Baldur’s Gate 3 wins Outstanding Video Game at GLAAD Media Awards
Baldur’s Gate 3 celebrates queerness (Larian Studios)
Epic fantasy role-playing video game Baldur’s Gate 3 has won the prize for Outstanding Video Game at the GLAAD Media Awards.
The 35th annual GLAAD Media Awards took place in Los Angeles on Thursday (14 March), featuring 310 nominees across 33 categories.
While Mean Girls star Reneé Rapp was named Outstanding Music Artist, and Oprah Winfrey accepted the Vanguard Award, Baldur’s Gate 3 was crowned Outstanding Video Game of the year.
In nominating the game, GLAAD described it as “high-fantasy that does more than just welcome queer people, it embraces us and weaves our stories throughout the vibrant and dynamic world it crafts”.
The organisation added: “For CRPG (computer role-playing game) lovers who tire of LGBTQ characters being constantly pushed into marginal, tokenised roles, this is the revolutionary step forward we’ve all been waiting for in [the] genre.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 was released in August 2023, and one character in particular stole the attention of the LGBTQ+ community: a sexy vampire daddy called Astarion, described as an “elder vampire who will seduce any fool with a pulse”.
The game, developed by Larian Studios, allows players to develop same-sex relationships, with fans of the game on welcoming is latest award win on Twitter/X.
In a earlier interview with The Gamer, voice actor Neil Newbon, who played Astarion, pointed out the importance of normalising queer characters in games.
“The big thing for me identifying with Astarion is that he’s pansexual… he’s attracted to anybody he’s attracted to, and he loves anybody he will love. That’s a beautiful message, especially these days when we’ve seen great strides in the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s important to keep pushing the message forward that you should love who you want to love, and that shouldn’t be an issue, and nobody should judge you for it.”
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