A diversidade sexual na cultura histórica : uma análise dos jogos da série “Baldur’s Gate”

Abstract

This paper analyzes what fantasy role-playing video games, from the 1990s to the 2020s, reveal about the historical culture of the societies that produced them regarding sexual diversity. The first chapter characterizes the concepts that make up sexual diversity, in particular sexual orientation and gender identity, carrying out a history of sexual diversity and social movements from the second half of the 20th century.. The second chapter addresses the state of the art in game studies, the possibilities of using video games as historical sources and its connections to the historical culture, reviewing previously published works that use games as sources of history. The third chapter analyzes two selected sources: Baldur’s Gate (1998) and Baldur’s Gate 2: The Shadows of Amn (2000), regarding the historical culture from its development period, the 1990s, questioning them in regard of sexual diversity. The fourth chapter analyzes Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023) regarding the historical culture from its development period, the 2020s, questioning it in regard of sexual diversity. It was concluded that the analysis of the games demonstrates sufficient evidence of ruptures in western historical culture regarding sexual diversity from the 1990s to the 2020s, which can be confirmed in comparison with other sources, and future researches may help fill this gap on sexual diversity in the history of digital games, both in historiography and in history teaching.