GLAAD awards will spotlight video games for the first time

GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, will for the first time include video games as a category for its upcoming GLAAD Media Awards. The Outstanding Video Game Award will recognize work that features “outstanding LGBTQ-inclusive content,” the organization said in a statement.

Candidates for the award must have been published between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2018. The GLAAD Media Awards, now in their 30th year, recognize media for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ community, and the issues facing their lives.

Nominees for the award will be announced in January. The eligibility guidelines allow for works published prior to Jan. 1, 2018, if they “contain substantial new first-party content” released in 2018, “where the new content is the subject of consideration.”

For 2018, the top-of-mind instances of LGBT representation seem to fall outside the scope. The Last of Us Part 2 opened E3 2018 with a trailer in which protagonists Ellie and Dina kiss, but that’s a single scene, and the game isn’t launching this year (no release date has been announced). Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will feature same-sex romance options for its male and female protagonist, but this seems to be a detail of their character as opposed to the overall purpose of the story presented.

The cutoff date means some of the better-known indie games featuring LGBT characters and themes may not be in the picture. Tacoma (part of the Queer Games Bundle offered earlier this year on Steam) did launch on PlayStation 4 this year, but it was originally released in 2017. Butterfly Soup and Dream Daddy, two games which earned accolades as they presented LGBT characters and issues, also launched in 2017.

Nominations must be received by Nov. 23. GLAAD has more on the categories that will be recognized and their eligibility guidelines.