Tell Me Why is the first major game with a transgender protagonist, but it’s not available in China
- The first major game to feature a transgender protagonist isn’t available in mainland China and has no Chinese translation
- A niche, story-heavy game with sensitive trans content could face challenges in getting a China release, experts say
Tell Me Why, a new game from the creator of the beloved adventure game Life Is Strange, is getting widespread attention for making history as the first major title to feature a transgender lead character. Reception hasn’t been so warm in China, but that’s mostly because the game is too inaccessible in one of the world’s biggest gaming markets.
Tell Me Why was released in three chapters over the course of three weeks on Xbox One, Windows 10 and Valve’s Steam game store. All three platforms have Chinese stores, but they don’t currently offer Tell Me Why.
Gamers in China are accustomed to finding ways of getting around these kinds of restrictions with tricks like switching the region for their accounts. But even if they manage to download the game, a more frustrating challenge awaits: no Chinese language support.
“Tell Me Why supports Japanese and Korean but not Chinese, and it really makes you uncomfortable,” one game vlogger said in a video uploaded to Bilibili. “It’s a narrative game and its biggest selling point is the plot. How do you play if you can’t understand it?”
The narrative is a key part of Tell Me Why. The game has players follow a pair of twins, one of whom is Tyler Ronan, a transgender man. This isn’t the focus of the game, but it does touch upon how being trans affects the character’s life.
The game picks up with the twins being reunited a decade after an event had driven them apart. As in Life Is Strange, players are asked to make choices as events unfold, altering the course of the game. In this way, players explore the mysteries of twins’ “loving but troubled childhood”, according to Dontnod, the game’s French developer.
