Be Gay Do Crime? : Queerness Visibility and Invisibility in Videogames

Videogames, and media in general, have adopted a more progressive stance on the representation of sexuality: it is common to see LGBTQIA+ stories and characters in movies, games, and books. Different authors in games studies have argued that Queerness visibility in videogames often follows heteronormative rules. Goffman’s notion of front stage and backstage can be useful to understand the relationship between Queer visibility, invisibility and heteronormativity. The front stage represents the game itself, the including its portrayal of queer characters and issues, while the backstage refers to the software structures and affordances that often are coded in a “straight way”. Results show that Queerness can either be both made invisible and visible by an inclusive representation of it and, at the same time, heteronormative affordances or that an inclusive representation can ignore the revolutionary elements of Queerness, thus depoliticizing it in a subtle way.