The Outer Worlds has received the 2020 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Video Game on July 30, an accolade given in recognition of outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities – and the issues that affect their lives.

In The Outer Worlds, players have the opportunity to spend time with several companions, one of which is named Parvati. In spending time with this shy engineer and progressing through the main questline, players are informed that she is asexual, and needs help with a romantic relationship with another engineer, named Junlei.

What makes Parvati’s representation unique in The Outer Worlds is that most of the writing for the character was handled by narrative designer Kate Dollarhyde, who identifies as asexual. This was purely coincidental, however, as Dollarhyde states that knowledge of her sexuality was not known among her co-workers, and that much of the material for Parvati was prepared before she took control of the writing.

From there, Dollarhyde describes the experience as an opportunity to blend her own personal experiences with those of Parvati, including when the character is nervous at the prospect of entering into a romantic relationship, and how people sometimes refer to her as cold, as though she were a robot. These experiences made it directly into the game, and players have been quick to note that the writing has offered them a glimpse to characters in a way not seen in other games.

The link between Dollarhyde and Parvati did not become apparent until the game was released, thanks to the interviews about the development process that revealed the connection between them:

In the end, The Outer Worlds shows exactly how important it can be to have diverse representation in storytelling. The writing for Parvati is empathetic and positive towards asexuality, something that few might have expected in an sci-fi action-RPG – yet at the same time – exactly the type of writing one would hope for in any context.

“In doing these interviews I’ve had to basically out myself to the internet and all my coworkers, which is a very weird feeling,” she said. “So now everyone who reads an article knows that I’m ace and knows that I’m bi, and so does everyone on the internet. And some of them knew that before, but not all of them did!”

Source: Vice

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