Proposal Title
Rising From The Ashes: Queer Games as a Model for Reinventing Academia and Industry
Submission Type
Individual Paper (Virtual)
Start Date
June 2022
End Date
June 2022
Abstract
In this paper, we explore the intersection between queer games as objects of academic inquiry and queer games as objects within the games industry. Queer games (a term here used to indicate not simply games with LGBT+ topics, but games which queer the notion of what a game can be) are a crucial site of radical possibility. These games disrupt both academia and the commercial games industry by eschewing capitalist models of marketability, challenging the exploitative production cycle, and unsettling the primacy of fun in play; we also see queer games as a pathway to a more inclusive, expansive kind of thinking-through beyond traditional scholarship. This conversation is timely: we write this paper alongside recent reports condemning the exploitative practices of games corporations like Activision Blizzard, and while reckoning with the place of the academy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, we argue for queer games as a model for what could rise from the ashes if we deconstruct these broken institutions.
While we are indebted to academics who write on the revolutionary potential of queer games studies (Ruberg, Shaw), we also build from the work of queer game-making scholar-artists Kara Stone and Robert Yang. Arguing for unsettling the primacy of fun in play, we turn to Aaron Trammell’s “Torture, Play, and the Black Experience.” Finally, we challenge the role of the university as a site for critique (Stefano and Harney; Grande) and look towards queer scholarship to resist a model of utility within the academy.
Rising From The Ashes: Queer Games as a Model for Reinventing Academia and Industry
In this paper, we explore the intersection between queer games as objects of academic inquiry and queer games as objects within the games industry. Queer games (a term here used to indicate not simply games with LGBT+ topics, but games which queer the notion of what a game can be) are a crucial site of radical possibility. These games disrupt both academia and the commercial games industry by eschewing capitalist models of marketability, challenging the exploitative production cycle, and unsettling the primacy of fun in play; we also see queer games as a pathway to a more inclusive, expansive kind of thinking-through beyond traditional scholarship. This conversation is timely: we write this paper alongside recent reports condemning the exploitative practices of games corporations like Activision Blizzard, and while reckoning with the place of the academy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, we argue for queer games as a model for what could rise from the ashes if we deconstruct these broken institutions.
While we are indebted to academics who write on the revolutionary potential of queer games studies (Ruberg, Shaw), we also build from the work of queer game-making scholar-artists Kara Stone and Robert Yang. Arguing for unsettling the primacy of fun in play, we turn to Aaron Trammell’s “Torture, Play, and the Black Experience.” Finally, we challenge the role of the university as a site for critique (Stefano and Harney; Grande) and look towards queer scholarship to resist a model of utility within the academy.
Bio
Ryan Rose Aceae (he/they), a.k.a. Ryan Nowak-Crawford, is a second-year doctoral student in Visual Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Their research interests include transness and tranarchy, queerness, bodies, monstrosity, indie games, and games labor. They are also an acclaimed game developer, best known for their visual novel GENDERWRECKED which explores themes of gender, trans monstrosity, and queer community in a post-apocalyptic world.
Kat Brewster (they/them) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, as well as a game developer and writer. Their research interests include queer theory, digital archives, and videogames. Their current project looks at the history of internet-use by marginalised people in times of crisis, with a special interest in how grief and trauma are explored online, from the AIDS crisis to COVID-19.