Queer Game Studies: Young But Not New

Abstract

Much like the spectrum of queer identities, perspectives, and lived experiences that players and designers embody, academic work that examines the intersection of gender, sexuality, and games is both diverse and growing broader by the day. The medium of games, digital or otherwise, is relatively new, and it has grown and changed alongside a global culture that has struggled with a burgeoning understanding of queerness. This introduction argues that while work in this field is perhaps young, it is hardly “new”; the queer study of games, and the study of queer games, is part of a tradition with a rich history. It introduces the broad perspectives found in the volume, which tackle queerness in play from numerous angles, discussing the ways in which a wide range of topics nonetheless intersect meaningfully.