Gender : Radical : Possibilities of queer worldbuilding in science fiction video games

Sammanfattning

In this paper, queerness in games is explored with special regards to how the gaming medium shapes the representational possibilities with its inherent affordances and limitations. Previous research in the area, especially that by Bo Ruberg, shows that video games and queerness are intrinsically similar and that especially the worlds of video games have specific potential for queerness in that the players can inhabit the worlds. Through the research in this paper, this idea is explored with the goal of offering game developers actionable advice for the development process of building Science Fiction-based queer game worlds. This paper employs a comparative case study with a queer theoretic lens, in which a SF book and SF game are compared, finding that inhabiting a world offers both possibilities but also specific responsibilities. This research also highlights the importance of having queer safe spaces available to LGBTQ+ players.