Play as Transgression: An Ethnographic Approach to Queer Game Cultures

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Sundén Jenny
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

This paper is based on an ongoing ethnography of a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) guild in the MMOG World of Warcraft. Drawing on queer/feminist theory, the argument concentrates on sexuality as resource for ‘transgressive play’. The notion of transgressive play is usually taken to mean play against the ‘ideal’ or ‘implied’ player of the game, of playing the game in ways not anticipated by design. For queer gamers, sexuality comes into play in ways that make visible the cultural norms of the ideal player – a player who is at least symbolically male and straight. This ethnographic work indicates that there are queer uses of game spaces that in significant ways make visible – and play around with – norms and expectations that are shaping what online game communities are, and what they could be.