Though I admire Chell, I probably wouldn’t pick her as favorite protagonist.

Agree with you on the drink thing. Every time I think too much about all that crap, I definitly get the urge to drink myself into oblivion. =P

Yeah that’s what was pretty difficult about this one, separating out favorite character from this one.

And I mean, I get it. I understand that as a demographic, gamers are incredibly homophobic, or, if not homophobic, insecure white males and the industry reflects this in ways we could get into for quite some time. And it’s not really video games’ problem alone – comics, sports, etc. So I get that historically, my chances for finding a strong queer character in a game are low.

Let’s not even get into transgender issues – remember Birdo/Birdette?

So yes, Metroid’s (the original) Samus before they made her a sex object too. Oh god, I need to drink.

Yes there are not nearly enough diverse people represented in the video games. I think its one of the industries biggest barrier to a more diverse player base. Strangely enough Fighting Games seem to have the greatest diversity at least ethnically. Dont remember about sexual preference though.

And I think that the lack of representation is a clear and important answer. =)

Also there is a favorite protagonist category later on.

I couldn’t come up with an answer to this one. I’d say that the “cop-out” answer is; “Me,” the star of countless RPGs, especially the Bioware games where you impose your own morality upon the main character. Shepard was actually a character I considered for this question until I thought about it more – the only defining quality of Shepard is his/her determination. Hell, even his/her gender is variable. Morality is completely left in the hands of the gamer, and while Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer give Shepard personality with their acting, you can’t really say, “I wanna be like Commander Shepard” without just meaning, “I wish I didn’t know the meaning of the word quit.” (Or, “I wish I looked like a Dutch male model, raaaaaar.”)

Auron is someone that comes to mind when I think of video game badasses. Interestingly now that I think about it, he also shares the same indomitable quality as Shepard – not even death can stop him.

The disappointment I did find when mentally searching my “database” of characters – there are SO FEW gay and bisexual video game characters (I mean, no shit, but still.) I can’t think of any bisexual male video game characters (again, excepting Bioware’s player characters.) I guess Anders from Dragon Age 2 qualifies, but he’s also a fucking loony toon. There are more female bi characters, but honestly I feel as if they’re just that way so that the male player playing a female character can enjoy the romance subplots. (See: Liara.)

So fuck it. I’m going with Samus Aran from the first Metroid. Gender identity issues be damned!