In Game, In Life #3: Interview with Robin Gray, Gayming
“I think everybody has a reflection of themselves in the games they play,” says Robin Gray, editor and founder of Gayming magazine from Gray Jones Media.
Robin is a power-house in games media and of LGBT advocacy in the UK games industry. He spoke to Game Academy with candour — declaring an overpowering commitment to Lego Games; irritation- at “shouters” in shooter games; and passion- how Cyberpunk 2077 might just rewrite the rules of being “you are what you play” in a video game.
Game Academy: Hi Robin, in your unwritten autobiography, what would be the recurring diet of video games?
Robin: I am an open world RPG kind of guy. I need to get out. I need to explore. I need to be able to go and mess around with things, do stuff in different order to what I’m being told to do it in. I am also a huge, huge sucker for any kind of…I’m not going to use the word ‘kiddie’ game…games that are very low stress. So Lego games are one of my massive, massive things.
GA: Have you ever got into shooting games?
Robin: I’ve tried to play Overwatch, Call of Duty and it can be fun having a bit of a rampage but for me the novelty wears off quickly. The whole concept of drop in, play a game, drop out and go on a murderous rampage doesn’t really work. I’m a solo player, or a couch co-op player. It’s a social thing I suppose. The idea of sitting, having people shout at me in my ear, I think that’s just odd.
GA: It doesn’t feel like you’d like gaming amid strangers.
Robin: No. I am notoriously crap at most games and so want to be crap in my own way, just on my own terms. I don’t need some expert gamer shouting at me and putting pressure on me to be even worse. I’ll just go to pieces and start crying in a corner somewhere!
GA: What are you currently playing?
Robin: Mario + Rabbids. Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Lego Hobbit. I’ve also got Cricket 19 on the go. The running joke of cricket games of course is that they’re all shit. So Cricket 19 still has the wrong shot being played with the wrong footwork. If I want to play a cover drive, give me the animation that says that I play a cover drive! Don’t somehow say I’ve inside-edged it into my stumps down to the fine leg boundary. 😠
GA: What talent or skills do the games that you play call upon?
Robin: Creativity. Problem-solving. A little bit of lateral thinking. I suppose life-skills in some ways also, especially in the life sims out there. Red Dead Redemption II is pretty much a full emulation of real life. Because you have to keep relationships going, there’s even relationship skills in the game.
GA: Do you see a connection between in-game skills and your work?
Robin: Absolutely! The games that I enjoy playing are the games you can be creative in — creative with options around how I want to do stuff. For me having some critical thinking, creativity, the ability to explore the world in-game dovetails nicely with what I do with my work in the media. Telling stories. Looking at the world in a slightly different way. Finding ways and means of telling the same story in a different way. There’s a lot of overlap.
GA: Do you think game play is a valid space to start to look for and see peoples’ talents and personality?
Robin: I think that everybody has a reflection of themselves in the games that they play. The majority of people, if you know about their professional or personal life, I reckon you could guess headline games that they play. If you looked at somebody’s shelf of games, in a kind of Through the Keyhole kind of way, you could figure out a lot about a person.
GA: You’ve been a hugely influential force for representation of LBGT lives and rights in games here in the UK. How is that campaign going just now?
Robin: Certainly, for eons, the games that we play have been very narrow in scope and diversity. Over the last four or five years, there’s been a notable increase in involvement of LGBT characters but predominantly as NPCs, as side-quest sort of things, sideshows that you can almost dismiss. It’s a very simple solution for a male-dominated industry with a heteronormative gaze. The default answer has been to throw a couple of lesbians in because that satisfies straight male curiosity, either that or a flamboyant male character.
GA: Is representation improving?
Robin: Certainly over the last five years, we’ve seen an uptick in diversity. With The Outer Worlds last year we’ve had our first major asexual character being played out authentically in the game — again as an NPC. Tell me Why features a trans male-identifying lead character you have to play and the entire point of their story is to explore their backstory, their history, their relationship with their sister. There’s also Cyberpunk 2077 coming out in September which is going to offer a lot of character-building and personalisation options. You’re building a character from the ground up so you could choose to have a female-presenting character with female characteristics and pick a male voice.
GA: Why does representation matter?
Robin: It gives people who have never seen themselves in-game a chance to build their own identity. And I think that’s really important. People want to use games as a way of learning about themselves and of challenging themselves. If they see themselves in the game, they’re confident in the game, happy in the game and happier about being a game player.
Robin was interviewed by David Barrie of Game Academy.
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