EA Spearheading Effort to Spur Dialogue Over LGBT Content

Electronic Arts, along with the Human Rights Campaign, sponsored the LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual transgender) Full Spectrum conference at the Ford Foundation in New York Thursday to focus a spotlight on recent debates surrounding the inclusion of same-gender romance in EA’s Star Wars: The Old Republic game and how LGBT players are treated within online games overall.

EA, “with the very best of intentions,” created a story line in Star Wars where LGBT players could congregate within a safe environment,” Craig Hagen, EA government affairs director, said. “With that one small move,” he said, “we demonstrated EA’s unique ability to piss everybody off.” Radical hate groups “inundated us with hate mail and appeals for acknowledging LGBT content within the game,” he said, while some LGBT groups attacked the company for segregating LGBT characters within a separate planet in the game.

The debates led EA and HRC to organize the conference to answer “very big questions,” including why there’s such a “visceral reaction” to LGBT content in videogames, what is being done in the studio culture and in content to address diversity and how the industry is supporting LGBT developers and gay gamers, Hagen said. Hate speech is prevalent “every minute of every day” in game chats, game forums and commentary about gay-themed games, he said.

Luis Ubinas, president of the Ford Foundation, said the purpose of the conference was to reinforce the belief “that in this country, if we are to consider ourselves created equal, then we need to be treated as equal under the law.” The U.S. is about to celebrate 50 years of “extraordinary expansion of the most basic civil rights for many Americans,” Ubinas said. But many Americans still face legal discrimination, including being denied visitation of loved ones in the hospital, denied marriage and denied equal rights “because they happened to have been born gay,” he said. Ubinas cited the role of popular culture in changing societal views, especially the TV sitcom Will & Grace, which, he said, was an early contributor to a “sea change” of attitudes toward gay marriage from 57 percent opposition a decade ago to majority support today. Citing the influence of Will & Grace, which featured gay characters that are “just like everybody else” he expressed hope that “that’s what we can do in games,” Ubinas said.

EA is “very proud of the work that’s been done” in The Sims, Dragon Age, Star Wars and Mass Effect, Hagen told Consumer Electronics Daily. He fully expects that same kind of development of LGBT characters to continue, although character creation is up to its development teams, he said. Through events like Thursday’s conference, Hagen said EA is hoping to raise awareness about “what’s going on out there” rather than increasing the amount of LGBT content. EA has been “fostering a climate of inclusion for a long time,” he said, citing same-gender relationship benefits, transgender benefits and creating a climate where developers are free to create a diversity of characters.

EA held the event at this time to be “an example to the rest of the industry” and to “shine a very bright light on a very serious problem,” Hagen said. “I don’t think many people are aware of the level of vitriolic hate that occurs within gaming,” he said. The hope is that by raising the awareness, “it simply dies over time,” he said. EA wants to begin a dialogue about content, culture and community where much of the hate directed toward the LGBT community is happening, he said.

On whether the company will reach out to bring other game companies into the conversation, he noted that several other game companies were in attendance, including Take-Two Interactive. EA wants other game companies to know they have “allies” and when they introduce games with LGBT content “they don’t have to be alone.” On whether EA will try to engage retailers in the awareness effort, Hagen said, “I don’t know why we wouldn’t. It would be interesting to see what we could do with them."

Hagen said EA isn’t concerned about a potential backlash from the increased focus on LGBT content. “We are inundated with thousands of hate mails every time we start talking about this subject, but it is far more important to have the conversation, to continue to do what we're doing, than to be afraid of the hate groups that are out there,” he said. On the percentage of LGBT gamers in the EA community, Hagen said the company has “no idea,” but compared it to the percentage of the LGBT community within the overall population. “Our gaming community reflects our communities and our neighborhoods,” he said.

Guest speaker at the conference was Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, described by the Ford Foundation as one of the most “visible, outspoken, straight allies of LGBT equality.” Ayanbadejo wrote an article in 2009, “Same-Sex Marriages: What’s the Big Deal?” which appeared in The Huffington Post and began his public advocacy for LGBT rights. At the conference, Ayanbadejo noted that kids start playing first-person shooter and Madden NFL videogames at 10 years old or younger, and commended EA for incorporating same-sex couples in games that are played by kids. It’s important to let kids know at a young age “there’s nothing wrong with being gay, to stop the bullying and to be accepting of each other,” Ayanbadejo said. “The younger generation is so much more pliable and forward-thinking,” he said. They're a lot easier to work with than the older generation,” he said. “Getting into schools early and having them see someone like me from the macho, football mold” resonates with younger kids and leaves an impression, he said.