GLAAD, an organisation dedicated to LGBT equality, has praised The Last of Us' Bill as one of the most intriguing gay characters in any medium in 2013.
In its comments on the character GLAAD's entertainment staff wrote:
"There weren't many new LGBT characters to be found in mainstream video games this year, but one of 2013's most critically acclaimed featured a particularly interesting one. Released for the PS3, The Last of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic world where lone plague survivors must protect themselves from the infected and each other. One of the characters the player encounters over the course of the game is Bill, an unstable loner in the town of Lincoln with a talent for fixing things.
"Through dialogue and backstory, the player learns that Bill once had a partner named Frank who he loved, but the plague drove them apart and led Frank to a bitter end. Both helpful and contentious, Bill is as deeply flawed but wholly unique a gay character found in any storytelling medium this year."
The rest of GLAAD's list focuses on LGBT characters in movies, television, and comics who "truly stood out in from the crowd" last year. Naughty Dog's title has also been praised for pushing the role of women in games with interface designer Alexandria Neonakis recently defending The Last of Us in an editorial for The New York Times regarding criticism of the character of Ellie and other female roles in the paper's review of the game.
Naughty Dog has also recently said there is a possibility that The Last of Us will be released for PS4.