibly can learn Dom’s full article right here.
Remaining Fantasy 14’s queer group and the significance of chosen household – by Ed Nightingale
As we hit the midpoint of Satisfaction Week on Wednesday, Eurogamer’s deputy information editor Ed Nightingale returned to the world of Remaining Fantasy, a collection with a permanent enchantment for a lot of queer gamers around the globe. Extra particularly, Ed took a better take a look at Sq. Enix’s long-running MMO, Remaining Fantasy 14, discovering a thriving group of queer gamers who’ve discovered very important connections, friendships, even households of kinds, in an uncommonly welcoming sport.
“As a lifelong Remaining Fantasy fan,” Ed wrote, “I – like many queer gamers – have at all times been fascinated by the collection’ distinct fantasy realms and its vibrant casts of spiky-haired, magical, often cross-dressing, and typically splendidly non-human characters… That is why, once I was fortunate sufficient to attend the Remaining Fantasy 14 Fan Fest occasions in 2023, I used to be struck by the variety and kindness of the sport’s group [where] gamers have met queer associates, found an in-game world the place they are often themselves, and located a selected household.”
You possibly can learn Ed’s full article right here.
Video games will be a lot greater than an escape: they’ll encourage you to take motion – by Caelyn Ellis
On Thursday, long-time Eurogamer contributor Caelyn Ellis (now a daily author on the tabletop-focused publication Rascal Information) set free a rallying cry for motion in these difficult instances. As Caelyn found, whereas the prospect of preventing again towards seemingly unimaginable odds would possibly sound intimidating, it seems video games have maybe been equipping us with the instruments to just do that – and turn out to be real-life heroes – all alongside.
“Connecting the dots between the real-world political organisation portrayed in Mad As Hell and the form of fantasy adventuring shenanigans present in a extra conventional RPG resulted in minor epiphany,” Caelyn wrote. “Proper now, queer individuals, significantly trans individuals, are below assault. We want greater than allies; we’d like accomplices, defenders and, on the threat of sounding a bit of trite, we’d like heroes. Heroes such as you already know be… I am asking you to take this additional and let video games encourage you to take motion.”
You possibly can learn Caelyn’s full article right here.
Podcast particular: Ashly Burch on the significance of queer roles, psychological well being, and genuine illustration in gaming
And for our closing Satisfaction Week function of 2025, we chatted with actor and author Ashly Burch for a really particular version of the Eurogamer podcast. Making their second Satisfaction Week look, Dom Peppiatt hosted a wide-ranging dialogue of queerness and gaming, relating all the pieces from Burch’s most iconic (and notably queer) roles – together with the Horizon collection’ Aloy and Borderlands’ Tiny Tina – to how illustration of 1 group is usually a profit to all. Within the spirit of Satisfaction, this particular episode of the podcast is freely obtainable to all.
“I believe my favorite factor about this discuss was the way in which that, again and again, it turned evident that queerness isn’t just a ‘one-size-fits-all’ factor,” Dom wrote of their intro to the podcast. “That Burch’s understanding of pansexuality is as legitimate and vital as my understanding of bisexuality. There are a number of situations of our chat naturally dovetailing with one thing we talked about earlier; how illustration of 1 group is usually a profit to all, how we – as queer individuals – can declare characters of our personal similar to another marginalised group can, and the way vital it’s to make use of our platforms to teach, promote, and persist.”
You possibly can hearken to the podcast in a wide range of completely different varieties right here.
