May 12, 2014  Nintendo finally agrees to add same-sex marriage to future Tomodachi Life games By Rick Marshall May 12, 2014 After reporting a $457 million loss last fiscal year, Nintendo.

Nintendo has been getting a lot of flak lately in regards to the situation involving the inability for same-sex couples to be able to marry in Tomodachi Life, a life simulator game where you can take your Mii characters and interact with the world around them. It’s been a huge hit so far in Japan, where it’s been out for a year already.

The funny thing is, during that one year, not a single person brought up the issue of the lack of same-sex relationships.

The actual issue was originally raised by a Nintendo fan living in Arizona, who created a petition for Nintendo to allow same-sex couples to wed in the North American release of Tomodachi Life so that he could marry his real life same-sex fiance in game instead of having to make a female avatar. The petition would get a lot of coverage from the gaming community, eventually drawing a response from the Big N.

That response seemed at first fairly simple and unoffensive, with Nintendo saying that the version coming to NA would be essentially the same version that Japan received, and that coding the actual change would be too difficult for them, even with a patch. They also said that they never had any intention of promoting any social commentary within the game itself, good or bad, and only intended for the game to be a “playful alternate world.”

Despite their best intentions, those words instead managed to spark an flood of responses from the gaming populace, some being understanding of the company’s intentions, while others were flabbergasted by the response. LBGT equality advocacy group GLAAD brought Nintendo under fire for not taking the same-sex community into account when they were originally making the game. Meanwhile, Kotaku, in their usual method of taking a gigantic crap on journalistic ethics, wrote an article that, whether unintentionally or otherwise, tried to make the company look homophobic.

Tomodachi Life Wiki

While Nintendo has since openly apologized for the missing feature and the commotion it’s caused, the issue is likely to still persist through this year’s E3, and maybe even beyond.

Now I may be drawing my own share of ire by saying this, but the Tomodachi Life situation as a whole has been so blown out of proportion it’s almost ridiculous. Yes, Nintendo dropped the ball by not including an option of same-sex couples to get married in the game, but their original goal was to create a something that’s simple, fun, and can be played by all audiences, not unlike their already established life sim series Animal Crossing.

It can be argued that Nintendo is behind the times with the issue itself. After all, The Sims games have been including same-sex relationships for over a decade, and despite the T rating that they normally get from the ESRB, they’re generally enjoyed by most everyone. Other games like Mass Effect have also been allowing for same-sex couples for just as long, if not longer.

However, those were examples of western games, where the issue is much more publicized. In Japan, the issue of same-sex marriage is largely kept mum in political circles, with politicians neither speaking for nor against it for the most part. Despite this, LGBT citizens in Japan do have some rights, including the right to serve openly in the military, and there are no actual laws against homosexuality, however, same-sex marriage itself in the country is currently limited to partnerships with individuals from foreign countries where it is allowed. Although anti-discrimination laws for them still haven’t been put into effect, the Japanese constitution prohibits discrimination of all kinds, and displays of LGBT pride are encouraged, in comparison to countries like Russia, a country that has become increasingly under fire for the horrible treatment of its LGBT citizens.

The point is, in Japan at least, same-sex relationships aren’t has much of a hot button issue as it is in North America, though some will argue that it should be. It’s not the fact that companies like Nintendo are being ignorant or intolerant of LGBT citizens; it’s possible that it’s just not something they think about regularly.

On the other hand, when the company had plans to make the game an international release, it’s definitely something that should have at least crossed someone’s mind at the development offices. Nintendo has stated that they will be sure to include a feature for same-sex couples to be a thing if they ever do a sequel, but even if the public response to the lack of it has been overblown, it’s still kind of surprising that they neglected to add it in the first place.

One has to keep in mind, however, that Nintendo is a company that normally strays as far away from social themes as possible in their goal to create family friendly games. However, they have indirectly challenged those themes in the past; Samus Aran is known for fighting traditional gender roles by being a female ass-kicking bounty hunter, while the character Birdo has drawn worldwide attention for being a transgender dinosaur. Given this history, I feel we can forgive them for one little slip-up.

Tomodachi life 2020. Regardless, Nintendo has indeed learned a valuable lesson in regards to how to approach the issue itself. Tomodachi Life has proven to be a valuable success so far, so if the sequel is indeed an inevitability, then one can be certain that same-sex couples will get the equality they deserve then.

Tomodachi Life Lgbt Center

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The Mii states, 'things haven't been going so well with islander' the player can then decide whether the Mii should move on or try to work things out.If the player decides that the Mii should move on, it triggers a cutscene in the where the Mii breaks up with their sweetheart by saying they are tired and want to be friends again, while leaving both Miis.If the player decides that the Mii should try to work things out, it will trigger a cutscene in the other Mii's where they stand facing each other with the lights off and a clock ticking in the background. Tomodachi life rom. — Mii, Tomodachi CollectionA breakup taking place inBreakups first occur in, when a Mii's relationship with a sweetheart is low. If it fails, the couple will crouch down, look at the floor, clutch the sides of their heads with both hands and rapidly shake their heads as a gong sounds. If the Mii succeeds, then they will hold their hand out as the lights turn on and suggest trying again as the other Mii responds in agreement.

In the game Tomodachi Life, gay marriage was apparently shut down when Nintendo patched the game last year and stopped allowing it. This spawned a wave of anger from the gay and lesbian community who simply wanted their sexual preferences fairly represented in a video game.

Most video games are based on heterosexual relationships, a generally accepted concept that seemingly wasn’t so widely questioned before. However, after what happened in Nintendo‘s virtual life simulator, the truth turned ugly. The LGBTQIA (non-hetero) movement is very much alive and has seen great strides in US pop culture, but it seemed that Nintendo wasn’t having it. There was an option in Tomodachi Life for gay marriage until Nintendo patched out what they considered “strange relationships.”

Nintendo’s actions drew protests from the growing community as said group created an online petition requesting that Nintendo reinstate the option.

Nintendo’s “whimsical” simulation erases an entire population of players, and that’s intolerable. http://t.co/ITxXb5nWuQ

— Samantha Allen (@CousinDangereux) May 7, 2014

Nintendo released the following public statement in response to the online petition:

Tomodachi Life Emulator

“Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life. The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that Tomodachi Life was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary.

“We have heard and thoughtfully considered all the responses. We will continue to listen and think about the feedback. We’re using this as an opportunity to better understand our consumers and their expectations of us at all levels of the organization.”

The idea behind the removal of Tomodachi Life gay marriage was less a stance against the idea as much as a decision to keep it “quirky” for the Japanese fan base. Overseas, it apparently isn’t as much of a problem. Nintendo also claimed that the patch was intended to fix a data leak, and not to impose on their fans’ preferences.

The US and surrounding countries are apparently getting their own version of the game on the Tomodachi Life release date of June 6. It is unknown whether Nintendo may be fixing it to allow for same sex marriage for an audience who holds it in much higher regard.

Do you agree that Nintendo’s actions toward gay marriage in Tomodachi Life weren’t meant to be a statement against a particular group? Could its Summer release see the option back in place to appease the fans?

[image via computerandvideogames]