Paper Abstract - Mia Consalvo

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ABSTRACT

Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Videogames

Mia Consalvo

This paper investigates the construction of sexuality in games as part of characterization and storyline, and the presumptive gamer position as heterosexual male. Feminist researchers have examined the challenges girl games face in acceptance and credibility. They have also started to explore more systematically the images of women in mainstream video games, and have found that representations of women and girls in games reapply many of the stereotypes of femininity and vulnerability of other more traditional media. Likewise, research on masculinity and race has explored how games construct Asian men through tired and reductive stereotypes. Yet, these female and male characters in games do not exist in isolation from each other, but interact in varied situations. And the interactions are many times sexualised, usually with the presumption of heterosexual interests.

The paper explores this sexualised landscape of games, focusing on two examples while taking a multi-level approach to considering sexuality in games. First, the paper more traditionally considers the representations of characters as they appear in games, including the narratives and history offered, visual, and situations found (Including character dialogue, subplots, appearance, etc). This level begins to explore the implicit as well as explicit sexuality and "heteronormativity" of games. However, as game theorists such as Janet Murray and Henry Jenkins note, a game is not simply a text to be read, but an experience to be had, and so this analysis also considers the performative level of gameplay. Finally, the paper considers the reasons for the failure of game makers to deny the existence of (or in rare case recuperate) gay and lesbian characters/people, and ways that gender and sexual confusions make their way, however problematically, into games.

The paper takes a case study approach, examining two games for it analysis: Final Fantasy IX for the Playstation and The Sims for Mac/PC. These games were chosen for their popularity and critical acclaim, as well as their differing approaches to gameplay, story and characterization. The games are examined for their representations of characters and plot offered, and their gameplay is examined through recourse to theories of performativity, queer theories of homosexual desire and the erotic triangle, and gay-window advertising/gaming. The paper provides a "reading" of each game from these perspectives, but more importantly demonstrates how analysis of games can move beyond examining representations to finding theories, explore and understand the interactivity of games.

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