That moment came when I was sixteen years old, playing Saints Row 2 on my PS3, still very much under the belief I was a guy. All I needed to break out of my shell was for a piece of media to show me I didn’t have to settle for what I was given. In an environment like this, it was all too easy to not even question if there were other options. The typical game protagonist of the 2000s was incredibly homogenous: they were almost always a white male with short auburn hair, a square jaw, perfect stubble, well-built but not overly muscular, and probably voiced by Nolan North. Though I didn’t grow up in a particularly conservative household, gender norms felt enforced by society and the media I consumed, especially in video games.

Bucking those expectations in any form was usually met with confusion at best, or outright mockery at worst. I wasn’t the most feminine or flamboyant ostensible male I knew, but my sexuality was questioned enough to make me afraid to express anything other than what was expected of me. I spent a good chunk of my childhood knowing there was something different about me, but I didn’t have the words to express it. Growing up transgender without knowing it yet (what we in the community call the “egg” phase) was pretty weird. At first glance, the revamped character creation system seemed like just a more robust version of the first game, but what it added changed the series and opened up a Pandora’s Box of queerness that certainly left an impression on my younger self. Two years later, Saints Row 2 doubled down on customization and fixed its predecessors issues. It wasn’t perfect - apart from a few scant lines, the protagonist was conspicuously silent, and you could only play as a male character - but it was a huge milestone leading to more open-ended character creation. In the mid-2000s, open-world crime games traditionally put you in the shoes of a predetermined character, but Saints Row let you craft your own member of the Third Street Saints and change their appearance whenever via the in-game surgeon. This is all indicative of a series that, despite growing pains, pushed the boundaries of how we can present ourselves within the digital world. Now, in 2022, long-time series developer Volition has released a Saints Row reboot, with a wide variety of gender non-conforming customization options. With unparalleled customization for its time, the Saints Row series paved the way for future inclusive character creators and, on a more personal note, helped me figure out my own gender identity.

It was an open-world crime playground, fair enough, but it had plenty of features to call its own. When the original Saints Row launched in 2006, many were quick to label the game a Grand Theft Auto clone.

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