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

角色扮演游戏（rpg）因其与暴力的关联而被误解（Laycock, 2015）。rpg也可以作为玩家创造不同身份的空间。为了应对rpg的指数级增长和长期的学术忽视，我将研究rpg的奇怪潜力，看看它们如何为玩家创造不同的时间和空间文化。rpg通常会忽略非规范、资本主义再生产的典型生活标记，而是在这些界限之外创造生活。通过对酷儿和游戏学研究、人种学、访谈和游戏研究的批判性参与，我将探索研究问题：游戏世界中的身份、时间性和空间如何通过游戏来制定酷儿身份？角色扮演是有弹性的；它促进了超越自我进入他者领域的扩展。参与角色扮演游戏的玩家愿意进行实验。rpg包含自我和社会建构：角色、团队或世界。该项目将分析rpg与酷儿理论的关系，并将根据酷儿时空学者的主题进行构建（Halberstam, 2005; Edelman 2004）。我将着眼于个人如何“越轨”地玩游戏，修改游戏规则以创造出预先设计的“直线”路径之外的替代路径。这强调了身份和空间的变革可能性，因为它将玩家从设计设定的规范结构中驱逐出去。该项目与酷儿研究和ludology相交叉，最近有学者（Harper et al. 2018; Ruberg 2019A;2019B; Ruberg 2018）探讨了这一交叉点，但尚未得到充分探讨。很少有学者关注rpg如何提供酷儿的可能性。酷儿ludology是一个“年轻”的领域（Harper et al. 2018），通常关注的是如何表现酷儿角色（Cole, et al. 2017）。我的项目关注的是酷儿是如何被扮演的。通过人种学研究，我将观察想象空间的创造，以及个人如何通过访谈表达这种创造。在游戏分析过程中，我将着眼于构建rpg的玩法设置和游戏规则手册/文本。这些方法将在不同层面上处理RPG用户粘性时相互补充：代理构建（人种学和访谈）和更广泛的文化构建（游戏分析）。我将借鉴Taylor（2006: 153）的观点，他提出了一种“非二分模型”，认为虚拟世界和物质世界并无不同，以此来探索rpg中构建的主体性如何成为游戏之外空间的资源。我的研究将阐明在游戏研究的异规范领域中经常被忽视的玩家视角。该项目将包括与英国运动会协会（BGI）的合作。这将以国家电子游戏博物馆（NVM）的公共研讨会的形式来探索RPG的历史和游戏的主体性。本次研讨会将允许参与者参与游戏玩法的另类历史，并挑战rpg的主导观念。我的研究将跨越3.5年，最初的重点是在1-6个月的二手文献，然后是6-18个月的初级研究，19-30个月的写作和后续研究。

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.