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

视频游戏已经成为一种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领导劳动力。因此，对于那些可能被视为‘边缘主体’的人，包括残疾人，它已经成为一个具有挑战性的平台。研究表明，残疾的类别或刻板印象已经在书籍、电影和戏剧等替代媒介中流传，以产生普通的残疾人物。这篇论文考察了这些残疾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中的残疾游戏社区以及更广泛的社会权力结构。在历史残疾理论的基础上，本文考察了著名的残疾刻板印象的起源，如怪物、可怜的和喜剧般的救济。它探讨了这些刻板印象如何影响残疾身份的形成，并考虑到怪癖、蒙面和“表演”/“被残疾”。它还探讨了这些形成的残疾身份如何与全景/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”的立场重新审视残疾人刻板印象，而不是通过中心的力量。这篇论文还将考察视频游戏中的后遗主义和跨舒马主义作为核心主题。它将研究如何将有目的的残疾和控制论增强作为游戏机械师来实施，以及这可能对残疾和残疾身份产生的潜在影响。它考察了半机械人的真实经历，以及控制论的增强如何通过引入超级残障和超级健全类别来破坏圆筒结构的稳定。基于一系列的游戏会话和先前的残障理论研究，将对一组残障游戏参与者进行一系列半结构化访谈。这些访谈的目的是探索所研究的残疾角色类别如何影响残疾玩家，这些类别以前是否被残疾玩家注意到，以及残疾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考察残障人士如何参与游戏。它将探索首选的控制器、可访问的游戏功能，以及哪些游戏对残疾玩家来说是意外的。这些访谈将使人们能够更深入地了解残疾陈规定型观念和在这一受欢迎的媒体中的陈述所产生的影响。这些访谈还将生成一份愿望清单，其中包括残疾玩家对准确和可访问的游戏的辅助功能、角色和表现形式。

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.