Inclusive Video Games

Video games are a very popular media in our technology-powered society, and can have big influences similar to how movies, tv shows, and other forms of entertainment retain. A bigger topic being discussed more and more recently is the idea of inclusivity within video games and allowing for a larger audience besides the typical male. Playing a lot of video games and seeing these changes first hand, I honestly do think that including other people into a fun piece of entertainment is a good step in the right direction, and I feel more people should really give video games a try since they can be very enjoyable and have good effects on the people that play them. I'm glad that games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and more recently, Apex Legends, are including more diverse casts of characters and character customization because I feel it can help immerse some beginner players into the games more and possibly help them get deeper into games. However, despite me being supportive of more inclusivity and diversity in games, I also do feel it shouldn't be forced. I'm not against diversity or anything, but I also feel like certain things shouldn't even need to be mentioned or done just to appease everyone. Apex Legends, made by Respawn Entertainment which is in the same universe as their previous franchise, Titanfall, seems to do diversity and inclusivity very well within their game. They have many strong characters, with around half of them being either female or nonbinary, as well as other ethnicities.  One character, going by the alias of Gibraltar, learned the value of protecting others after him and his boyfriend stole his father's motorcycle, only to end up crashing and causing his father to lose an arm. Now, it was hinted at in his backstory that he was gay, but what I think is nice about this is that it isn't what his character is built around. It's nice to know that he is gay, but it also wasn't forced and it didn't have any effect on his backstory. This is how I feel most video games should be like. I'm all for diversity, but it doesn't need to be forced, and in certain games, it doesn't matter if we know a character's sexuality, race, or gender, but more about the story being told and the enjoyable and fun gameplay. I feel if every video game story exclusively mentioned everyone's sexuality or whatever, I feel it would almost ruin some stories in certain ways because it would just feel too forced and end up becoming a trope. Similar to Gibraltar, I also feel like characters shouldn't be designed around their sexuality because then it could almost become cliche and stereotypical, and wouldn't allow more people of any sexuality or gender to relate with the characters. I can understand these things being mentioned in more story-driven games because sometimes it can add character to some of the people we meet throughout the story, but their character shouldn't be based around what they identify as because then it can just feel really forced.