The political potential of videogames to the debate on gender and sexuality

Abstract

This article contributes to the current body of research on gender and sexuality within videogames. By adopting a politicalcommunications perspective that positions videogames as configurative media, this paper discusses the involvement of video games in the ‘scene of dissensus’ (Rancière e Corcoran, 2010) within the politics of gender and sexuality. The concept of configuration, common in the study of videogames and human-machine interaction, is reframed within a dialogical and interactional context, in dialogue with the praxiological model of communication proposed by Louis Quéré (1995). As configurative media, videogames both configure and are configured by a network of relations that include individuals, industry, culture, and politics, amongst many others. By calling attention to videogames as a configuring element in this ‘scene of dissensus’, I argue that the medium has the potential to generate conversations and reconfigure the consensual discourse of gender and sexuality that affects its players, the games industry, and the gamer culture. The three games under analysis – Dys4ia, Always Sometimes Monsters and Mass Effect – present different aspects of the gamer culture that challenge this consensus. Using mechanics, narrative and experience as analytical operators, I demonstrate that it is possible to use these characteristics peculiar to videogames as political discourse, and as evidence of present-day challenging of established socio-politicalcultural rules that demand from individuals the fulfillment of a heteronormative and patriarchal social role. This paper concludes that players, developers, media and society should more carefully consider the influence and political potential of digital games. As potential argumentative tokens for the political discussion of gender and sexuality, they can act as disruptors in the consensus of such social issues.

Keywords: videogames, gender, sexuality, configuration, game studies.