Hello! I recently became a part of the fandom in some of your old games, and, along with my friend, I noticed something strange. I appreciate your desire to create diverse content, and I was initially pleased with your statement that your characters are bisexual by default, unless otherwise stated.
However, I want to share my perception as part of the LGBT audience. Despite these claims, in practice this representation often feels like a label rather than an integral part of the character.
-> In "Dead Plate," Rody is stated as bisexual, but his entire story arc and motivation centers around a heterosexual relationship with Manon. His bisexuality has no effect on the plot, nor is it a source of conflict or development.
-> In "Married in Red," the couple (Dan Myeong-hoon and Choi Da-jeong) also has bi-labels, but their relationship and drama unfold exclusively in a heteronormative way.
Besides, as I understand it, there are only two gay characters in your games, and I have absolutely no questions about Eddie, besides, the game with him has not yet been fully released, but Vincent Charbonneau also has his gay orientation very formally, as it seemed to me. The point of his actions was that he wanted to perfect his culinary art, and in the story he was dating a woman in general, so being called gay for fanbase also had absolutely no purpose or meaning.
It seems that bisexuality and homosexuality in your games is a decorative element that does not carry a narrative load. While heteroromance gets a full and central development, the queer component remains at the level of the subtext, which is easy to ignore.
The question arises, why is it necessary to mention it at all, if the games carry the plot potential of horror and any mention of orientations is optional.
As a viewer, I feel cheated. I come hoping to see an honest and well-researched representation, having looked at the fandoms of your games and fan ratings, but I come across a system where our identities are used as labels for "diversity", but at the same time devoid of any meaning and influence on the story. (I don't mention your other games, because I also didn't see any hint of homosexual relationships there, but I also didn't see any open recognition of someone's orientation in them.)
I understand that not all media should be about romance. But if you declare the orientation of the character, there is an expectation that this will be somehow played out in the narrative, and not just remain a fact in the questionnaire.
I hope you'll take this as feedback from someone for whom representation is important.
I do not hope that you will answer, but I hope that you will read this anonymous analysis, and something in it may seem to make sense to you.
"As a viewer, I feel cheated. I come hoping to see an honest and well-researched representation, having looked at the fandoms of your games and fan ratings,"
That is not my responsibility and I have no means of controlling how other people choose to talk about the games. The official game pages and any marketing done by the studio never mention the games having LGBT themes or characters, we never set up or promised you that the stories are going to center around their identities and attempted to draw in more audiences that way.
I view character sexualities as just another part of the character. It holds the same weight to me as other facts about them like their favorite food or what their hobbies are- stuff that are still parts of the character and develops them more but their entire character doesn't revolve around.
I believe being a good writer is to kill your darlings- only keep things that are necessary for the narrative and leave out any details that aren't directly enhancing or assisting it so the story can be more focused, consistent and clear to the audience. Sexualities aren't the focus in those stories, just as much as how a character's favorite food or a hobby isn't necessary for the audience to know about to understand the story- so they are only reflected on briefly. And any mentions of there being LGBT characters are also left out from the official game pages and marketing as mentioning it would be misleading people into thinking the game will be more focused about them when they aren't.
I personally don't understand why a character's sexuality is considered so important when as a queer person they're a part of yourself but your entire being and thought process doesn't revolve around it, and the goal of queer reps is to have them be so common that they're normalized just as much as heterosexual characters.
Just as much as how heteronormative people assume being heterosexual is the "default", I just want people to abandon that mindset with my characters and see them as queer by default, because I'm bisexual and I want that reflected onto my characters simply for my own enjoyment and comfort. I never think about including things just for "the fanbase" or "diversity points", I make art for myself and myself only. If you don't feel comfortable with my approach to representation, I hope you find a creator that best suits you.
"While heteroromance gets a full and central development, the queer component remains at the level of the subtext, which is easy to ignore."
You mentioned Dead Plate and Married in Red as an example of this, but Rody and Manon's relationship is purposefully left vague and one-sided, never full throughout the entire game until only one out of four endings while the rest of the game focuses on developing and showcasing Rody and Vince's relationship. Rody and Manon's relationship doesn't get developed further because it was already over by the time you learn about it, and the way Rody and Manon's relationship portrays itself in the story isn't actually about their romance or love life either, but it's there to hint at Rody being an unreliable narrator and at his unhealthy obsession with Manon which parallels Vince's own obsession with Rody + set up the twist of Manon being her own person and being different than how others described her and what the audience expected her to be, which all enhances the very main themes of the game that is supposed to be about the dangers of love and obsession and how far one can go for it.
And Da-jeong and Myeong-hoon's relationship was purposefully written to only be briefly touched on/surface-level and weren't full/central in the story at all either- Myeong-hoon is a very underdeveloped character and their wedding serves only as a stage for Bok-su's revenge and as a metaphor of Da-jeong attempting to start a new, clean and merry life despite ruining someone else's and never apologizing for it. Bok-su and Da-jeong's relationship got the most focus and change/development throughout the game.
Also it goes without saying but bisexuals are still queer even if they're romantically involved with the opposite gender, it doesn't make them heterosexuals.
"The question arises, why is it necessary to mention it at all, if the games carry the plot potential of horror and any mention of orientations is optional."
My personal socials are a place where I can freely talk more about my characters and details I didn't get to add to my finished projects. This includes unused art, scrapped concepts, and any facts about the characters that I didn't get to mention because they didn't serve the story but still nice and fun for people to know about/stuff that people were curious about, again like a character's favorite food, hobby, and in this case their sexual orientation. And these facts were never used to be performative or draw in more audiences, it's just me talking in my comfort space. Am I, as a queer indie internet artist, not allowed to talk about my ocs outside of the projects?
"(I don't mention your other games, because I also didn't see any hint of homosexual relationships there, but I also didn't see any open recognition of someone's orientation in them.)"
If you haven't played Jackpot Crash Course yet feel free to, canonically queer characters openly flirt in between dialogues if that's what you mean by "open recognition of someone's orientation" though I still believe queer characters can just happen to be queer and we don't always have to prove that they're queer just like how straight characters don't always have to prove that they're in fact straight.
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