Pride is getting more play in massively popular online video game worlds

While major cities around the world hold Pride events, video game players around the world do too. These events occur in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), like Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft, which are played by millions worldwide.

Many MMOs are role-playing games (RPGs) where players create uniquely-styled superheroic characters and then explore open worlds or smaller battle arenas, defeating enemies and finding treasure. In these worlds, other players are visible to each other and can sometimes communicate.

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It’s actually somewhat surprising that the game didn’t already include these features before now, seeing as it’s one of the most LGBTQ-inclusive video games of all time.

For Pride, many MMOs and other game development companies offer special rainbow-colored collectibles, designed to make players visibly queer. Some companies also sell real-world LGBTQ+-themed merchandise — like t-shirts, plushies, or pins — and broadcast livestream events with queer gamers to fundraise for LGBTQ+ organizations.

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DC Universe Online, for instance, offered players free rainbow-colored outfits for their superheroes to wear and also a collection of various Pride flags for players to decorate their superhero’s headquarters. Among its Pride Month offerings, League of Legends asked players to complete two new quests to receive a special effect that leaves a rainbow-colored trail, styled after various LGBTQ+ flags, behind moving players.

Overwatch 2, an MMO first-person shooter (FPS) game published by the game development company Blizzard, held an opt-in Pride Month event. The event offered special icons and name cards that let players identify themselves as different parts of the queer community. The game also released a new short story canonically confirming the queer identities of two playable characters, a lesbian named Pharah and a bisexual man named Baptiste.

The FPS also reskinned its Midtown map, which roughly resembles New York City, to look like it had just held a very tidy Pride parade: Rainbow confetti litters the streets and rainbow crosswalks, tram marquees display “Happy Pride,” LGBTQ+ Pride flags hang in skyscraper windows, and — in a subtle but notable change —the police cars now appear as generic vehicles.

However, the game’s Pride event had its limits. Like many other MMOs, while Overwatch 2 players can choose to communicate orally through headsets, but none of the video game’s characters have spoken lines of voice-acted dialogue that outrightly express their LGBTQ+ identities, nor do any of the in-game quests address LGBTQ+ storylines. Senior game producer Brandy Stile said that such things may be incorporated into future versions.

To protect LGBTQ+ players in places with anti-LGBTQ+ laws, the game’s Pride content has been blocked in “some countries,” though developers didn’t say which. This keeps players from possibly being outed in real-life and disowned, harassed, or jailed as a result. The game’s developers also increased moderation enforcement, to handle any increased anti-LGBTQ+ behavior during this special event.

Such observances of Pride seem particularly significant this year as right-wingers erase LGBTQ+ identities from schools and pressure companies into withdrawing their LGBTQ+-inclusive support. MMO Pride events not only make Pride more accessible to some disabled, rural, and closeted gamers, but the rainbow-colored collectibles stick around after the month ends. Over time, that queer visibility challenges the stereotypically white, cisgender, and heterosexual male gamer space that is often hostile to queer gamers.

Nearly 90% of out queer gamers have been verbally harassed over their online identities, a 2021 gamer survey found. Over 35% of the survey’s respondents said they hide their gender identities or avoid certain online communities rather than risk harassment. That harassment can persist in social media gaming forums, including streaming platforms and digital distribution platforms where haters leave nasty comments or digitally stalk LGBTQ+ users on other social media platforms.

Many MMOs and gaming communities have player policies that forbid anti-LGBTQ+ slurs and harassment. But some video game companies use Pride Month to combat queerphobia in the real world too by fundraising for LGBTQ+ organizations.

The video game company Blizzard, for example, sold t-shirts featuring the logos of their most popular game titles — like Hearthstone, Diablo, and World of Warcraft — re-done in the colors of the transgender Pride flag. Proceeds from the sales went to the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE).

Microsoft’s XBOX asked players to donate to NCTE, the queer media watchdog group GLAAD, and the global LGBTQ+ rights group Outright International. SEGA held an online fundraiser for the U.K.-based international LGBTQ+ rights organization Kaleidoscope Trust. The fundraising efforts included a live stream with queer gamers, Kaleidoscope members discussing their group’s work, and awareness-raising social media posts.

The game development companies Take-Two and Zynga donated $50,000 to the It Gets Better Project this year, and the companies Bungie and Crystal Dynamics both held fundraising events for the organization as well. Crystal Dynamics’s efforts included a charity livestream with RuPaul’s Drag Race geek-culture queen Rock M. Sakura and a panel on LGBTQIA+ representation in gaming and game development. (Interestingly, the major video game company Nintendo barely acknowledged Pride Month.)

But players don’t always have to wait for game companies to offer online Pride events. MMO Pride events can also be player-led and created. In Second Life, which is less a classic MMO and more of a user-created virtual world, users’ avatars can attend virtual Pride events all month long.

This year’s Second Life Pride theme was “Not Going Back, Not Backing Down.” In addition to online fundraisers for The Trevor Project (a suicide prevention organization for queer youth), the It Gets Better Project, and the LGBTQ Freedom Fund (for incarcerated queers), Second Life users could also acquire rainbow attire for their avatars, tour through an LGBTQ+ cultural museum (with actual informational exhibits), and explore online Pride events, including a virtual parade, festival, and live events with real-life DJs and musicians streaming their performances online.

Dedicated players in two MMO RPGs in particular, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV, also organize their own in-game Pride marches where players congregate and then simultaneously walk across the virtual landscapes in view of other players. In some cases, these events are so well-attended that the game’s processors have trouble displaying all the active attendees at once and instead show small groups of celebrating characters rather than everyone simultaneously.

Because many MMOs’ Pride events and content are opt-in, it’s difficult to know exactly how many players participate and how many non-LGBTQ+-allied players are exposed to Pride content. Video game companies don’t always publicize how much they raise for LGBTQ+ organizations, some developers undeniably participate in Pride promotions as a marketing effort, and some queer gamers have clamored for more LGBTQ+-inclusive in-game storylines to be playable year-round. However, MMO Pride events may still serve a more basic purpose: helping LGBTQ+ players find community.

A 2020 study found that 10% of all gamers over the age of 18 identify as LGBTQ+, and researchers have found that “online video game communities can provide a sense of belonging and support for marginalized people.” While queer-identified players have reported harassment within MMOs, they’ve also found digital communities outside of those games: on live-streaming platforms like Twitch and Discord; in online Facebook, Tumblr, and Reddit groups; and with other queer “gaymers” on Twitter and Instagram.

These growing communities and the game companies’ Pride Month efforts show a continued shift toward an LGBTQ+-inclusive gaming culture, one that unites queer and allied gamers while increasingly spelling “game over” for anti-LGBTQ+ gamer culture.