When it comes to LGBT*Q representation, it is usually a here and there type of thing, but it is on the rise thankfully! From television shows, children's books, and more and more celebrities embracing the community, their fans, and their own identities, it is certainly easier to see the queer world being more prominent in popular culture. In all of this, there is more type of representation that has actually been around since the 1980s, that being the wonderful world of video games.

The first LGBT* character in a video game ever was from a game called Moonmist. This text based adventure game features a lesbian couple, but neither characters were playable. This however paved the way for the rest of the 1980s for LGBT*Q characters. While a lot of characters were used as "jokes" or ploys for ridicule, there was another positive character from 1988: Birdo/Birdetta. While their gender was never specifically changed to female later on, it was changed to being genderless and never really brought up again.

As the 1990s rolled into the world, the video gaming industry exploded and with that, the expansion of queer characters. Games such as Dracula Unleashed, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, and even Final Fantasy VII had varying instances of homosexual, genderless, genderfluid, or even transgender characters, implications, and fun scenes to show off these ground breaking representations in games.

In 1998, however, nothing came close to Fallout 2 with it's ability to not only choose which gender the character wanted but also to truly marry either a male or female in the game. While other games in the past had the main character either be flirted with or even proposed to by the same sex, Fallout 2 brought this to the forefront of true immersion in a game. As I previously stated, a lot of homosexual and gender varying characters were placed in as "jokes" to be enjoyed in their respective games, but as far as the 1990s went, they were definitely heading in the right direction.

Enter in a new millennia, and with it a new plethora of representation. Between 2000 and 2009, there was a grand total of 49 different video games that had either gay/lesbian relationships, transgender/genderfluid/gender varying characters, and queer representation in general. From 2000 till at least 2015, some of these very prominent games included:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2000), The Sims (2001), Resident Evil: Dead Aim (2002), Fable (2004), the Grand Theft Auto series, Bully (2006), the Mass Effect series, Fable II (2008), the Fallout series, the Dragon Age series, the Assassin's Creed series, Catherine (2011), Guild Wars 2 (2012), Borderlands 2 (2012), The Last of Us (2013), Animal Crossing: New Leaf (2013), Dreamfall Chapters (2014), Undertale (2015), Fire Emblem Fates (2015), and my own personal favorite, Life is Strange.

Seriously, if you want a beautiful game, Life is Strange man. Life is Strange.

Even online RPG games such as World of Warcraft embraced the LGBT*Q community; despite any queer characters in game, there has been many guilds and servers that recruited LGBT*Q players to play in a safe space free of judgement and able to go through the game with people similar to them and their allies. To this day, server events are still held for the LGBT*Q community and there are rainbows everywhere you go.

The choices presented to the players broke barriers in conversations between the community on what wasn't acceptable in the world around them versus being who they really are/stepping into another pair of shoes to see a different perspective in life.

All in all, LGBT*Q representation in video games is truly on the rise. Each year it seems more is being added to the list, and maybe that is a testament to the newest generation of video game makers, testers, and players. Personally, if it weren't for a lot of these games, I wouldn't have come to realize who I am as quickly as I have. While I didn't include all the games with LGBT*Q representation out there, I feel that a lot of people's favorites either have that one main character, that one side character or quest that will lead them over the rainbow.