Dressing Commander Shepard in pink: Queer playing in a heteronormative game culture

Tereza Krobová; Ondřej Moravec; Jaroslav Švelch

doi:10.5817/CP2015-3-3

Dressing Commander Shepard in pink: Queer playing in a heteronormative game culture

Vol.9,No.3(2015)
Special issue: Experience and Benefits of Game Playing

Tereza Krobová Ondřej Moravec Jaroslav Švelch

https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2015-3-3

How to Cite:

Krobová, T., Moravec, O., & Švelch, J. (2015). Dressing Commander Shepard in pink: Queer playing in a heteronormative game culture. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 9(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2015-3-3

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Abstract

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. We 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. However, players do not seek sexuality in games to the same extent as they do in film or TV, and they tend to use these strategies, and especially the latter two, reluctantly or with reservations. These reservations may be linked to our finding that LGBT players consider their gay (or lesbian) identities disconnected from their identities as players or gamers. This can be explained by the mutual exclusivity of gay communities and the heteronormative game culture.

Keywords:
Video games; LGBT community; heteronormativity; queer playing; gender

Author biographies

Tereza Krobová

Tereza Krobová is a Ph.D. candidate at Charles University in Prague. Her research focuses on issues related to gender and representation in the media, especially in video games. She works as an editor of online news outlet and cooperates with NGOs that deal with human rights and gender mainstreaming.

Ondřej Moravec

Ondřej Moravec is a media studies graduate from Charles University in Prague. He has also studied screenwriting at the Faculty of Performing Arts in Prague. He worked in Czech public service television, and now he works as a film festival programmer. His main research interest is combining film and game techniques in audiovisual works.

Jaroslav Švelch

Jaroslav Švelch is a lecturer and researcher at the Charles University in Prague’s Faculty of Social Sciences. He was a Fulbright visiting researcher at MIT’s GAMBIT game lab from 2007-8 and a Ph.D. intern at Microsoft Research New England in 2012. His work focuses on local histories of computer games, social uses of digital technologies, humor in virtual spaces, online language management, and the concepts of monstrosity and adversity in games.

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