Flânerie in the dark woods: Shattering innocence and queering time in The Path

Abstract

Focusing on The Path, this article aims at moving beyond the duality between the concepts of productivity and idleness in order to explore how the practice of gaming can escape heteronormative time. Positioning the gamer as a flâneur, I argue that The Path locates the player in a queer time through the fragmentation of its narrative, but also the shattering of heteronormative imagery – such as the figure of the child as pure and innocent – and its reappropriation in a queer text. Ultimately, this article argues that gaming has the potential to be considered a site of queer practice. In order to perform this reading, I first introduce my critical framework comprised from exploring how queer lifestyles detach themselves from normative time and focusing on the practice of flânerie as queer performance.

Armchair travel through video games: stories from elsewheres and elsewhens

“…The concepts of countergaming (Galloway, 2006), counterplay (Meades, 2015) or queer gaming (Pelurson, 2019(Pelurson, , 2021 have similar approaches in their consideration of challenges for the predetermined order, structure, and guidelines of video games. Galloway's (2006) concept of countergaming primarily focuses on modifying games to disrupt their natural flow of gameplay, their visual design, the laws of the game and even software technology.…”

“…These were unexpected acts, of course, that are contrary to video gaming which demands players to progress by following the established rules. This type of gaming behaviour is commonly associated with rule-breaking (Salen Tekinbaş and Zimmerman, 2003), countergaming (Galloway, 2006), counterplay (Meades, 2015) or queer gaming (Pelurson, 2019(Pelurson, , 2021. All of these concepts pose a challenge for the predetermined order, structure, and guidelines that are typically associated with games.…”

“…While a moviegoer has no effect on the portrayed fictional world, a player has an active part in creating it (Tavinor, 2009). Therefore, a video game player is often identified as a flaneur (Dalal, 2014;Pelurson, 2019). Discussing the virtual mobility in video games, Dalal (2014) concludes that the player becomes a new kind of virtual flânerie who engages in a virtual form of mobility infused with the pleasures of exploring through the viewing and playing experience.…”

Straight Paths Through Queer Walking Simulators: Wandering on Rails and Speedrunning in Gone Home

“…The second—and, for the purposes of this article, more relevant—way in which Gone Home ’s status as a walking simulator aligns it with queerness is through the idea of walking itself as queer. A number of game studies scholars, such as Pelurson (2018), Dietrich Squinkifer (2017), and Kagen, have pointed out the similarities between the player of a walking simulator and the figure of the flaneur . The flaneur , famously theorized by Walter Benjamin (1997), has been understood by queer studies scholars as a queer (male) figure who strolls through the urban landscape, resisting productivity, embracing leisure, and choosing the meandering path over the straight line (Ivanchikova, 2007).…”

“…The game is best known for its inclusion of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) representation; however, Gone Home can also be seen as associated with queerness through its gameplay, specifically its status as an exploration-based “walking simulator.” While still used as a pejorative by some, the term walking simulator has been reclaimed by many game makers (Kill Screen staff, 2016). Of particular relevance for the present work, scholars like Melissa Kagen (2017) and Gaspard Pelurson (2018) have linked walking simulators to the queer figure of the flaneur . Indeed, Gone Home ’s gameplay seems to be structured around queer wandering, moving not straight (as along a straight line) but instead meanderingly through the game’s temporal and spatial dimensions.…”