PhD Dissertation by Mahli-Ann Butt
The University of Sydney, 2022
This thesis examines gaming lifeworlds and seeks interventions into the hegemony of gaming cultur... more This thesis examines gaming lifeworlds and seeks interventions into the hegemony of gaming culture tied to a persistent imaginary of ‘Gamers’ as young white heterosexual males. Despite attempts to cultivate diversity, most approaches to improving representation in videogames do not demand significant structural or environmental change, and thus generally continue to foster precarity.
In thinking about precarity, I establish the concept of ‘(not)coping’ to challenge the assumed dichotomy by which every instance of ‘not coping’ designates a failure ‘to cope’. Rather than viewing ‘coping’ and ‘not coping’ as positive and negative binaries, I write ‘(not)coping’ to highlight the liminal zone in between these affective states. (Not)coping is thus used to further describe the transformative affective spaces necessary for the refusal to cope within and against hegemony. I use qualitative mixed methods, combining semi-structured interviews, ethnographic participant observation, and discourse analysis to examine everyday struggles and how people can become affectively (re)orientated towards and away from certain videogame assemblages – assemblages of objects, communities, and practices. My findings are presented as three main chapters, which investigate videogames in relationship conflicts, videogames in drunk spaces, and videogames in self-care discourses.
In the field of game studies, methods of investigation are frequently configured around studying play, players, or the creation of play. However, this focus can ignore non-players, non-play relationship dynamics, and non-play-centric spaces that themselves also significantly shape videogame and play assemblages. Since the study of gaming lifeworlds crucially apprehends videogame assemblages as embedded in materiality, rather than separate from everyday life, I hope to demonstrate its use as a generative framework and model for feminist games, media, internet, cultural researchers to study videogames in culture.
Publications by Mahli-Ann Butt
Games and Culture, 2021
This article builds on Games of Empire by centering the experiences of diversity workers in Game ... more This article builds on Games of Empire by centering the experiences of diversity workers in Game Studies of Empire. Our data were gathered through qualitative mixed methods of in-depth surveys and semi-structured interviews. Participants selfidentified to be included in the study, all thinking critically through the definitions of "diversity," "diversity work(er)," and "game studies." Thus, this study reports on a tapestry of knowledge and experiences from the various educators and advocates of diversity across academia and the games industry. Diversity workers in Game Studies of Empire are often exploited by their affective attachment to diversity and perform significant unrecognized and uncompensated affective labor. Empire uses diversity workers to produce a quantifiable and tokenizable product of bodies and lived experiences that can be used to further profits for companies, universities, and other institutions. Diversity work(ers) against Game Studies of Empire unite! We will have nothing to lose when we become unchained.
http://ojs.decolonising.digital/index.php/decolonising_digital/article/view/ShutUpAndPlay, 2018
The creation of Vivian James, illustrates #gamergate’s function of policing participation and enj... more The creation of Vivian James, illustrates #gamergate’s function of policing participation and enjoyment of videogame culture. Through a shared embrace of an underdog status elements of gaming culture have become hostile to the inclusion of women. The design of Vivian James suggests that #gamergate is eager to present itself as including women, but presents female positionality in gaming in toxic and problematic ways that seeks to policing female 'intrusion' into digital games through the threat of violence.
ToDIGRA, 2018
This article examines which bodies have access to participate in Digital Games Research Associati... more This article examines which bodies have access to participate in Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) events, and to DiGRA as an organization. It is based on a survey (N=174), among subscribers to the DiGRA “Gamesnetwork” mailing list. The survey included questions on age, gender, location and career level to gain insight into who is included in the DiGRA community, with further questions on problems and challenges faced by those who have had trouble accessing DiGRA. This paper does not proceed solely by statistical methodology, but draws on feminist theories of embodiment and qualitative methods. Through this diverse methodological approach, the paper analyzes which bodies have difficulties accessing DiGRA’s academic communities and conferences, which practices cause these difficulties, and which policies might be introduced to address these. The survey indicates that young, early-career and women’s bodies are in particularly precarious positions. This situation is perpetuated through various practices of economic and social inaccessibility. Upon reflection, the paper proposes a set of policies to address these practices. We conclude that this survey and its analysis are only a first step to making DiGRA a more diversely inclusive organization.
Games and Culture, 2017
The presence of women within videogames has progressed to a state where narratives about the empo... more The presence of women within videogames has progressed to a state where narratives about the empowerment of women are becoming popular; however, such games still invite a number of gendered stereotypes. Housed in the genre of adventure games, The Walking Dead: Season Two and Life Is Strange appear to follow in the spirit of this emerging women’s revolution but inevitably reestablish traditional presentations of sexism in the treatment of their endings. In particular, the presentation of the infamous Trolley Problem and its inherent utilitarian framework is an incendiary moment wherein these games mark rebellious women as necessary sacrifices for the greater good and the continuation of the community. This article explores these two specific moments of sacrifice at the conclusions of Life Is Strange and The Walking Dead: Season Two and engages with tensions between the status quo and the resistances that challenges these norms.
Papers by Mahli-Ann Butt
AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research
This paper argues that existential-materialism is a useful generative tool for feminist games, me... more This paper argues that existential-materialism is a useful generative tool for feminist games, media, internet, and cultural researchers to investigate how people cope (or do not cope) with the hegemony of the new gaming public as it crucially apprehends the medium of videogames as part of people’s lifeworlds embedded in materiality rather than separate from everyday life. Contributing to the emerging field of Feminist Game Studies, this research seeks to intervene into the hegemonic culture fostered and maintained by the ‘new gaming public’ which has become tied to the persistent imaginary of ‘Gamers’ as predominantly young males. Using qualitative mixed-methods to gather empirical data through fieldwork, surveys, and semi-structured interviews, this research presents a sociological examination of everyday struggles within (and against) hegemonic systems of oppression, reporting on how people are coping (or not coping) with exacerbated forms of sexism, racism, and homophobia pervas...
Honours Thesis by Mahli-Ann Butt
This thesis is an investigation of ‘Gamer Girlfriends’ and deconstructs the stereotypes surroundi... more This thesis is an investigation of ‘Gamer Girlfriends’ and deconstructs the stereotypes surrounding this particular phenomenon by presenting the accounts of the lived experiences of those who may be labelled as a ‘Gamer Girlfriend’. In its place, the term ‘Gamer Girlfriends’ gestures towards the complexity of affective relationships at the nexus of gaming, romantic relationships and the experiences of women. Exploring the particular barriers in gaming faced by women, this research has conducted interviews with women who have played videogames with their partners, so as to form a more nuanced and multifaceted picture of the role of women in gaming. This thesis critically examines the dynamics of what are otherwise considered to be positive relationships, and examines how these dynamics may impact on women’s experiences of gaming.
Focusing on relationship dynamics and the interplay of gender, constructs a framework that apprehends gaming as a culture which is situated within wider social contexts, rather than insulated or segregated from everyday lived experiences. This thesis uses the critical identity theory of existential feminism to shed light on the underlying heteronormative limitations imposed by the games industry, the gaming ‘community’, and media discourses. This research’s ethnographic data is analysed with the theories of ‘affective labour’ and ‘gender performativity’. These discussions explore the negotiations and sways of affective powers in relationship dynamics, traditional gender roles, and the ‘hypermasculinity’ of gaming culture, conveyed in the ‘modulation’ of gender performance and gaming practices – the limited ‘modes’ in which women are afforded to express themselves in gaming.
Conference Presentations by Mahli-Ann Butt
ANZCA, 2023
The recent emergence of generative AI tools like ChatGPT presents an opportunity to develop innov... more The recent emergence of generative AI tools like ChatGPT presents an opportunity to develop innovative and impactful AI-software with the potential to reach millions of users. In games, for example, some of these tools can monitor players’ text chat, voice chat and in-game actions, which can potentially help manage in-game harassment and abuse in unprecedented ways. But how far is too far when it comes to the reach of AI in monitoring our actions? The design and processes of AI moderation tools also remain largely opaque – so how can we be sure they are making accurate and fair decisions that reflect the needs and values of the communities they serve? This paper presents preliminary findings and critical reflections on the co-design methods our interdisciplinary team use for two ongoing research projects: one project examining the ethics – and co-creating the future – of AI moderation tools in online multiplayer games, and one project co-creating an anti-harassment AI tool called “AI Ally.” In both projects, we have sought co-design methods as a way to empower our target cohorts: ‘players, human moderators, and AI developers of multiplayer games’, and ‘girls, young women and gender-diverse individuals’ as the demographic who disproportionately face online harassment.
Conference paper on the institutionalized rhetoric of 'self-care' and the increasing individualiz... more Conference paper on the institutionalized rhetoric of 'self-care' and the increasing individualization of 'well-being' for players, activists, academics, and game industry workers, presented at DiGRA 2018.
Conference paper on the intersection of Australian drinking and gaming cultures presented at DiGR... more Conference paper on the intersection of Australian drinking and gaming cultures presented at DiGRA 2018.
Panels by Mahli-Ann Butt
Association of Internet Researchers, 2022
Developments in the past decade have demonstrated that computer game players have become increasi... more Developments in the past decade have demonstrated that computer game players have become increasingly keen to watch, spectate, or listen to games content instead of (or alongside) playing games themselves. This might mean watching videos about or involving games on a site like YouTube, viewing others playing in high-level competitive “esports” events, listening to games-centred podcasts that might be about game design, development, play or politics, or consuming the music of and surrounding digital games. The increasing ubiquity of easily-shared content on leading internet platforms, rapid internet speeds, and gaming as a whole becoming an ever-more varied and diverse activity, have all contributed to the growth of these activities. Although each has been studied they have rarely been considered alongside one another, nor framed in a broader context of understanding what game-related activities game-players do when not actually, themselves, playing. In this paper we bring together findings and analysis from four ongoing research projects into gaming-adjacent activities, specifically into the culture of gaming hardware videos on YouTube, drinking culture and masculinity in esports broadcasts, the production and reception of gaming podcasts, and the relationship between game music and broader practices of music creation. The panel highlights the range of phenomena in these non-gaming yet gaming-adjacent activities, and also brings out commonalities that these phenomena exhibit. We show the wider ecosystem of media consumption that many gamers engage in, and it is thus our hope that this panel will strengthen game studies’ and internet studies’ interest in these practices.
Proceedings of the First Joint International Conference of the Digital Games Research Association and the Foundations of Digital Games
Much discussion has revolved around the interdisciplinary nature and institutional status of game... more Much discussion has revolved around the interdisciplinary nature and institutional status of game scholarship, since the first international computer games conference in 2001, and indeed over the past 13 years of Digital Games Research Association. As a field inhabited by scholars from a wide variety of backgrounds, it can be a challenge for early career scholars to discover their orientation. This panel examines the interdisciplinary nature of game studies and what this means for early career researchers attempting to navigate the field, particularly in the face of different philosophies, disciplinary expectations, styles of research output, and publication practices.
Drafts by Mahli-Ann Butt
A fun exercise in analysing and emulating Sara Ahmed's writing style.
Submitted for Arguing the ... more A fun exercise in analysing and emulating Sara Ahmed's writing style.
Submitted for Arguing the Point (Semester 1, 2017), PhD, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, The University of Sydney.
Writing as a woman of colour is important to me.
I'm uploading this because I've felt like a lot of my life in academia is spent fighting and undermining whiteness.
If you've read my writing before, you'll know that I don't always write like this. This exercise was liberating because it allowed me to 'copy a style' which wasn't white. I see a lot of students 'copying white' to be 'good students' because whiteness is canonical.
I feel as if I am often forced to 'copy white' (and masculine I should say) or else be punished for not conforming.
Furthermore, I'm sure that I'm not even aware when I am doing this: 'performing whiteness' just so that I might have a fighting chance. I forget when I am fighting because I seem to be doing it more and more these days. Fighting is second nature because of the skin I was born into.
I loved this line I heard over the weekend from a woman of colour on a panel about white-passing: "I look the way I am today because of oppression."
I am whiter to you because of post-colonialism.
Often the feedback I receive revolves around writing, rather than any engagement with the arguments, its values or ideas. Often I wonder: if the same paper submitted was written under a whiter and maybe more masculine name, would the writing itself receive less criticism?
Undergraduate Work by Mahli-Ann Butt
The smoke and mirrors of Vivian James and “Ethics in Games Journalism” avoid confronting the prob... more The smoke and mirrors of Vivian James and “Ethics in Games Journalism” avoid confronting the problems of harassment – even the discussion of (un)ethical journalism. These tactics derail conversations and halt progress while the majority of discourse pivots on whether Gamergate is or is not “actually about ethics in games journalism”. Instead of critiquing Gamergate’s intentions, this research critiques Gamergate’s defenses. Gamergate consistently maintain that they have no leader, but Vivian James as a mascot – an avatar – acts as a personified place of worship and point of congregation. Gamergate’s sexism is often attributed to “extreme individuals”, however Vivian James showcases how Gamergate stews in oblique, day-to-day expressions of misogyny which all members willingly assemble under. A critical analysis of Vivian James offers a different approach to critiquing Gamergate and the hypermasculine status quo of gaming.
This paper presents the ethnographic findings from Sydney’s 2016 Global Game Jam event. The resea... more This paper presents the ethnographic findings from Sydney’s 2016 Global Game Jam event. The researcher participated in the 48 hour event, as well as conducted interviews with women attendees and industry professionals. Data was analysed using a phenomenological and intersectional feminist framework, covering topics such as ‘food’, ‘self-policing’ and ‘reward systems’. Overall, this research finds the structure of game jams as a potentially encouraging entry point for women who have traditionally been excluded from game development. Presented at DiGRA Dundee, 1-6 Aug 2016. (PM author for script and slides).
Presented for UNSW's School of Arts and Media Honours Symposium (NB: the thesis this presentation... more Presented for UNSW's School of Arts and Media Honours Symposium (NB: the thesis this presentation is based on is a work-in-progress).
Short analysis of The Evil Dead using theory from Michel Chion and Fredric Jameson to examine the... more Short analysis of The Evil Dead using theory from Michel Chion and Fredric Jameson to examine the film's portrayal of sound media.
The scene is a pub in Newtown; the protagonists are two academic renegades – a Philosopher (who c... more The scene is a pub in Newtown; the protagonists are two academic renegades – a Philosopher (who contends that anti-philosophy is just good philosophy) and an Anti-philosopher (who often argues that the Philosopher is actually an anti-philosopher); the topic is ‘Ethics in Games Journalism’ with a Gonzo twist. Far from arguing for an unethical form of writing, we argue that this gestures toward a more humane and hence more ethical form of writing about any computer-human interaction.
Digital games are playful killing machines. With their pleasurable rhythms of dying they invite t... more Digital games are playful killing machines. With their pleasurable rhythms of dying they invite the player in with unlimited second chances to defy death and reattempt life. It is fun to die. Within the critical reflection of BioShock Infinite and Life is Strange is an insight which comports the player to a (re)structuring of the embrace of death. Rather than considering ‘death’ as the termination of life, as if it were a stroke of bad luck, the existential sensibility calls for death to be comprehended holistically as a structure of living. The two close readings of BioShock Infinite and Life is Strange evinces the different manners in which games embrace and play with the status quo of death as a game mechanic. In turn, these games are suggestive of an existential attunement towards living as dying.
Script for my DiGRA Australia 2015 presentation.
Using a case study of Irrational Game’s BioSh... more Script for my DiGRA Australia 2015 presentation.
Using a case study of Irrational Game’s BioShock Infinite’s (2013) companion character, Elizabeth, and her design’s relationship to cosplay (the practice of dressing up as a character), I propose that we should reconsider investments in authenticity prevalent in gaming and cosplay cultures. I hope to start a conversation about an underlying issue, as acutely brought up in 2014’s Gamergate, and discuss some of the base assumptions which underpin hierarchical structures, such as sexism. I argue that authenticity is unattainable, because it does not exist.
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PhD Dissertation by Mahli-Ann Butt
In thinking about precarity, I establish the concept of ‘(not)coping’ to challenge the assumed dichotomy by which every instance of ‘not coping’ designates a failure ‘to cope’. Rather than viewing ‘coping’ and ‘not coping’ as positive and negative binaries, I write ‘(not)coping’ to highlight the liminal zone in between these affective states. (Not)coping is thus used to further describe the transformative affective spaces necessary for the refusal to cope within and against hegemony. I use qualitative mixed methods, combining semi-structured interviews, ethnographic participant observation, and discourse analysis to examine everyday struggles and how people can become affectively (re)orientated towards and away from certain videogame assemblages – assemblages of objects, communities, and practices. My findings are presented as three main chapters, which investigate videogames in relationship conflicts, videogames in drunk spaces, and videogames in self-care discourses.
In the field of game studies, methods of investigation are frequently configured around studying play, players, or the creation of play. However, this focus can ignore non-players, non-play relationship dynamics, and non-play-centric spaces that themselves also significantly shape videogame and play assemblages. Since the study of gaming lifeworlds crucially apprehends videogame assemblages as embedded in materiality, rather than separate from everyday life, I hope to demonstrate its use as a generative framework and model for feminist games, media, internet, cultural researchers to study videogames in culture.
Publications by Mahli-Ann Butt
Papers by Mahli-Ann Butt
Honours Thesis by Mahli-Ann Butt
Focusing on relationship dynamics and the interplay of gender, constructs a framework that apprehends gaming as a culture which is situated within wider social contexts, rather than insulated or segregated from everyday lived experiences. This thesis uses the critical identity theory of existential feminism to shed light on the underlying heteronormative limitations imposed by the games industry, the gaming ‘community’, and media discourses. This research’s ethnographic data is analysed with the theories of ‘affective labour’ and ‘gender performativity’. These discussions explore the negotiations and sways of affective powers in relationship dynamics, traditional gender roles, and the ‘hypermasculinity’ of gaming culture, conveyed in the ‘modulation’ of gender performance and gaming practices – the limited ‘modes’ in which women are afforded to express themselves in gaming.
Conference Presentations by Mahli-Ann Butt
Panels by Mahli-Ann Butt
Drafts by Mahli-Ann Butt
Submitted for Arguing the Point (Semester 1, 2017), PhD, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, The University of Sydney.
Writing as a woman of colour is important to me.
I'm uploading this because I've felt like a lot of my life in academia is spent fighting and undermining whiteness.
If you've read my writing before, you'll know that I don't always write like this. This exercise was liberating because it allowed me to 'copy a style' which wasn't white. I see a lot of students 'copying white' to be 'good students' because whiteness is canonical.
I feel as if I am often forced to 'copy white' (and masculine I should say) or else be punished for not conforming.
Furthermore, I'm sure that I'm not even aware when I am doing this: 'performing whiteness' just so that I might have a fighting chance. I forget when I am fighting because I seem to be doing it more and more these days. Fighting is second nature because of the skin I was born into.
I loved this line I heard over the weekend from a woman of colour on a panel about white-passing: "I look the way I am today because of oppression."
I am whiter to you because of post-colonialism.
Often the feedback I receive revolves around writing, rather than any engagement with the arguments, its values or ideas. Often I wonder: if the same paper submitted was written under a whiter and maybe more masculine name, would the writing itself receive less criticism?
Undergraduate Work by Mahli-Ann Butt
Using a case study of Irrational Game’s BioShock Infinite’s (2013) companion character, Elizabeth, and her design’s relationship to cosplay (the practice of dressing up as a character), I propose that we should reconsider investments in authenticity prevalent in gaming and cosplay cultures. I hope to start a conversation about an underlying issue, as acutely brought up in 2014’s Gamergate, and discuss some of the base assumptions which underpin hierarchical structures, such as sexism. I argue that authenticity is unattainable, because it does not exist.
In thinking about precarity, I establish the concept of ‘(not)coping’ to challenge the assumed dichotomy by which every instance of ‘not coping’ designates a failure ‘to cope’. Rather than viewing ‘coping’ and ‘not coping’ as positive and negative binaries, I write ‘(not)coping’ to highlight the liminal zone in between these affective states. (Not)coping is thus used to further describe the transformative affective spaces necessary for the refusal to cope within and against hegemony. I use qualitative mixed methods, combining semi-structured interviews, ethnographic participant observation, and discourse analysis to examine everyday struggles and how people can become affectively (re)orientated towards and away from certain videogame assemblages – assemblages of objects, communities, and practices. My findings are presented as three main chapters, which investigate videogames in relationship conflicts, videogames in drunk spaces, and videogames in self-care discourses.
In the field of game studies, methods of investigation are frequently configured around studying play, players, or the creation of play. However, this focus can ignore non-players, non-play relationship dynamics, and non-play-centric spaces that themselves also significantly shape videogame and play assemblages. Since the study of gaming lifeworlds crucially apprehends videogame assemblages as embedded in materiality, rather than separate from everyday life, I hope to demonstrate its use as a generative framework and model for feminist games, media, internet, cultural researchers to study videogames in culture.
Focusing on relationship dynamics and the interplay of gender, constructs a framework that apprehends gaming as a culture which is situated within wider social contexts, rather than insulated or segregated from everyday lived experiences. This thesis uses the critical identity theory of existential feminism to shed light on the underlying heteronormative limitations imposed by the games industry, the gaming ‘community’, and media discourses. This research’s ethnographic data is analysed with the theories of ‘affective labour’ and ‘gender performativity’. These discussions explore the negotiations and sways of affective powers in relationship dynamics, traditional gender roles, and the ‘hypermasculinity’ of gaming culture, conveyed in the ‘modulation’ of gender performance and gaming practices – the limited ‘modes’ in which women are afforded to express themselves in gaming.
Submitted for Arguing the Point (Semester 1, 2017), PhD, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, The University of Sydney.
Writing as a woman of colour is important to me.
I'm uploading this because I've felt like a lot of my life in academia is spent fighting and undermining whiteness.
If you've read my writing before, you'll know that I don't always write like this. This exercise was liberating because it allowed me to 'copy a style' which wasn't white. I see a lot of students 'copying white' to be 'good students' because whiteness is canonical.
I feel as if I am often forced to 'copy white' (and masculine I should say) or else be punished for not conforming.
Furthermore, I'm sure that I'm not even aware when I am doing this: 'performing whiteness' just so that I might have a fighting chance. I forget when I am fighting because I seem to be doing it more and more these days. Fighting is second nature because of the skin I was born into.
I loved this line I heard over the weekend from a woman of colour on a panel about white-passing: "I look the way I am today because of oppression."
I am whiter to you because of post-colonialism.
Often the feedback I receive revolves around writing, rather than any engagement with the arguments, its values or ideas. Often I wonder: if the same paper submitted was written under a whiter and maybe more masculine name, would the writing itself receive less criticism?
Using a case study of Irrational Game’s BioShock Infinite’s (2013) companion character, Elizabeth, and her design’s relationship to cosplay (the practice of dressing up as a character), I propose that we should reconsider investments in authenticity prevalent in gaming and cosplay cultures. I hope to start a conversation about an underlying issue, as acutely brought up in 2014’s Gamergate, and discuss some of the base assumptions which underpin hierarchical structures, such as sexism. I argue that authenticity is unattainable, because it does not exist.
Using a case study of Irrational Game’s BioShock Infinite’s (2013) companion character, Elizabeth, and her design’s relationship to cosplay (the practice of dressing up as a character), I propose that we should reconsider investments in authenticity prevalent in gaming and cosplay cultures. I hope to start a conversation about an underlying issue, as acutely brought up in 2014’s Gamergate, and discuss some of the base assumptions which underpin hierarchical structures, such as sexism. I argue that authenticity is unattainable, because it does not exist.