Valve To Include Deaf Character In Future Half Life Installment

Oh, that Valve. They don't SEEM like they're trying to make social statements with their inclusion of atypical video game characters...but they do. Take Alyx Vance for example. When's the last time you saw a level headed and decently dressed female video game character that was also biracial (and not half-Caucasian)? Exactly.

Now, in a bid to both improve video game animation and add to Alyx's backstory, Valve is studying sign language for a deaf character related to Alyx's storyline in Half Life lore:

"[Alyx] had a crush on someone who was hearing impaired, so she taught Dog how to sign so she could practice," explains Newell. "Something happened, maybe, the person is off fighting the Combine someplace else, but that's why she and Dog would start signing with each other when they wanted to communicate without making noise, or communicate without other people knowing ... It gave us the excuse to build the technology for signing." via Destructoid

While this raises a few questions (like, doesn't Dog only have three "fingers"?), this is a great step for animation and should make equality activists smile. Their next character should be a day-walking Seattle blogger who has a weakness for depressants and 8 bit. How 'bout it Valve? I'll even fake a limp.