ENG 225 Rhetoric and Gaming

Adrienne Staw and Elizaveta Friesem 2016. explores the ways in which LGBTQ+ identities are portrayed and shown in video game media. Shaw & Friesem collected data from 300 hundred games with over 500 examples of queer characters or plot lines and placed them into nine categories. These games have been made over the last thirty years. The categories are characters which also has character gender as a part of this section. Relationships/romance/sex this section includes stereotypes that code a character as LGBTQ+. Actions are any actions that let you challenge hetro-normative actions. Locations these are just queer coded locations such as a gay nightclub or other location. Mentions are subtle hints that these issues exist in the world but are not the primary focus. This section is combined with the artifacts and traits. Queer games/narratives focus on queer narratives and the experiences of queer people. The final section focuses on homophobia/transphobia. This is a categorization m...

Lavigne, C. (2015). "I'm Batman" (and You Can Be Too): "Gender" and Constrictive Play in the "Arkham" Game Series. Cinema Journal Vol. 55, No. 1 (Fall 2015), pp. 133-141 Lavigne used Batman: Arkham City (2013, Rocksteady) to create a qualitative review of dangerous tropes in mainstream games. The article shows that the character Batman “advances heteronormative, hypergendered stereotypes” with his “ripped” physique, justified violence, and having to rescue almost every female he comes in contact with. Catwoman is brought up as an equally dangerous character in regards to tropes. She fights in heels, kisses thugs, and is programmed to show all of her curves while playing as her. This, in addition to NPC interactions with her, make Catwoman a dangerous stereotype. This article shows that mainstream media can be instrumental to stereotypes being brought forward. It also shows that game design is still entrenched in the “typical male fantasy”, and that...

Sarkeesian, A., Petit, C. (2019). Female Representation in Videogames Isn't Getting Any Better. WIRED 2019. This article proves that representative equality in the video game industry is still far behind where it should be. Sarkeesian & Petit used data from the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E 3 ) from 2015 to 2019 to quantify gender representation in the video game industry. The time frame is significant due to Gamergate in 2014, a misogynist movement that used video game as its platform. While open character creation options are more prevalent than in previous years, games with only a female protagonist are few.  Sarkeesian & Petit quantified the data by counting the number of games at E 3 with male, female, gender-ambiguous, and open character options. The data show that in those years, there were 3-10x more male protagonists than female. Sarkeesian & Petit also counted presenters featured at 2019 E 3 , and found that there were about 4x as many male prese...

Pulos, A. (2013). Confronting Heteronormativity in Online Games: A Critical Discourse Analysis of LGBTQ Sexuality in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, 8(2), 77–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412013478688 Pages: 21 Peer Reviewed: Yes Annotation Word Count: 329 Pulos analyzed how the World of Warcraft (WoW) community talks about and interacts with people who are a part of the LGBTQ community. Pulos argues that WoW’s community is based on a system that Blizzard created that does not support LGBTQ friendly content. Pulos found that Blizzard actively investigated their forums for content relating to anything LGBTQ and taking it down because it “violated their terms of service.” Pulos analyzed 400 messages on the Blizzard forums that focused on “LGBTQ players and the Wow community.” Pulos also drew upon her own experience from playing WoW. Pulos spoke with Sara Andrews, who started an LGBTQ friendly guild. Andrews had her post/guild taken down and was told by Blizzard that...