The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sex and Sexuality in Game Studies

Matthew Wysocki serves as coordinator of Media Studies and Film Studies as an Associate Professor at Flagler College, USA. He also is co-area Chair of Game Studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. He has written or co-written numerous chapters on control and player agency, a plethora of them on the BioShock series. He edited CTRL-ALT-PLAY: Essays on Control in Video Gaming (2013) and co-edited Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games from Bloomsbury (2015). Steffi Shook is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Manhattanville College, USA. Her research focuses on queer game studies, independent media production, and gender and sexuality. Steffi has previously published on sex/sexuality, female avatars, and racism in American film. She serves as area co-chair of Game Studies at the Popular Culture Association conference.

Notes On Contributors
Acknowledgements
List of Figures

Button Mashing: Introduction to The Bloomsbury Handbook on Sex and Sexuality in Video Games
Matthew Wysocki (Flagler College, USA) and Steffi Shook (Manhattanville College, USA)


I: PLAYING WITH SEXUALITIES

1. Now You’re Playing with Polyamory: Ludonarrative Resonance and Intentional Non-Monogamy in Games as Queer Play
Nathan Rambukkana (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada) and Meghan Adams (Ontario Tech University, Canada)

2. A Question of Breeding: Reproduction, Evolution, and Heredity in Video Games
Rob Gallagher (King's College London, UK)

3. Streaming, Play, and Sexuality
Ashley ML Guajardo (University of Utah, USA)

4. I Don't Care Who You Are, As Long As You Love Me: Playersexuality in Video Games
Alayna Cole (Sledgehammer Games, USA)

5. Castlevania: Monstrously Queer
AJ Castle (Stony Brook University, USA)

6. “He Was My Favorite”: Sander Cohen as Queer Stereotype in BioShock
Galen David Bunting (Northeastern University, USA)

7. Bisexual Representation in Games: Erasure, Stereotypes, and Independent Game Development
Steffi Shook (Manhattanville College, USA)


II: PERFORMING THE MECHANICS OF SEX

8. Digital Submission: Playfulness and Performance in BDSM and VR Game Dominatrix Simulator
Agata Waszkiewicz (The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland) and Victor Navarro-Remesal (Tecnocampus, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

9. Press X for Lust: Sex as Reward in Games
Renata E. Ntelia (University of Lincoln, UK)

10. Playing with Oneself: The Space of Fantasy in Virtual Sex Simulators
Filip Andjelkovic (University of Toronto, Canada)

11. Flagging Iono: The Hanky Code, Material-Semiotics, and Reading Gender Too Closely
Michael Anthony DeAnda (DePaul University, USA)

12. Modding, Pleasure, and the Female Gaze: How Women-created Mods Challenge In-game Portrayals of Sexuality and Sex
Finja Walsdorff (University of Siegen and the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany)

III: WHEN SEXUAL CONTENT IS A GAME

13. Tame, Suggestive, and Lewd: Early Erotic Play Encoded in Leather Goddesses of Phobos
Anastasia Salter (University of Central Florida, USA)

14. The Limits of Queer Choices: The Neoliberal Logic and Gameplay Mechanics of Mass Effect
Tyler Quick (Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, USA)

15. Plow Her Well. Show Her You're A Man”: Language, Sex, and Heteronormativity From a Diachronic Perspective in The Witcher Video Game Series
Frazer Heritage (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)

16. I Could Make You Care: Longing, Frustration, and Playersexuality in Fallout
J. Burbage (McMaster University, Canada)

17. “Let's See How Special You Are”: The “Complicated Women” of Resident Evil Village
Marc Ouellette (Old Dominion University, USA)

18. An Unknown Sex Game: Navigating Challenges in Game Studies
Mayara Araujo Caetano (University of Turku, Finland)

19. Libidinal Politics of Games: Mass Effect Suggestive Sex and Hardcore Porn
Leandro Augusto Borges Lima (Independent Scholar)


IV: ENGAGING WITH SEX IN GAMES

20. Input/Output: Mapping Sex and Sexuality in AAA Video Game Play-Spaces Through the Metal Gear Solid Series
Christopher McMahon (University of Liverpool, UK)

21. Hobbyist Methodology for History and Creation: Studying 80s Micro-computer Pornography
Charlotte Courtois (Université de Montréal, Canada)

22. Digital Games and Sexual Health
Nina Kiel (Game Developer and Independent Scholar, Germany)

23. Deplatforming Digital Sex: Self-Governing Sex in Video Games
Jean Ketterling (Carleton University, USA and Mount Allison University, Canada)

24. Pushing Digital Boundaries: Exploring Sex and Love in Video Games
Christine Tomlinson (University of California, Irvine, USA)

25. Drawing Queer Intersections Through Video Game Archives
Cody Mejeur (University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA) and Xavier Ho (Monash University, Australia)

Index