Hiring a voice actor who understands part of Tyler's experience is crucial for ensuring authenticity. Tell Me Why tries to fix this by letting a trans character tell their own story and using him as a lens for the rest of the narrative.Īnother thing that sets Tyler apart as a good trans representation is that he is voiced by a trans man, August Aiden Black. This is obviously most problematic for trans gamers, who are forced to see themselves represented in games only as auxiliary characters, supplemental to the story. Their story and experiences navigating the game's world is only presented when it's important to the protagonist's narrative. This leaves players without the complete picture. One of the problems with including trans characters only as NPCs is that players must experience these characters through the lens of the non-trans protagonist. Related: Gravity Falls: Dipper & Wendy Were Both Queer-Coded The Last Of Us IIalso featured a trans secondary character, Lev, who is similarly deadnamed after being expelled from his religious group for his gender identity.

In its initial release, Lena was deadnamed and misgendered - language that had to be fixed in a subsequent patch. Deadly Premonition 2 features a trans character whose gender identity is critical to the mystery of the story. Other 2020 games have tried to include trans characters, but these been secondary characters who have often been designed or incorporated into the story poorly.

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