Horizon Devs Say Angry Homophobes Are "Pretty Easy To Ignore"
Aloy is queer. There are no ifs or buts, she spends a lot of Horizon Forbidden West's DLC flirting with another woman before you're given the option to kiss her. And this isn't 'kiss her to choose that Aloy's gay', it's a choice about whether Aloy is ready to open up. So, of course, bigots got mad and review-bombed the expansion. But the devs aren't letting that bog them down.
During an interview with VGC (via Eurogamer), narrative director Ben McCaw said, "We love it when [fans] have constructive feedback about this or that. And we're perfectly happy when they say they don't like this or that, with regard to virtually any aspect of the game that they've really thought about. But when there's just this kind of blatant negativity, I personally find it pretty easy to just compartmentalize and realise that this is a mindset I can never really jive with."
RELATED: Can We Be Normal About Aloy's Queerness Please
Lead writer Annie Kitain added that Aloy's feelings for Seyka are "all still true", and that the option to kiss her at the end of the DLC is about "whether the player thinks Aloy's ready to take that next step and have this romantic encounter or whether Aloy isn't there yet". Whatever you decide, "it's valid". As for the homophobic backlash and Metacritic review bombing, Kitain said that it's "pretty easy to ignore".
Gamers didn't just review bomb Horizon's DLC, they sent abusive DMs over the romance to Burning Shores' vocalist Julie Elven.
She revealed as much on Twitter when she posted, "I've continuously received angry DMs from gamers, as my vocals are featured on a scene in the DLC they see as 'LGBTQ propaganda'" The mere option of a queer kiss was enough to send bigots into a frenzy, but Elven added that "The
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