Last week, Rod 2.0 reported the newest release from Rockstar Games, "Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony". The title character is Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince, a Tom Ford-styled, pansexual crime lord and nightclub owner. Rockstar has begun a multimedia promotion campaign around "Gay Tony", including wallpapers, game trailer and video ads on Hulu.
The new mature-rated NSFW language trailer takes players inside Hercules, the gay dance mega-club owned by Prince and populated by circuit boys with bulging biceps and form fitting fashions. Gay Tony parties hard on the dance floor and later tells one of the WeHo clones: "In my day, gay guys used to be lonely, needy and lost. Now they're all in relationships!"
The expansion doesn't let you play as Tony—but as his bodyguard Luis Lopez—but Lyle Masaki at After Elton is impressed so far: "This strikes me as another groundbreaking moment for gay representation in video games. Tony's no role model but he's carved out his own sphere of influence in Liberty City. If he's like his GTA counterparts, he'll be giving the player orders instead of begging for help. We still haven't reached the point where a major game has a player character written as gay but this gets pretty close."
As a special nod to gay fans and gaymers, the dance music in the trailer samples gay dance innovator Patrick Crowley and the iconic Sylvester. Watch, AFTER THE JUMP.
Probably common knowledge among video game fans, but the Mario franchise at least has a trans character - Birdo, originally described thusly in the Super Mario Bros. 2 manual: "He thinks he is a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth. He'd rather be called 'Birdetta.'"
Not the most accurate or sensitive description of transgenderdrism but perfectly unambiguous.
Posted by: drsnacks | 10 September 2009 at 15:04
Personally can't wait to check out GTA's new episode, and seeing how the multi-player option will relate to this new addition like the previous episode.
BTW a lil random video game trivia, SEGA's "Streets of Rage 3" had a very gay playable boss character named Ash (sporting leather chaps, boots, ect..) however he was only included in the Japan version and taken out of the US version due to obvious reasons.
Posted by: Quest | 10 September 2009 at 16:08
Obvious reasons like “Americans are children”?
Posted by: Jim | 10 September 2009 at 23:34
The niche genre of "interactive fiction" (think text adventure games) has had playable homosexual, transgender, etc. characters for years if not decades.
Posted by: Said | 11 September 2009 at 01:19
My thoughts exactly Jim!
Posted by: Quest | 11 September 2009 at 02:35