Ten video games received nominations for the 36th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. This program celebrates media works that show “fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community and the issues that affect their lives.” There are nominees for television, film, music, theater, journalism and comics as well as video games.

One of the 2024 nominees for the outstanding video game is the release of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for Nintendo Switch. The original Japanese version of the GameCube title included a minor character named Vivian who was transgender. The play has dialogue about her challenges being misgendered and her journey to understand her own identity. However, the 2002 international translations of the play, including the English version released in the US, removed that part of the character, removing language around Vivian’s gender and pronouns. Last year’s Switch re-release restored the original character lines and stories for English-speaking players to finally experience.

Video game nominees are also included Dragon Age: The Veilguard. BioWare has a long history of portraying amazing characters and romance options in their games, and it’s great to see them continue that practice with the latest title. Horror film outfit Blumhouse’s first foray into games, the intriguing indie project Fear of the Spotlightalso received a nod. Here is the full list of the game’s nominees:

• Caravan SandWitch (Studio Plane Toast / Dear Villagers)

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare / Electronic Arts)

• Fear Delusion (Lovely Hellplace / DreadXP)

• Born of dust (Red Thread Games / Spotlight by Quantic Dream)

• Fear of the Spotlight (Cozy Game Pals / Blumhouse Games)

• Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine / Square Enix)

• Thoughts Beneath Us (BearBone Studio)

• Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo)

• Sorry We Are Closed (à la mode games / Akupara Games)

• Until That (Polychroma Games / Ultimate Fun)