Confronting heteronormativity in online games: A critical discourse analysis of LGBTQ sexuality in world of warcraft

Abstract

In 2008, ten million people were playing the massive multiplayer role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW); a fantasy-based virtual landscape where players bridge real-life personas with digital identity. However, the construction of sexuality within this gaming environment has created an oppressive atmosphere for individuals who do not adhere to a heteronormative lifestyle. In this essay, I undress the bottom-up and top-down structures that are regulating an environment that has no use for a constructed sexual binary and yet has one strictly imbedded in it. This analysis utilizes discourse analysis to analyze 400 messages posted to a WoW discussion board regarding the topic of "LGBTQ players and the WOW Community" in order to queer the sexuality presented in this space. This essay is further supplemented with my own experience playing the game and with an analysis of the games structural elements. © The Author(s) 2013.