Circles, charmed and magic: Queering game studies

Abstract

Queer game content, players, and creators have been the focus of increasing academic attention over the past ten years. Queer theory, however, offers more to game studies than subject matter. Queer theory allows us to question the underlying assumptions of how games are studied. Moreover, games allow queer theorists to engage with the myriad ways in which subject positions are experienced and normative behaviors are codified. Bringing the two together, this article focuses on the so-called sad, solitary gamer as a key site for queer game studies to interrogate which forms of play are deemed valuable and which lie outside the charmed and magic circle of play.