Abstrakt
This article explores the strategies of queer playing of video games and their relationship to the heteronormative game culture. Its premise is that most video games are, either implicitly or explicitly, heteronormative and the inscribed player of such games is in the majority of cases a heterosexual male.
In order to achieve the same level of identification with an avatar and to enjoy a similar gameplay experience as the heterosexual player, the LGBT player may have to deploy various strategies to challenge the game and work around it, or to find the LGBT content which some more progressive games offer. The study is based on in-depth qualitative interviews with six players (5 males and 1 female) who identified themselves both as homosexual and as players of the Mass Effect or Dragon Age series, games that include several opportunities to initiate same-sex romance.
Authors have identified three different queer playing strategies: imaginative play (queer reading of unspecified or heterosexual characters), stylized performance (the use of gay stereotypes to mark one as queer) and role-playing of a LGBT character. Out of the three queer playing strategies they identified, imaginative play is the one that is most readily accepted by our interviewees.
Its familiarity and acceptance may stem from the fact that it is not specific only to the medium of video games. The second strategy is stylized performance, through which players deliberately perform stereotypical depiction of gays (pink color or feminine voice) and thus deconstruct these cultural patterns.
The third strategy is role-playing of an LGBT character. While some have employed it, the players noted that sexuality was not an important variable for them, and they put much more emphasis on story and portrayal of the characters, and not on whether they are gay or not.
They tend not to play a character of the opposite sex. In general, the interviewees see the inclusion of gay characters both as an important step for the LGBT community and as a tool in the fight against homophobia.
They agree that games have a lot of potential as outlets to express and understand one's sexuality, but this potential is still underutilized. The interviews were conducted by Ondřej Moravec.
This material was transcribed, coded and analysed by Tereza Krobová. The final text was written by Tereza Krobová and Jaroslav Švelch, all of them doctoral students of Faculty of Social Sciences.