Dead By Daylight says a hypermasculine hero is gay – 5 years after he came into the game

Dead By Daylight says a hypermasculine hero is gay - 5 years after he came into the game

The sexual orientation of the characters has not played a role in Dead by Daylight so far. Behavior Interactive now wants to change that: the popular “survivor” David King came into play in 2017. In a lore entry, the developers are now making it clear that he is gay. This is controversial.

How is the survivor portrayed as gay?

  • Dead by Daylight is about survivors having to flee from superhuman killers known from horror franchises: They flee from Freddy Krueger, the “Halloween” killer Michael Meyers or the damn Ghostface with his giant knife from the ” Scream movies.
  • For several years, the developers have been trying to give the survivors more background history. The Archives, which came to Dead by Daylight with Patch 3.3.1 in October 2019, explores the backstory of the characters.
  • In a new development, one of the heroes is now portrayed as homosexual in his backstory. Dead by Daylight announced this on Twitter: “Today we are pleased to confirm that Dead By Daylight can officially celebrate the first gay character: David King.”

Dead by Daylight also tells the story of the survivors:

Dead by Daylight trailer reveals the stories unveiled in Tome XI: Devotion

Dead by Daylight wants to bring representation

Why do you do that? Because the sexuality of the characters hasn’t been addressed too much so far, an outsider could assume that all 30 survivors in Dead By Daylight are straight. The developers no longer found this appropriate (via twitter):

The fact that our roster of characters doesn’t have an open representative of LGBTQIA2+ was something we were determined to change.

Therefore, intensive discussions were held with organizations on how LGBTQIA2+ topics can be integrated into the game.

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How’s the discussion? The discussion about depicting David King as a gay man is controversial. Because one of the most popular characters in Dead by Daylight has been changed retrospectively. All that was previously known was that King had been with women (“His ex left him and she doesn’t even want to see his face anymore”).

The discussion is reminiscent of the debate about the heroine “Tracer” from Overwatch: That was the “front woman” of the shooter, who Blizzard later outed as a lesbian. This sparked controversy at the time:

  • some were of the opinion that such a topic didn’t belong in a game at all – it was a private matter
  • others, on the other hand, were downright annoyed that “their tracer” is now not what they had imagined all along
  • others, on the other hand, saw a dictate of “political correctness” that Blizzard now felt – that was a meaningless gesture

Also with Dead by Daylight there’s a discussion that sexuality doesn’t really matter in a game where you kill people and that it really isn’t that crucial and should be normal, nothing to talk about.

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“The guy has been straight since 2017 and they just make him gay”

What is specifically disturbing about “David King”? One thing that is now specific to Dead by Daylight: It seems arbitrary to some why they chose David King as the character to show the first openly gay character in Dead by Daylight:

  • One user says, “The guy has been straight since 2017 and they just walk up and say ‘Now this guy is gay’ and then they call it representation.
  • Another says: “The bloke is just your typical lower class British guy who’s probably bragging to his buddies at the pub about how much success he’s having with chicks. So I’m gay and I’m not saying gay men are such hyper masculine fight addicts but it feels sooo wrong.”
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“Hyermasculine Battle Junkie”

Others say. They just think it’s good that Behavior Interactive picked David King. You might just identify with someone being portrayed as gay who wasn’t previously aware of it:

“I’m a gay guy and I had 4 girlfriends. David King’s backstory will likely be a coming out story and I can identify with that. I’m sure gay men feel represented by it. My point is, you can’t dismiss this as “quota gay” because that’s what happens to almost every gay man in the real world. We are not from the womb and everyone understands that we are gay. Gay people don’t come out to everyone. I have to let people find out for themselves that I’m gay every time I change jobs or meet new friends, and it’s always exhausting waiting for their reaction.”

But this nuanced commentary is opposed by many who deal with the topic in general, not with the specific execution.

Because some gamers generally refuse to address the sexual orientation of characters at all

  • A user on Twitter said: “You don’t need to in a game about killing people and escaping from the killers. This is not a game about sex or sexual preference. It’s completely useless and shouldn’t be in the game, it doesn’t add anything.”
  • Another says: “If it doesn’t matter, why are you so upset about it?”
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The debate is very reminiscent of Tracer. Back then, people just seemed disappointed that “her friend Tracer” wasn’t even into boys now. The discussion at least seems to be absent from David King:

Overwatch on Tracer’s homosexuality: “Normal things are normal”



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