In Dead by Daylight, the sexual orientation of the characters has not played a role so far. Behaviour Interactive now wants to change that: the popular “Survivor” David King has been in the game since 2017. In a lore entry, the developers now clarify that he is gay. This is being discussed controversially.
How is the survivor portrayed as gay?
- In Dead by Daylight, the concept is that surviving humans must escape from supernatural killers known from horror franchises: They flee from Freddy Krueger, the “Halloween” killer Michael Myers, or the damned Ghostface with his giant knife from the “Scream” films.
- For several years, the developers have been trying to give the survivors more background story. In “The Archives”, which came to Dead by Daylight with patch 3.3.1 in October 2019, the background stories of the characters are highlighted.
- In a new development, one of the heroes is now portrayed as homosexual in his background story. Dead by Daylight announces this on Twitter: “Today, we are happy to confirm that Dead By Daylight can officially celebrate its first gay character: David King.”
Dead by Daylight also tells the story of the survivors:
Dead by Daylight aims to bring representation
Why is this being done? Because they previously did not focus significantly on the sexuality of the characters, one could assume as an outsider that all 30 survivors in Dead By Daylight are heterosexual. The developers found this no longer appropriate (via twitter):
The fact that our roster of characters does not have an open representative of LGBTQIA2+ was something we were determined to change.
Therefore, they have been in intensive talks with organizations about how to integrate LGBTQIA2+ themes into the game.
What is the discussion like? The discussion about portraying David King as a gay man is controversial. Because they have retroactively changed one of the most popular characters in Dead by Daylight. Previously, it was only known that King had been with women before (“His ex left him and she doesn’t even want to see his face anymore”).
The discussion reminds of the debate around the heroine “Tracer” from Overwatch: She was the “frontwoman” of the shooter, whom Blizzard retroactively outed as lesbian. This sparked controversial discussions at the time:
- some believed that such topics do not belong in a game – that is private
- others were indignant that “their Tracer” is now not the way they had always envisioned
- others saw a dictate of “political correctness” that Blizzard now felt – this was a meaningless gesture
There is also a discussion in Dead by Daylight that sexuality does not matter in a game where people kill each other, and that it shouldn’t be so significant and should be considered normal, not something to discuss.
“The guy has been straight since 2017 and they just make him gay”
What specifically bothers about “David King”? One thing that specifically relates to Dead by Daylight: It appears arbitrary to some why they chose David King as the character to show the first openly gay character in Dead by Daylight:
- One user says: “The guy has been straight since 2017 and they just go and say: ‘Now this guy is gay’ and then call that representation.”
- Another says: “The guy is just your typical British working-class type, who probably brags to his buddies in the pub about how successful he is with the girls. So I’m gay and I am not saying gay men are all hyper-masculine battle junkies, but it feels sooo wrong.”
Others say they actually appreciate that Behaviour Interactive chose David King. They can identify with someone being portrayed as gay when it was not clear before:
“I am a gay guy and I had 4 girlfriends. David King’s background story will probably become a coming-out story and I can identify with that. I’m sure gay men feel represented by it. My point is: You can’t dismiss this as a “token gay” because that happens to almost every gay man in reality too. We don’t just come out of the womb and everyone understands that we are gay. Gay people don’t come out to everyone. I have to let people find out for themselves that I’m gay every time I change jobs or meet new friends, and it’s always stressful for me to wait for their reaction.”
But this nuanced comment stands in contrast to many that deal with the topic in general, not the specific execution.
Because some gamers reject the idea of discussing the sexual orientation of characters at all
- One user on Twitter says: “You don’t need this in a game that is about killing people and escaping from killers. This is not a game about sex or sexual preference. This is completely useless and should not be in the game, it adds nothing.”
- Another says: “If it doesn’t matter, why are you so upset about it?”
The debate strongly reminds of Tracer. At that time, people seemed just disappointed that “their girlfriend Tracer” is now not into boys. The discussion at least seems to be absent with David King:
Overwatch on Tracer’s homosexuality: “Normal things are normal”
