Queerness in Play (Palgrave Games in Context)

Queerness in Play (Palgrave Games in Context)

Queerness in Play examines the many ways queerness of all kinds―from queer as ‘LGBT’ to other, less well-covered aspects of the queer spectrum―intersects with games and the social contexts of play. The current unprecedented visibility of queer creators and content comes at a high tide of resistance to the inclusion of those outside a long-imagined cisgender, heterosexual, white male norm. By critically engaging the ways games―as a culture, an industry, and a medium―help reproduce limiting binary formations of gender and sexuality, Queerness in Play contributes to the growing body of scholarship promoting more inclusive understandings of identity, sexuality, and games. “In the midst of the contentious culture of digital games, Queerness in Play is an urgent collection of essays in which the authors both trace and create queer possibility spaces in games by revisiting and reinventing the field of game studies. Queer here is not a property, but functions brilliantly as a way of acting and playing against the grain of hetero-normality. This is an essential read for anybody interested in cutting edge game research in the intersection of gender and sexuality.” (Jenny Sundén, author of Gender and Sexuality in Online Game Cultures: Passionate Play) “ Queerness in Play is an important contribution to the vibrant, growing field of queer game studies. The collection builds on key issues, such as queer representation, queer gameplay, and queer players, pushing current conversations around queerness and games in thought-provoking new directions. By bringing queer perspectives on popular video games, like the Legend of Zelda series and League of Legends , together with research on queer gaming communities, the collection explores not just the place of queerness as it already exists in games but also the many possible queer futures for games and their players.” (Bonnie Ruberg, editor of Queer Game Studies) “ Queerness in Play is exemplary, variegated, and accessible. The perspectives included in this collection, particularly by emerging scholars, ‘explore and cavort, compete, and cooperate’ in the interdisciplinary and intersecting domains that make up game studies and in the ways gender, sexuality, and difference are always in and at play in games. From representation to ethnography, game modding to e-sports, Queerness in Play articulates the desire for queer ‘spaces of possibility’ not only in games themselves but in the study of games as well. It is a welcome addition to the domains of queer theory, feminist media studies, and the growing library of video game criticism.” (Edmond Y. Chang, author, Queergaming (Queer Game Studies)) Todd Harper is Assistant Professor in the Division of Science, Information Arts and Technologies at the University of Baltimore, USA. His research centers on games as culture and communication. Meghan Blythe Adams is a PhD Candidate at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Their research interests include representations of androgyny in media, as well as death and difficulty in games. Their work has appeared in Loading , Kinephanos , and First Person Scholar . Nicholas Taylor is Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University, USA. His work applies critical, feminist, and socio-technical perspectives to experimental and mixed-methods research with digital gaming communities.