How Rainbow Six’s queer representation saved my mental health

I love competitive games, specifically first person shooters (FPS). However, they are notorious for their toxic communities.

This poses an issue for neurotypical, non spicy-brained individuals, so the effects it has on someone who is atypical can be incredibly detrimental. Further, when we look at the toxicity faced by players, some of the most common insults and slurs used within the FPS gaming world are homophobic. This homophobia is further reinforced when games introduce pride banners for pride month or tweet their support for the LGBTQIA+ community. These scenario’s have made it difficult for my mental health being a queer content creator, specifically within the game Rainbow Six Siege.

I use gaming and content creation as a form of escapism from the issues I face daily, and I have built a stunning and queer safe community in the process. But this regressed when I moved over to Siege. I faced a type of queer hatred within the gaming world that I had not been exposed to before, and I used to play Halo 3 semi professionally haha. It became incredibly depressing to be team killed repetitively because I used an Xbox pride profile picture (pfp) or receive continuous messages from random people because they were less or more skilled at the game than me. It was constant. To the point where I didn’t want to play the game anymore, let alone make content. I face homophobia regularly in my day to day – through various jobs, family members and even sometimes friends, so to have one of my passions infected with ignorance was less than ideal and took a toll on my mental health.

But these feelings rapidly went away when I learnt more about Ubisoft and the developers of Rainbow Six Siege. Every year we see various companies change their logos on social media, but never on all accounts, just western ones. This makes pride feel more of a commodity for some companies than an actual stand with the LGBTQIA+ community. Ultimately, some companies do it for money. Not Rainbow Six Siege.

Their global account as well as their global discord is changed to show their support with pride all over the world, this was the first win for me in re-igniting my passion. Fast forward a few years and Rainbow Six Siege now boasts 68 playable operators, some of which are LGBTQIA+. Caveira is a Lesbian, Pulse is a bisexual man, Osa is trans, Flores is gay and Sens is non binary.

Credit: Ubisoft

Although Siege doesn’t have a story mode, fans of the game LOVE the lore. The lore comes is featured within the Battle pass (Caveira had a necklace with her girlfriends initials engraved), CGI trailers and Easter eggs. This representation and inclusion has been crucial for the LGBTQIA+ community who play the game. I am sure some people will read this and question why it is so important “it’s just a game”. To have a company support your existence, fully well knowing how angry this would make part of the player base, is the best feeling.

The Ubisoft and Siege W’s continue when we look at the fact they worked closely with non-binary and trans folk to make sure they done a good job with Sens and Osa. It felt that it was done with genuine care opposed to just “ticking boxes”. I want to reiterate that the LGBTQIA+ characters are all free to play, and not an example of commodity fetishism. Which neatly brings me on to my next point. The one time Ubisoft/ Siege did put LGBTQIA+ content behind a paywall – ALL of the proceeds went to the charity ILGA World (The Intl Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex association). This bundle came with a pride banner and an outfit for Osa to represent the charity.

It isn’t unusual for Rainbow Six Siege to feature a charity bundle either, it happens every season in their Sixth Guardian programme. Further proving the companies support of the community. Of course, once again, this was met with toxicity and team killing occurred for many players who rocked the pride banner. The Siege devs then took it a step further and made a change within the game to stop this, you can no longer team kill during prep phase – this is the phase in which the offenses happened the most. Now it was never explicitly said that this is why that change was brought into place, but the timing was impeccable so I feel that it played a part.

Credit: Ubisoft

Rainbow Six Siege, and Ubisoft support the LGBTQIA+ community all year round. Whether it is supporting their queer staff, shutting down homophobic Twitter trolls from their global account (they are sassy and I live for it), showcasing queer creators or providing more representation for the LGBTQIA+ community who holds their game so dear. Rainbow Six Siege is a perfect demonstration of how a company can be such a fantastic ally, an ally that we all need. Seeing the stance Ubisoft and Siege take on homophobia within their gaming community leaves me feeling super positive, even when I receive the odd message of abuse. Although those people still exist within the game, I am exposed to their behaviour less and less.

Rainbow Six Siege will forever be my favourite game for both the game itself and the brighter side of the community that we have been able to build from Ubi. I am proud to be an openly queer, female creator of Rainbow Six Siege and I am proud of the community I am a part of. My mental health whilst creating content for this game has become almost impenetrable because I have never felt so supported. This piece just scratches the surface of why representation matters within the gaming industry and just how crucial allyship is.

Written by Titanium Rolo