Cues for Queer Play: Carving a Possibility Space for LGBTQ Role-Play

Sihvonen, Tanja; Stenros, Jaakko

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90542-6_10

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…17 With many video games still failing at properly including non-traditional gender presentations and particularly queerness in their video games, 14 our research shows that this is an opportunity for businesses to disrupt the video game industry. Especially for role-playing games, as we examined in our study, many video game developers are slowly realizing the importance for all players-specifically LGBTQ players-to be able to vicariously play their character, 21 a need which we anticipate will only proliferate. Many video game makers have already taken the initiative of producing LGBTQ-friendly games that respectfully and comprehensively portray this form of queerness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

20200617

Pan¹,

Chadwick²

2020

University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Journal

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Video games have become notorious as a male-dominated and heteronormative environment, where gender nontraditional women characters have little space for equal representation. Research has explored the sexualization of women and limited portrayal of gender non-traditional women characters, though it is unclear what the effects are of including non-traditional women in video games. To test this, we randomly assigned 425 people (M age = 23.81; SD = 5.71) to imagine playing a female character in a third-person, single-player, RPG video game, where the character either had a more traditionally masculine or feminine gender presentation. Participants then rated the character on heroicness, satisfaction with playing the character, and relatability to the character, along with the anticipated quality of the video game. Our results showed that participants rated the character's traits and the video game quality more positively when the female character appeared more masculine and that this effect was amplified for participants with high egalitarian values. These results suggest that players do prefer non-traditional female video game characters who appear more masculine over feminine female characters.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

20200617

Pan¹,

Chadwick²

2020

University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Journal

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“…queering the charactersare goals worth pursuing. These kinds of options are most fruitfully explorable in role-playing games (Sihvonen & Stenros 2018). This is the final accepted manuscript version.…”

Section: Towards Zombie Agency In Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Playful Undead and Video Games

Webley

Zackariasson²

2019

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This article starts with the observation that all monsters are created by humans and thus they serve specific cultural and sociopolitical purposes. The study is set to finding out, first, how the traditional figure of the zombie works as a monster in popular culture, and second, how digital games open up new possibilities for it to exist and to act. Even if the zombie has symbolic power that makes it an ideal antagonist in games, assigning individual agency to it is very unlikely. From this follows that playing (as) the zombie in games is actively discouraged. The analysis presented here differs from earlier research on the zombie as a posthuman figure in that it seeks to understand the functions and the usability of the monster specifically as a digital game character through analyzing examples such as Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse (Wideload Games, 2005). In the end, this article is aimed at investigating the zombie as a queer figure that transgresses several boundaries in games, and ultimately offers us the possibility of transcending the human condition.

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“…In addressing Objective 1A, a literature and precedent review helped to define and connect related concepts such as: identity play (Ibarra & Petriglieri, 2010); frame analysis (Fine, 1983;Goffman, 1974;Waskul & Lust, 2004); self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987;Wright, 2006); possible selves (Lancaster, 1997;Markus & Nurius, 1986); and liminality (Huizinga, 1949;Salen & Zimmerman, 2003;Turner, 1967;van Gennep, 1908;Winnicott, 1971) to queer players and queer TTRPG design (Kiraly, 2014;Alder & St Patrick, 2013;Berge, 2021;Dragon, 2021c;Ruberg, 2020). I additionally demonstrated the exclusionary past of classic TTRPGs such as D&D (Long, 2016;Nephew, 2006;Pinkston, 2019;Schröder, 2008;Shepherd, 2021;Sihvonen & Stenros, 2018;Stang & Trammell, 2020) and how there is both a market and demand for queer TTRPGs (Trygstad, 2019). This was then proven by undertaking a survey of 331 queer TTRPG players and both quantitively and qualitatively analysing the results using thematic coding to address Objective 1B: the results validate the need and worth of a queer TTRPG that encourages players to explore facets of queer identity (gender identity, gender expression, sexuality, etc.)…”

Section: Iterations 2-3mentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Historically, RPGs (including TTRPGs and other types of RPGs, and even digital/ video games) have rarely been designed by or for people outside of their core demographic: white, heterosexual, cisgender males (Nephew, 2006;Schröder, 2008;Shaw, 2009;Sihvonen & Stenros, 2018). Peterson (2014) suggests this is to do with the original market intended for the first TTRPG, D&D: wargamers.…”

Section: The Original Demographic: the Othering Of Non-menmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it was not only women who were (and, arguably, still are (Stang & Trammell (2020)) viewed as monstrous through the lens of TTRPGs and D&D's many editions. When queer content began surfacing in TTRPG rulebooks in the late 1980s, it was commonly depicted as dark, villainous, and monstrous behaviour, reserved for those characters who were traitorous or deceitful (Sihvonen & Stenros, 2018;Stenros & Sihvonen, 2015). Creed (1993) also identified the idea of queerness as monstrous, although not so explicitly, as when males are viewed as monsters, they are viewed as feminine.…”

Section: Threatening Masculinity: the Monstrous Feminines And Queersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Identity Through Gameplay: The Intersections of Tabletop Role-Playing Games, Game Design, and Queerness

Morris¹

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<p>Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are an effective vehicle for exploring facets of personal identity, but are a product of masculinity and have historically only catered to heterosexual, cisgender, white men. LGBTQIA+ players have long been ignored as a minority in the TTRPG sphere, particularly those that have more intersectional and marginalised identities. Based on the opinions of 331 queer TTRPG players and concepts surrounding roles, identity, character creation, game design and queerness, this research portfolio discusses how TTRPG design can better meet the need for LGBTQIA+ identity play and exploration via queer mechanics, systems, themes and premises instead of mere representation and tokenism, and provides an example of a play-tested game designed by such principles. This will allow game designers to gain a better understanding of queer game design, and rainbow players’ wants and needs in this ever-expanding field of research and design.</p>

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Cues for Queer Play: Carving a Possibility Space for LGBTQ Role-Play

Cited by 11 publications

References 22 publications

20200617

20200617

The Playful Undead and Video Games

Exploring Identity Through Gameplay: The Intersections of Tabletop Role-Playing Games, Game Design, and Queerness

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