How online games like The Sims and Coral Island are empowering Asia’s LGBT and queer folk
- In a region where discrimination against the LGBT community persists, video games are emerging as a tool for therapy
- Despite its positive impact, an expert warns that fetishisation, lack of representation, are still obstacles to overcome
Irene Magdalena’s first kiss with a woman wasn’t physical, but virtual. It happened in the most famous life-simulation video game in the world: The Sims.
“It was really eye opening,” said Magdalena, an Indonesian trans content creator using they/them pronouns. “I remember thinking, ‘I can date both a man and a woman? Whoa, this is so cool!’”
Born and raised in Jakarta, Magdalena didn’t feel safe discussing their sexuality with family or friends. They had been having crushes on girls since middle school, but for their “Christian conservative family, anything a bit ‘different’ was bad”. The escalating vitriol toward sexual minorities in the country did not encourage them to come out either.
As a result, Magdalena decided to find their own answers by experimenting in the safest space available: the virtual world. Through the life-simulation game The Sims, where families and relationships don’t have to adhere to heteronormativity, Magdalena found healing and reconciliation with both their gender and sexual orientation.
