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Queer Tropes in Video Games is a three-part Feminist Frequency miniseries released in March 2019, directed by Anita Sarkeesian and hosted by Carolyn Petit. Across roughly 46 minutes, it examines how games have portrayed LGBTQ characters and relationships, from queer-coded villains to more dimensional and explicit representation.
What is Queer Tropes in Video Games?
It is a YouTube video series, not a feature-length documentary or a game. Feminist Frequency produced it with support from the LGBTQ Video Game Archive. The project takes a historical, pattern-focused approach: rather than treating each character as an isolated example, it asks what repeated portrayals say about the medium’s treatment of queer and trans people.
Sarkeesian described a constraint the creators encountered while developing the series: “As we were going through the research and figuring out what tropes we can talk about, we realized, the history of video games doesn’t have that much queerness.” The relative scarcity of representation is part of the story, not a reason to assume that every ambiguous character is queer.
What patterns does the series examine?
Queer coding and villainy
Queer coding means using traits, presentation, or behavior that audiences may read as queer without explicitly identifying a character as LGBTQ. When those cues repeatedly appear in villains or threats, the pattern can associate queerness with danger or moral corruption even when the story never names the character’s identity. The series looks at that history, including the queer villain in Police Quest: Open Season (1993), Alfred in Resident Evil Code: Veronica (2000), and Joe Slade in Dead Rising (2006).
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Relationships, agency, and explicit identity
The series also considers how portrayals have changed: whether queer relationships are acknowledged, whether characters have agency and emotional depth, and whether queerness is explicit or left to inference. These distinctions matter. A character being coded as queer is not the same as a game clearly depicting a queer identity or relationship.
Mechanics as well as story
Representation is not limited to dialogue or character design. The series’ broader questions include whether a game’s mechanics give queer relationships a meaningful place in play, or whether they appear only as decoration. Looking at narrative and mechanics together helps distinguish a passing reference from a portrayal that affects the player’s experience.
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What are the three episodes?
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“Are You Gay or Just Coded That Way”
Examines queer coding and the ambiguity that can arise when games suggest an identity without stating it. The examples of villainous or stereotyped portrayals help show why those cues carry history and context.
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“Video Games’ Relationship Status: It’s Complicated”
Focuses on how games depict queer relationships, including the difference between a character’s implied identity and a relationship that is represented with clarity and dimension. Coverage discusses Ellie in The Last of Us: Left Behind and Dream Daddy as counterpoints to older harmful patterns.
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“Press B to Hate Gay People”
Addresses homophobia and transphobia in games and the ways hostile portrayals can be embedded in characters, stories, or play. Its title signals the series’ attention to the player’s interaction with a game, not just what appears in cutscenes.
How do harmful tropes compare with more nuanced portrayals?
The contrast is not simply between older games and newer ones, or between villains and protagonists. A useful way to assess a portrayal is to ask four questions:
- Is queerness linked to danger? Queer-coded villains such as those discussed in Police Quest: Open Season, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, and Dead Rising illustrate how identity cues can become part of a threatening stereotype.
- Does the character have agency and depth? A character who makes choices and has relationships beyond a single identity marker is more fully represented than one used as a punchline, threat, or visual shorthand.
- Is identity explicit or inferred? Ellie’s story in The Last of Us: Left Behind and the relationships in Dream Daddy are cited as more positive or nuanced examples, in contrast to representation that depends only on coding.
- Do the game’s systems support the relationship? A relationship can be part of the game’s actual play and choices, rather than a detail mentioned once and then ignored.
Batman: Arkham Knight is also named in coverage among counterexamples to the series’ harmful portrayals. These examples do not erase the older patterns; they help show that game representation is not uniform and that more considered portrayals have become increasingly visible.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why revisit the series?
The miniseries remains useful as a way to recognize recurring representational patterns and ask how they shape players’ expectations. It does not claim that games have always offered a broad range of queer stories; its historical point is nearly the opposite. As Sarkeesian put it, “Representations of queer and trans people matter now as much as they ever have.”
Best Value
For players, the episodes offer context for reading characters and relationships across different eras of games. For developers, they provide a vocabulary for examining whether a portrayal relies on a familiar stereotype, gives queer characters agency, and makes room for relationships in both story and play.
Quick Recap
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