Feminist
Pro-Queer
Anti-Racist
Gaming

Here is the paper I presented at Queertopia! 2.0 today. This conference has been one of the reasons I have not been able to write as many articles lately. The other reasons all relating to finishing up my last semester of coursework on my MA program in Women's and Gender Studies. Is this a promise of more material soon? Yes. Yes it is.

"Queering the Game: Video Games, Queer Nerds, and Activism"
Presented at Queertopia! organized by Northwestern University's Queer Pride Graduate Student Association

The stereotypical gamer, that paste-white and pimple-ridden boy, unkempt and immature, can no longer serve to represent the gaming community as a whole. More and more, the gaming industry is discovering that this boy does not constitute the only demographic to market to. Time and again, articles in popular gaming, marketing, electronics, and communication magazines proclaim that, against all apparent odds, despite an industry which ignored them, women play games too. This industry has turned its eyes toward the female gamer, that elusive creature who defies the conventions of the 'standard' gamer. Academia had turned in that direction long ago but the market lagged far behind. With even more lag, the white skin of that prototype gamer is changing as well thanks again, in part, to game studies. One striking absence, however, largely remains both in academia and the gaming industry: Where are the queer nerds?

Over the past decade in particular, popular cultural LGBTQ representation has increased in television and film. The substantial discourse surrounding queer visibility in shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Will & Grace, Queer as Folk, or The L Word, however, has not made its way as prolifically into the video game genre of pop culture. Nor has that visibility transferred as noticeably to this medium. Queer nerds have begun to receive increased attention over the past decade, but not nearly with as much visibility as in other visual media forms. Whereas Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Brokeback Mountain, or Ellen have become household names, video games with queer content do not enjoy the same proliferation of visibility. Outside of the geek community, titles with queer content such as Fable, Fallout, or The Temple of Elemental Evil are not frequently dropped in everyday conversation. As it were, there is no “Fab 5” of the gaming world. While the positivity of queer representation in other media is disputed, queer representation in video games remains a largely unremarked upon phenomenon. Aside from this, the games I mentioned merely give the option of queer activity. Queer as a predefined, predetermined, or central aspect of gameplay, or presented as a definite in the overall plot, has yet to present itself in any salient way. Generally speaking, the presence of queer in video games is subtle and take the form of the ability to make “queer” choices.

Follow up:

Ironically, one of the best sources I have found for identifying recent games with queer elements comes from Timothy Plan's parental guide, An Inside Look Into Video Games. Timothy Plan describes itself as a Christian mutual fund group which denies investment in funds it finds 'threatening' or 'dangerous' to children and families. For its 2008 end report, Timothy Plan implicated nine separate games in their "Basic Guide" as having "Gay/Lesbian" themes . Given that this list is fairly accurate, I would argue this to be progress even while they would argue this as familial attack. Contained in this list, however, is the game Army of Two which has been listed as containing gay and lesbian undertones:

Weaponry in the game can be decorated to be anything from diamond encrusted to gold plated. You share a parachute with your partner, and the riot shield system allows one player to use a shield or car door as portable cover while the other cuddles up close behind and dispenses "lead" from his "iron". ("Graphic Guide", 7)

Though I'm not certain precisely how this constitutes a queer game, obviously, and unsurprisingly, games containing queer-positive themes are often met with controversy, even as this controversy remains largely under the radar. Also unsurprising is the abundance of games with blatantly or subtly heterosexist or homophobic representation.

People have begun utilizing video games as an effective medium for spreading propaganda. Among these propaganda games are web-based or Flash games which use pixellated violence to figuratively destroy groups labeled as enemies. White supremacist groups and individuals have been prolific in their creation of games such as these, producing titles like Ethnic Cleansing or Border Patrol. While these games tend to receive quite a bit of outrage, anti-queer games are often largely unchallenged. One game in particular, Watch Out Behind You, Hunter! in which you play a hunter under attack from naked queer men in the woods is particularly striking. The purpose is to shoot them down as they crawl out from under bushes while the consequence of missing is rape. What I find most disturbing about this game is the stark lack of outrage. A Google search for the title almost exclusively gives results for sites on which you can play this game, but no, if any, results decrying it. While games such as these are quite obviously made to spread a particular propaganda by individuals or certain groups, prejudice can easily be found in the corporate gaming industry itself. Queer nerd activists are taking the charge across all fronts in a variety of ways.

One way in which queer nerds are challenging heterosexist and homophobic attitudes both within the gaming community and in the gaming industry alike is through the creation of online spaces for queer nerds. Video game activists are now building on-line blogs, gaming news and review sites, and gaming communities to counteract these -isms and exclusions in games, and to provide alternative spaces for marginalized nerds. Queer gaming sites such as GayGamer.net, Gaymer.org, LesbianGamers.com, as well as my own site, RIOTGamer.org, aim to invoke change, provide a safe space and relevant information, and to allow for the merging of the often disassociated identities of 'queer' and 'gamer'. Sites like these may focus more on the provision of gaming information with a queer spin (as in Gaymer.org and LesbianGamers.com), queer-nerd community-building (GayGamer.net), or gaming information with a more direct emphasis on social issues in gaming (RIOTgamer.org). Regardless of the approach, sites like these are important both in community-building and in promotion and awareness and discourse around issues affecting the queer and queer nerd communities.

In addition to queer gaming websites, queer gamers are also active in creating changes and spaces in other, more 'mainstream' gaming communities as well while challenging the gaming industry to make progressive policy changes which hinder the queer nerd community. MMORPGs, or massively multi-player on-line role playing games, have been a particularly important site of struggle in this regard. The gregarious and open-ended nature of MMORPGs likely leads to the presence of struggle and gains in this genre. MMORPGs are a genre in which much freedom is present in player's character creation. In this genre in particular, the worlds the players move in more closely resemble the real-world in some captivating ways, albeit a more fantastical version of it. Players are immersed in a huge world, giving the illusion of an infinite playground with no end to the potential for exploration. In this genre, the real and gaming worlds converge in the relationships that are formed. Most of the other characters encountered in the game are those controlled by other players. Players form relationships with others, banding together to finish quests and joining larger guilds (groups of players which “raid” together). True to real-life, players often form in-character romantic relationships with one another. It isn't unheard of for players to meet and form relationship in the real-world, either, and stories of marriages originating from MMORPG meetings are common. Given this nature, it is easy to see how MMORPGs have become a major site of queer-nerd struggle.

World of Warcraft (WoW) is easily the most popular MMORPG on the market today. Frequent expansion packs are released which expand the WoW world, keeping people playing. Unsurprisingly, however, in-game communication is often rife with heterosexist insults (as well as racial and gender-based) including an outburst of people yelling "Don't get the AIDS!" (Sliwinski, para. 12). Around the same time of this outburst, in January 2006, a player, Sara Andrews, posted a message stating that she was recruiting players for a "GLBT friendly" guild. Her intention was to create a safe space for gamers to play without fear of anti-queer harassment and insults. Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of WoW, flagged her account, however, for "Harassment – Sexual Orientation." Queer nerds responded in force to this, calling out Blizzard's policy as leading to further discrimination and the silencing of queer gamers. One response to letters sent out by other queer guilds stated that "advertising sexual orientation is not appropriate for the high fantasy setting of the World of Warcraft and is therefore not permitted" (qtd. in Sliwinski, para. 15). Many decided to let their accounts lapse as a result of this. Eventually, Lambda Legal got involved in this issue as well and threatened litigation, offering advice on satisfactorily enacting the proposed policy changes (Crecente, para. 1). Blizzard enacted the proposed policy changes fairly quickly after Lambda Legal's involvement.

Recently, Microsoft (gasp!) has found itself in a similar situation. One gamer, when mentioning herself to be a lesbian on her XBOX Live profile, found her account suspended and herself to be in the middle of a controversy. While this occurred in February of this year (2009), three years after Blizzard's policy resolution, this also shows a pattern for Microsoft. An occurrence in 2008 had already received some publicity. When one Richard Gaywood used his real last name in his profile, his account was similarly suspended. Microsoft would not allow him to continue to use the tag because it contained the word Gay and might offend other users. Asked to explain the recent incident, Microsoft typically reiterates its policy and contends that it falls under terms of service prohibiting "topics or content of a sexual nature" but apparently plans to evaluate this policy. While it has issued apologies for the ban, as of yet, no policy changes have been made, and Microsoft's rap sheet of Queer-unfriendliness calls the sincerity of this statement into question.

Queer nerds have been working to create spaces for themselves in the gaming communities and to challenge the gaming industry to do away with discriminatory policies and to recognize the queer community. In many ways, this has been a struggle but it isn't such in all cases. While console games have slowly begun to add queer non-villainous characters, many games have also been made which allow for same-sex marriage. Marriage rights can actually be seen as an area in which the gaming industry far out-paces the 'real-world'. According to Glover at Salon.com News, "the first game reported to have allowed same-sex marriage [Fallout 2] debuted in 1998, two years before Vermont recognized civil unions and six years before Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriage" (para. 5). She attributes this to the "uniquely libertarian culture of game design," and perhaps she has a point. Since that 1998 release of Fallout 2, several games have been released allowing for the same. Timothy Cain, designer and producer of the Fallout series, went on to Troika games to create The Temple of Elemental Evil, reproducing that option, but was met with resistance this time. Wizards of the Coast, owners to the rights of the Dungeons and Dragons system on which the game is based, was among the nay-sayers. After requesting that Cain remove the same-sex marriage option, the hetero-identified Cain asked them for a detailed explanation of their reasoning, in writing. Rather than acquiescing to the request, Wizards of the Coast instead dropped their own request and the game was created as planned (para. 28).

Video games have a great potential for challenging heterosexist hegemonies and prejudices. While in many ways game makers themselves have posed these challenges, queer nerds can increasingly be considered as activists in this cause. The challenges these queer nerd activists pose to the gaming industry are making changes happen and leading to ever-increasing inclusion. Gaming has become a site of struggle in the recognition of LGBTQ rights and the remedying of social injustices. The gaming industry has a lot to learn from queer nerds but also has a lot to teach the 'real-world' through the fantasy world it creates. My research interests in women, racial minority, and LGBTQ gaming studies, however, has shown me that the academic community has more to learn from the struggles of queer nerds. Through the course of my research in the area, I have not found any published scholarship which aims to address queer nerd issues or queer representation in gaming. Thus far, the academic community has failed to adequately involve itself. Given the struggles taking place in the queer nerd community and the real-life implications of the gaming world, this is an area of study which cannot remain untouched.

Beyond this, we need studies which account for intersecting marginalization in gaming as well. Like many issues preceding this, even while queers struggle for inclusion in feminist inquiry and scholarship, so too is there a struggle for the inclusion of women and minorities in queer scholarship. I created RIOTgamer on the premise that intersecting identities cannot be ignored. If we are all to be heard, we must aim to address the issues of all marginalized groups. It is therefore vital that feminist and queer scholarship not only analyze queer content in video games, but to also analyze the presence of lesbians and queers of color (queer, too, but often forgotten) in video games and the roles that they play.