No Sex Please, We Are Finite State Machines

On the Melancholy Sexlessness of the Video Game

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2409484
AutoresRob Gallagher (0000-0002-2096-3889, The London Consortium, London, UK, autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen7
Número6
Páginas399-418
Fecha de publicación2012-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGames and Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1555-4120 • E-ISSN: 1555-4139
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1555412012466287
OpenAlexW2314711917
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas8

Despite the fact that most players of video games are now adults, the medium continues to shy away from the question of sex. This article considers some of the reasons for this reticence, offering close readings of a number of games in which sex's absence seems especially significant. Attending to these absences can, I argue, throw light on some prevalent misconceptions regarding the nature of video games and the appeal of play. Debates concerning games and sex reveal that commentators, critics, and game developers alike are, by and large, still too ready to judge games using standards developed in relation to other media forms. In doing so they tend both to ignore games' unique characteristics and to misrepresent their potential as vehicles for creative expression-a potential suggested by the ways in which the medium has already begun to explore how technology is altering our understanding of sex

Appeal · Multimedia · Political science · Relation (database · Sociology · State (computer science · Video game · Cinema and Media Studies · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology