From Ideology to Identity: An Examination of Disability Stereotyping within Video Games

电子游戏已经成为一个非常受欢迎的当代媒体，拥有大多数健全的玩家基础和健全的劳动力。因此，它已成为一个具有挑战性的平台，为那些可能被视为'边缘主体'，包括残疾人。研究表明，残疾类别或陈规定型观念在书籍、电影和戏剧等替代媒介中传播，以产生固定的残疾人角色。本文探讨这些残疾人类别是否存在于视频游戏角色中，以及这些刻板印象如何影响游戏和更广泛的社会权力结构中的残疾人游戏社区。本文以历史残疾理论为基础，探讨了怪物、可怜、喜剧救济等著名残疾人形象的起源。它探讨了这些陈规定型观念如何影响残疾人身份的形成，并考虑到畸形，掩蔽和"表演"/"被"残疾。它还探讨了这些形成的残疾人身份如何与圆形监狱/权力结构互动，以及这些权力转移和残疾人/健全人之间的关系如何产生内化和外化的凝视。它探讨了残疾人凝视的潜力，以及这种凝视如何从“边缘主体”的位置而不是通过中心的力量重新审视残疾人的刻板印象。本论文也将探讨后人类主义和超人类主义作为电子游戏的核心主题。它将研究如何有目的的残疾和控制论的增强是作为游戏机制和潜在的影响，这可能对残疾和残疾人的身份。它考察了电子人的生活经历，以及控制论增强如何通过引入超级残疾人和超级健全人的类别来破坏全景监狱的结构。基于一系列的游戏会议和先前的残疾人理论研究的一系列半结构化的采访将进行一组残疾人游戏参与者。这些访谈的目的是探讨残疾人角色的研究类别如何影响残疾人玩家，残疾人玩家以前是否注意到这些类别，以及残疾人玩家如何认为这些刻板印象正在影响对残疾的更广泛理解。此外，这些半结构化访谈将研究如何使游戏对残疾人参与者无障碍。它将探索首选的控制器，可访问的游戏功能，以及哪些游戏是残疾玩家意外访问。这些访谈将使人们更深入地了解残疾定型观念和在这一大众媒体中的表现所产生的影响。这些访谈还将生成残疾玩家对准确和无障碍游戏的无障碍功能，角色和表示的愿望清单。

Video games have become a vastly popular contemporary medium with a majority able-bodied player base and able-bodied led workforce. Consequentially, it has become a challenging platform for those who may be considered as 'peripheral subjects', including people with disabilities. Research indicates that categories or stereotypes of disability have circulated within alternate mediums such as books, films and theatre to generate stock disabled characters. This thesis examines whether these disabled categories are present within video game characters and how these stereotypes may affect the disabled gaming community both within gaming and within wider societal power structures. With the foundation of historical disability theory, this thesis examines the origins of noted disabled stereotypes such as the monster, pitiable, and comedic relief. It explores how these stereotypes may impact the formation of disabled identity with consideration of freakism, masking and 'performing'/ 'being' disabled. It also explores how these formed disabled identities interact with the panopticon/power structures and how these power shifts and relationships between disabled/able-bodied persons can generate internalized and externalised gazes. It explores the potential of a disabled gaze and how this gaze could re-examine disabled stereotypes from the position of 'peripheral subject' rather than through the power of the centre. This thesis will also examine posthumanism and transhumanism as core themes within video games. It will examine how purposeful disablement and cybernetic enhancement is implemented as game mechanic and the potential effects this may have upon disability and disabled identity. It examines lived experiences of cyborg and how cybernetic enhancement could destabilise the structure of the panopticon through the introduction of categories of super cripple and super able-bodied. Based upon a series of gaming sessions and prior disabled theory research a series of semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a group of disabled gaming participants. The aim of these interviews is to explore how the researched categories of disabled characters impact the disabled player, whether these categories have been noted by the disabled player previously and how the disabled player believes these stereotypes are impacting wider understandings of disability. Additionally, these semi-structured interviews will examine how games are made accessible for the disabled participants. It will explore preferred controllers, accessible game features, and which games are accidentally accessible to disabled players. These interviews will allow for a deeper understanding of the impacts of disability stereotyping and representations within this popular medium. These interviews will also generate a wish-list of accessibility features, characters, and representations by disabled players for a game which is accurate and accessible.