Video Game God Of War Ragnarok Sweeps Award Categories and Memorializes Queer Love

During 2022’s The Game Awards, God of War Ragnarok earned six awards — more than any other title in this year’s competition. The fictional world provides 47 Favors, or side quests. Inverse reports that gamers spend around 60 hours of playtime to complete all of the content. Nestled in one of these side quests, a developer pays homage to queer love.

In the side quest “Across the Realms,” players traverse the four realms to collect ingredients to cook a recipe. Along the way, players learn about Jari and Sómr. According to the game, Jari “wandered the realms in search of something unnameable. But in all of his wondrous travels, nothing satisfied him until he met another wanderer who was in search of something similar. Unnameable. He was called Sómr … It is said that Jari and Sómr first shared a kiss in the fields of Jötunheim.” Together, the two lovers found the answer to that unnameable desire: home.

Jari and Sómr are inspired by two developers: Sam Handrick and Jake Snipes. Handrick is a Senior Gameplay Programmer at Sony Santa Monica. His partner and colleague, Snipes, passed away due to epilepsy in 2020.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that can cause seizures. In serious cases, these seizures can cause falls, accidents, or brain damage.

The couple had worked on the game together. Handrick proposed scattering hearts throughout the game with Norse runes to represent the couple’s initials. Players can find these hearts when traveling through the different realms.

The memorial grew into the cooking side quest: a fitting tribute for Snipes, who enjoyed baking. In a Twitter post, Handrick writes that he and Snipes “picked up baking on a whim. We even happened to win one of the Studio’s pie-baking competitions. I loved creating with him. Whether it was games or the sweetest desserts.”

This side quest in God of War Ragnarok also raises awareness of the LGBTQ+ community’s vital role in video game history. Many leading developers and programmers have been queer. In 1998, Patrick J. Barrett III joined the team of developers and engineers who were creating The Sims. He wrote the code that determined characters’ social behaviors. As Barrett was coding, he did not limit the characters to heterosexual interactions. At the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo, crowd members and developers alike were shocked when two women Sims kissed on screen: an unexpected but groundbreaking moment for queer representation in video games.

In its entirety, Handrick’s Twitter thread reads as follows:

There’s something in God of War Ragnarok which is the most special to me. I got to pitch it and the team made it into everything I could have hoped.

I had hoped to wait for some time to talk about it but want to share it now, just in case.

It’s the Ballad of Jari and Somr.

It’s not a spoiler for the main story, but is a side-quest ‘Favor’ you can discover, so feel free to seek it out yourself first. You may have noticed the first sign of it in these hearts scattered across the realms.

The story of them goes back to a man I love more than anything.

I met Jake Snipes when he joined Santa Monica Studio in 2019. We worked on God of War Ragnarok together, both loved Carly Rae Jepsen and Death Note, and soon we become really close friends.

Before too long we become more than that. Jake was and is a shining light in my life.

I was madly in love with him, and he with me. So madly that we decided to take a grand road trip across the whole United States together, just visiting theme parks.

We stayed in on weekends to play games together, adventured around LA and California. I began to feel truly home.

We picked up baking on a whim, and started to bring anything we made into the Studio. Soon it became our reputation around the team. We even happened to win one of the Studio’s pie-baking competitions. I loved creating with him. Whether it was games or the sweetest desserts.

We’d talk about how much we’d love to leave some symbol of us in Ragnarok. Some indication within this game that had been the reason we’d first met, our first game made together. He once suggested simply a heart, with our initials in Norse runes, carved into this world we made

Jake died in 2020, due to his epilepsy.

I was heartbroken. I still am. I will always be.

I spent months hardly wanting to be alive.

But when I returned to Ragnarok I wanted it to be everything he deserved. And I hoped I could leave some piece of him within it.

I will always be indebted to Eric Williams. Jake and I used to talk to him every week, and each week Eric would suggest a new LA spot for us to explore together that weekend.

When I returned to work I asked Eric if we could include a memorial to Jake. He made it so much more.

I told Eric and the team about Jake’s suggestion of our initials carved into a heart. And he and the team returned with that and something even more special.

A story of two men who find each other in an often cruel world, and who find a place to belong simply with each other.

I wanted this story to be one many queer people know: journeying through a world that doesn’t always understand you to find a place that truly feels like home.

And sometimes that place is simply a person.

And something as simple as a recipe can be a link back to that home.

This fire never stops burning. Through the coldest days, through the nights you don’t want to live through. It will stand in this world we at @SonySantaMonica created for all of time, carrying the story of a man in whom I found something unnamable. Something I still carry now.

There are too many people on the team who made this happen to list them all here. But to name a few…

I owe Eric Williams, @leftie, @DiMentoXP, @mattsophos, @brettmoody44, @KathleenTigue , and many more people more than I can ever say❤️

I hope you’ll all find time to look for that eternal campfire, and to help make a recipe that feels like home.

Like Jake Snipes, patients with epilepsy can build fulfilling lives and careers. Early diagnosis may help reduce the risks of complications and unexpected seizures. Visit the Epilepsy Foundation’s website to find support and information about the condition.