Alternative bodies and localities: Queering Constructed Time and Space in Role-Playing Games

另类机构和地点：角色扮演游戏中酷儿建构的时间和空间

• 批准号: 2749115
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2749115
• 关键词: Alternative; bodies; localities; Queering; Constructed

Roleplaying games (RPGs) are misunderstood through their reductive association with violence (Laycock, 2015). RPGs can also act as spaces of alternative identity creation for players. In response to the exponential growth of RPGs and longstanding academic neglect (Clarke and Mitchel, 2007), I will conduct research into the queer potential of RPGs, looking at how they create alternative cultures of time and space for players. RPGs often omit paradigmatic life markers of heteronormative, capitalist reproduction and instead create life outside of these boundaries. Through critical engagement with scholarship in queer and ludology studies and ethnographic, interview and game research, I will explore the research question: how do identities, temporalities and spaces in game worlds enact queerness through play? Role-playing is elastic; it facilitates an expansion beyond the Self into the realm of the Other. Individuals who participate in RPGs open themselves to experimentation. RPGs involve self and social constructions: a character, a group, or a world. This project will analyse RPGs in relation to queer theory and will be structured according to themes that build on scholars of queer time and space (Halberstam, 2005; Edelman 2004). I will look at how individuals play 'transgressively,' modifying game rules to create alternative avenues to the predesigned 'straight' path. This stresses transformative possibilities for identity and space as it dislodge players from the normative structures set by design. The projectintersects queer studies and ludology, a juncture which has been recently approached by scholars (Harper et al. 2018; Ruberg 2019A;2019B; Ruberg 2018), but not fully explored. There is little scholarship focusing on how RPGs, provide the possibility of queerness. The field of queer ludology is 'young' (Harper et al. 2018) and typically focuses upon how queer characters are represented (Cole, et al. 2017). My project focuses on how queerness is played.Through ethnographic research I will observe creation of imagined spaces and how through interviews individuals articulate this creation. During game analysis I will look at the play setting and game rulebooks/paratexts that structure RPGs. These methods will supplement each other as they tackle RPG engagement on different levels: agentic construction (ethnography and interviews) and wider cultural construction (game analysis). I will draw from Taylor (2006: 153) who calls for a 'nondichtomous model' that does not see virtual and material worlds as different to explore how constructed subjectivities in RPGs become resources to perform in spaces outside of play.My research will articulate player perspectives that are often missed in the heteronormative landscape of game studies. The project will include engagement with the British Games Institute (BGI). This will take the form of a public workshop at the National Videogame Museum (NVM) exploring RPG histories and playing subjectivities. This workshop will allow participants to engage with alternative histories of gameplay and players to challenge the dominant perceptions of RPGs. My research will span 3.5 years, with the initial focus on secondary literature in months 1-6, followed by primary research in months 6-18, and writing and follow up research in months 19-30.

角色扮演游戏(RPG)因其与暴力的简化联系而被误解(Laycock，2015)。RPG也可以作为球员创造另类身份的空间。为了应对RPG的指数增长和长期的学术忽视(Clarke和Mitchel，2007)，我将对RPG的奇特潜力进行研究，看看它们如何为玩家创造另类的时间和空间文化。RPG经常省略异质资本主义繁殖的典型生命标记，而是在这些界限之外创造生命。通过批判性地参与酷儿和滑稽研究的学术研究，以及人种学、访谈和游戏研究，我将探索这个研究问题：游戏世界中的身份、时间和空间是如何通过游戏来创造酷儿的？角色扮演是有弹性的；它促进了超越自我进入他人领域的扩展。参与RPG的个人对实验持开放态度。RPG涉及自我和社会结构：一个角色、一个群体或一个世界。该项目将分析与酷儿理论有关的RPG，并将根据酷儿时间和空间学者的主题来构建(Halberstam，2005；Edelman 2004)。我将研究个人如何“违规”地玩游戏，修改游戏规则，创造通往预先设计的“直路”的替代途径。这强调了身份和空间的变革性可能性，因为它将玩家从设计设定的规范结构中赶走。该项目交叉了酷儿研究和语言学，这是学者们最近接近的一个结合点(Harper等人)。2018年；鲁伯格2019A；2019B；鲁伯格2018)，但没有充分勘探。很少有学者关注RPG如何提供古怪的可能性。酷儿语言学的领域是‘年轻的’(Harper et al.2018)，通常侧重于如何表现同性恋角色(Cole等人)。2017年)。通过民族志研究，我将观察想象空间的创造，以及个人如何通过访谈表达这一创造。在游戏分析过程中，我将查看游戏设置和构成RPG的游戏规则手册/部分文本。这些方法将相辅相成，因为它们在不同的层面上处理RPG参与：代理构建(人种志和访谈)和更广泛的文化建设(游戏分析)。我将借鉴泰勒(2006：153)的观点，他呼吁建立一个不将虚拟世界和物质世界视为不同的“非二分模型”，以探索RPG中构建的主观性如何成为在游戏之外的空间表演的资源。我的研究将阐明在游戏研究的异质格局中经常遗漏的玩家视角。该项目将包括与英国游戏学院(BGI)的合作。这将采取在国家视频游戏博物馆(NVM)举行的公开研讨会的形式，探索RPG历史和玩主观性。这个工作坊将允许参与者参与游戏的不同历史和玩家挑战RPG的主导观念。我的研究将跨越3.5年，最初的重点是1-6个月的二手文学，紧随其后的是6-18个月的主要研究，19-30个月的写作和后续研究。