Abstract
Video games are often heteronormative and contain male characters that embody qualities and behaviors associated with hegemonic masculinity. In light of this, some players have turned to video game modding in order to transform their gaming experiences into more inclusive ones. This chapter explores the emergence of non-heterosexual male erotic content generated by modding in the game Skyrim. Overall, the author finds that the sexual and erotic content “queers” or makes strange game spaces, game play, and game characters resulting in a gaming hybrid that serves as both pleasurable viewing material and as a tactic to challenge the regimes of gender and sexuality-based power often found in games and gaming communities.
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Notes
- 1.
All characters appeared to be cisgender men, but recently the blog owner has started creating content with explicitly trans male characters.
- 2.
There are nude skins available for WoW, but they are notoriously buggy and only available for female avatars.
- 3.
In this case the content was made by someone who is non-heterosexual but that does not have to be the case. For instance, slash fiction involving male-male relationships began as a practice by mostly heterosexual women. For more see Alexis Lothian, Kristina Busse, and Robin Anne Reid, ““Yearning Void and Infinite Potential”: Online Slash Fandom as Queer Female Space,” English Language Notes 45 (2007).
- 4.
Throughout the chapter I use Queer (uppercase “Q”) as an umbrella term for non-heterosexual people and queer (lowercase “q”) as a verb.
- 5.
On Tumblr, users cannot leave comments. All feedback from viewers was retrieved from comments left under the videos that were hosted on Xtube and Xvideos.
- 6.
Based on conversations in online forums and article posts, a large number of these NPCs tend to be companions, or NPCs that can quest alongside the protagonist and with whom the protagonist can build longer and more meaningful relationships. For instance, a quick Internet search on the companion “Lydia” will yield a plethora of sites and posts dedicated to erotic content.
- 7.
The blog acquires roughly 1300 new followers a month and their videos have received almost three million views.
- 8.
Approval rating based on the number of approval votes a video receives.
- 9.
Both Vega and Redfield are popular characters as they appear in a number of videos and pictures.
- 10.
The video is hosted on Xtube and its rating system is based on a possible five out of five stars instead of a percentage of approval votes.
- 11.
During the process of writing, the blog owner’s Xvideos account was deleted.
- 12.
For an excellent overview of a lack of protagonist diversity in popular contemporary games, see this speech by Manveer Heir (BioWare game designer) delivered at the 2014 Game Developers Conference: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020420/Misogyny-Racism-and-Homophobia-Where.
- 13.
For a good discussion on divisions between mod types and the impact these divisions have on the integrity of the original game, see Tanja Sihvonen, Players Unleashed! Modding The Sims and the Culture of Gaming (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011).
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Thompson, N. (2018). “Sexified” Male Characters: Video Game Erotic Modding for Pleasure and Power. In: Harper, T., Adams, M., Taylor, N. (eds) Queerness in Play. Palgrave Games in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90542-6_11
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