Accessibility for the Marginalized: Unleashing the Amateur Potential of Games

A Sociotechnical Research Paper presented to the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Virginia

by

Nicholas Moon

May 9, 2021

On my honor as a University student, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment as defined by the Honor Guidelines for Thesis-Related Assignments.

Nicholas Moon

Sociotechnical advisor: Peter Norton, Department of Engineering and Society

Until about 20 years ago, development was largely confined to corporations

(Dyer-Witheford & de Peuter, 2009). Game developers typically required formal training and access to development kits, a publisher, and existing code or a development engine. Computer art tools are now more accessible than ever. Graphics applications once exclusive to Pixar can be freely downloaded, and game development tools once programmed in assembly or bought as are useable by artists with no special or expensive technical expertise.

About 244 million Americans play digital games; the number ballooned with the adoption of smart phones (NPD, 2020). However, among employees of U.S. video game companies in 2019, only one quarter were women; people of color are also underrepresented

(IGDA, 2019). Yang and Hsieh (2020) indicate that representation in media shapes development of self-identity, and cite Ranciere’s (2010) dissensus, or a cutting along “cultural and identity belonging and hierarchies between discourses and genres” as the power media holds.

Underrepresentation in game creation then limits transgressive frames of reference in public discourse, and hinders self-growth and acceptance of those within the community. In the past decade, marginalized and non-technical artists have used new digital tools to produce innovative media for video games, much of which challenges the conventional perspective in games, and the people who would keep it that way.

Review of Research

The technical requirements of art and art production have constrained “who creates”.

They have imposed barriers to entry to media that only some can cross. Lowood (2009) contends that the genesis of videogames in engineering projects at top-tier U.S. universities in the 1960s bequeathed thematic elements of games that have persisted ever since. For example, Star

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Trek and Lord of the Rings have endured since the 1960s and 1970s as reference points in “nerd” culture. As Jenkins (2006) notes, games in this tradition featured narratives of adventure or competition culturally gendered as masculine. Narratives of emotion and relationship, culturally gendered as feminine, were scarce. For example, according to Paul (2018), the seminal MUD was developed by two angry young men whose reflected their goal of a purported meritocracy valuing the skills of “nerd” culture.

Speaking to more contemporary issues in game development, Stöckel and Pettersson

(2016) note that accessible applications have enabled games. Developers of games that represent marginalized perspectives have used accessible digital tools to evade the homogeneity that the commercial game market has favored. Sens (2015) observes that with artist-friendly tools such as Twine, independent developers could host game jams in queer spaces. To Harvey (2014), Twine is a harbinger of a democratization in game development that can accommodate creators such as Anna Anthropy, and the revolution she espouses.

The relationship between technology and art has been studied in other media as well.

Goolsby (2008) credits the with democratizing music production since the

1990s. Sinnreich (2010) observes that this development let a new class of musical artists,

“bedroom producers,” often younger and working class, produce digital music without expensive instruments or recording booths, or sometimes even singing skill. Sinnreich associates the trend with 1980s and 1990s countercultures, including populations devastated by the AIDS and the crack cocaine epidemics. Ruberg (2019) makes similar claims for queer video games in the past decade, but notes that publishers have attempted to profit from creators’ subversive works.

Researchers have studied similar among amateur artists who use phone cameras. Schleser, Wilson, and Keep (2013) found that mobile moviemaking has widened the

2 diversity of voices and methods in film, particularly in Korea. Anyone with a touchscreen device now has access to high-definition recording. In South Korea, mobile film festivals have promoted segyehwa, or internationalization. Such events are recognitions of the cultural influence of media, a recognition also evident among LGBT, black, and women game creators who use video games to normalize their experiences.

In addressing normalization of marginalized experiences, Cavalcante (2018) portrays representational media as transformative and an “outlet for self-discovery” for underrepresented communities. Invoking ludus (“play”), Frissen et al. (2015) frame digital interaction and new media such as video games as “self-constructive”; that is, the games place the self within context of clashing cultures and identities. Technological developments have opened doors to marginalized voices, changing videogames and game communities and extending access to transgressive ideas.

Games within Games

Perhaps the most accessible game creation tool is games themselves. Benson-Allott

(2016) argue that video games are platforms in which to stage other games, a tool to create.

Particularly in the 2010’s, the popularization of the “sandbox” game generated both an audience and creation community. These games allow for freeform play, Caillois’ (2006) paidia, as well as player defined structure using the mechanics within the game to produce a shareable interactive experience. No game shows this better than the sandbox creation game

(, 2011), which has 126 monthly active users in 2020 (Vincent, 2020). In particular, the reach Minecraft has with children makes it an ideal platform for producing art that subverts or challenges traditional or safe points of view. The only skills needed to make or play a

3 game within this virtual environment are those used to navigate and interact with Minecraft itself, a skill that an increasingly larger percentage of the population has.

Black Wall Street (Sherman et al., 2020) is a Minecraft world recreating Tulsa, OK in the

1920’s, with the expressed goal of understanding “justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society,” and the “harmful impact of bias and injustice from the 1921 events”. The accessibility of Minecraft as a platform has allowed the creators, historians and public servants at the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa to create this interactive historical piece as an educational experience. Similarly, Lessons in Good Trouble (Ford et al.,

2020) is a Minecraft world with a digital version of late Representative John Lewis guiding players through an interactive environment focused on social justice movements, and “how protests and social justice movements are an integral part of human rights” (. 1). The game was developed by educators in partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Figure 1. Promotional Image for Lessons in Good Trouble. Pictured is the Selma March. (Ford et al., 2020).

This act of constructing experiences within games is what is referred to by Gee and

Hayes (2010) as “soft modding”, reworking the mechanics of a game to change its socio- technical meaning, utilizing only the mechanics of the original game itself. In the case of Black

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Wall Street and Lessons in Good Trouble, the authors have subverted the recreational and survival mechanics of Minecraft to create interactive social and historical explorative environments. The creators’ professions also highlight how accessible game technologies, both in terms of creation and outreach, have motivated real-world political movements to use interactive media as an educational tool. Note that the use of the game in such a way also contrasts with Minecraft’s original lead developer, Markus Persson, who propagates a conservative ideology regarding social justice and feminism (Persson, 2017).

On the other end of the spectrum, there are also “games” released by publishers or independent developers that simply provide the tools, and sometimes sharing functionality, to create independent interactive experiences. Games like LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule, 2008) and Super Mario Maker (, 2015) in addition feature core mechanics that constrain the range of freedom, but other creation games offer toolsets not unlike industry game engines. Dreams (Media Molecule, 2020) is a game whose purpose is to “bring your ideas to life with innovative, easy-to-use tools, then share them with a global community”. Effectively, this means that anyone with access to the game and a PlayStation 4 has the ability to create and distribute an interactive experience, with built-in tutorials.

Game Mods and

Game modifications (mods) are changes to an originally published game made by the audience. While mods have been present in gaming since the 1980’s, their relevance has waxed as access to emulation of old game consoles enabled -reconfiguration of games old and new

(Welch, 2018). Analyzing fangames and game mods as transformational as opposed to affirmational leads to characterizing these practices generally as feminine and functionally

5 subversive, treating games as tools to push progressive agendas unseen in the larger gaming industry (Obsession_inc, 2009).

Girlplaysgame is a female video game creator, specializing in mods for The Elder

Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios, 2011), Mass Effect 2 (BioWare, 2010), and Dragon

Age: Inquisition (BioWare, 2014). Her mods are generally limited to asset replacement and aesthetic changes as opposed to programming or structural modifications (girlplaysgames, n.d.); her goal in modification is “to add variety” to the overabundance of “strong female protagonists that are physically strong, butch, and tomboyish” (Pangburn, 2016). Likewise, prolific female mod creator, Elianora, creates mods that insert aspects of real-world social movements, like

Black Lives Matter T-shirts and Pride flags, into games like Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios,

2015) and Skyrim (Elianora, n.d.). Her mods demonstrate a breaking down of the “Magic Circle” identified by Huizinga (1955), which separates the world of games from the rules, interactions, and politics of the real-world.

Other mods enhance representation, customization, or otherwise implement progressive content large companies exclude from their games. Zelda’s Ballad (Amiibolad & YamGaming,

2020) is a mod made for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 2017), that makes

Princess Zelda the main character for the first time in the series’ 35-year history (fig. 2). This comes after years of the developer, Nintendo, shooting down the possibility of a playable Zelda, as well as years of outcry from fans, the press, and academics decrying the series persistence of the Damsel-in-Distress trope (Peckham, 2016) (Sarkeesian, 2013). Hana’s

Gender Neutrality Mod (Hanatsuki, 2016) “Makes Stardew Valley nonbinary friendly” by giving pronoun selection options and allowing characters to enter any gender binary events or locations, like Spa rooms (Barone, 2016). The Same-Gender Romances (Rondeeno, 2018) for Mass Effect

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2 (BioWare, 2010) mod enables NPCs to be “romanced by both male and female Shepard, utilizing unused dialogue in the game files”. Whether because of time, or conservative corporate practices, gay romance options were disabled in the release version of the original game.

Figure 2. Promotional screen capture of Zelda’s Ballad, with Zelda as the playable character. (Amiibolad &

YamGaming, 2020).

Pokémon Reborn (Liddell, 2018) is a built from modifying and supplementing the original game Pokémon Emerald (2004), focused on showcasing the various genders and sexualities present in the world of Pokémon as perceived by a subset of its fandom. Developed primarily by trans woman Amethyst Liddell, the game features twists on the traditional Pokémon formula, including a trans Pokémon champion (final boss) and complete freedom in gender selection and expression (fig. 3). Beyond just diverse representation, however, the game also integrates queer narratives into the wanderlust campaign of the Pokémon series, such as found family and coming out, themes which resonate with Liddell, who has struggled with suicidal thoughts as a result of her gender identity and its social implications (Liddell, 2015). Fangames like Pokémon Reborn subvert the conservative and corporate source material, projecting self- identity onto artifacts of media fandom to create an entirely new experience.

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Figure 3. Character creation screen of Pokémon Reborn. Options to select gender appear regardless of chosen

character appearance. (Liddell, 2018).

Visual Novels &

The oldest genre of video game is also one of the most accessible, more now than ever before. VNs and IF, in their most form, consist of a series of narrative passages, sometimes offering a branching narrative or interaction via text input or choice selection. Tools to facilitate

IF development have existed since the 1990’s, with programs like Inform, but it has only been in the past decade that new tools have come about with ease-of-use and accessibility driving support (Montfort & Short, 2012). Development like Twine and Ren’Py have enabled access to IF development without requiring significant coding experience, allowing a creator to focus on narrative and visual art. Moreover, the IF and VN ecosystem, like historical fanfiction and fanart communities, operates under a “gift economy”, meaning that the subculture structure subverts the economic systems of the capitalist games industry (Hellekson, 2009). Perhaps the most consequential boon to IF games is their ability to be played in-browser; with a simple search or browse of sites like itch.io, thousands of creators’ works are available to play for free without downloading or compiling.

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Ren’Py is an open-source Python framework built for artists without programming experience to combine “words, images, and sounds to tell interactive stories”

(Ren’Py, n.d.). It has enabled gray asexual artist NomnomNami to develop games like Starry

Flowers (2021), about the gay relationship between two wizard boys, and Syrup and the Ultimate

Sweet (2015), about gender non-conforming confectioners and pansexual anthropomorphic candy. An illustrator by profession, NomnomNami’s self-described creative interests are, as stated at the top of her website, “making games about girls who like girls” (NomNomNami, n.d.). However, this artist provides a twist on traditional queer storytelling; the absurdity of most of the romantic content in her games communicates her feelings on attraction and sexuality as a member of the asexual community.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous IF development tool is Twine, “an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories” that “publishes directly to HTML” (IFTF, n.d.). Twine is owned by the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation, with the expressed goal of providing writers with the tools to create art “written without a budget, without a publisher, without a team of artists or programmers” (IFTF, n.d). The interactive fiction game Depression Quest (2013) by

Zoe Quinn is perhaps the most notable Twine game. Quinn, who suffers from depression and

A.D.H.D., states that “Externalizing that [depression] into a game and asking people to take some time out to see what ‘rules’ other people have to live with, I think, is a powerful use of the medium” (Parkin, 2014). A notable mechanic is representing depression as the inability to choose actions that would normally be the most useful or logical for neurotypical young adults

(fig. 4). The game is additionally notable for its focus within the GamerGate harassment campaign, qualifying the resistance to evocative and nouveau game design brought about by accessibility at the beginning of the decade (Chess & Shaw, 2015). Also developed with Twine,

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Queers in Love at the End of the World (2013) is an IF developed by Anna Anthropy about “the transformative, transcendent power of queer love” (2013). Anthropy is a prolific academic and game designer, who has used accessible game making tools like Twine and to communicate her experiences navigating gender transition and homosexuality.

Figure 4. Presentation of choice in Depression Quest. The first option is presented, but crossed out and disabled.

(Quinn, 2013).

Accessible Game Engines

Game engines were developed as a means of providing both game designers and artists with a graphical interface and development environment that veiled the highly technical physics simulation and graphics code (Lowood, 2016). However, engines have traditionally been proprietary or licensed with a heavy cost, meaning only developers funded by large corporations had access to the robust toolkits. Over the past decade, there have been two means in which accessibility has provided artists with high creative support: the increased availability of state-of-the- engines, and the development of free, specialized game engines.

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Unity and Unreal are the two most popular game engines in the industry, and have gradually approached open-use as the past decade progressed. contends “the world is a better place with more creators in it,” and that “creativity can and should come from anyone, anywhere” (Unity Technologies, n.d.). It is the more accessible engine, offering free personal use up to $100,000 yearly in revenue or funding, and is royalty-free (Unity Technologies, n.d.).

Unreal, on the other hand, is “committed to independent game developers everywhere”, and offers royalty-free use until $1 million in total revenue (, n.d.). Unity and Unreal, unlike most game or IF engines discussed, are for-profit, and while they have allowed amateurs and independent developers free access, this is ultimately a marketing tactic.

Made with Unity, That Dragon, Cancer (2016) is a biographical game about a couple’s experience with their newborn’s cancer diagnosis, struggles, and eventual death. To the developer, Ryan Green, the game is “a way of wrestling with [his child’s cancer], more than the typical channels of grief” (Tanz, 2016). Like Anna Anthropy’s Dys4ia (2012), That Dragon,

Cancer illustrates the power of biography, a genre that would not be possible without the recent accessible game engine technology enabling independent developers. This power is not only to affect the player, but to help the creator come to terms with the events that have shaped their life.

Accessible game engines have also globalized video game production. Raji: An Ancient

Epic (2020) is an action- developed by Indian studio Nodding Heads Games.

Developed with the , it marks a goal to “put India on the game developer map”

(Rawal, 2020). One member of the small team stated that they were “sustaining ourselves with our savings”; paying for a game engine was out of the question. As artists in developing countries seek to push their games to a global audience, access to cheap or free resources may be required and in the past these options weren’t available.

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“MAKING GAMES IS FOR EVERYONE” (Gamemaker Studio 2, n.d.). That is the mission statement of Gamemaker Studio 2, a game engine aimed at independent artists, offering a visual programming language for non-technical creators to develop and prototype digital games. Using the engine, Toby Fox, who notably also began game creation by modding and making fangames of the SNES game Earthbound (Nintendo, 1995), created (2015).

Undertale is a deconstruction of the role-playing game, subverting the genocidal tendencies and ludonarrative dissonance asked of a player in a typical RPG. It also features anthropomorphic animals and diverse gender and sexuality, aspects which were formative for many players unexperienced with non-conforming identities and confronting their own (Lauren & Shelley,

2020).

GB Studio (Maltby, n.d.) is a free Nintendo development environment that wraps hardcore assembly programming within accessible drag-and-drop UI logic programming.

Chris Maltby, the creator, states that he developed the program to be “usable by other people, maybe even by people who had never made a game before”. This has allowed artists without intense technical experience to develop games for the 30-year-old system.

Such a title is Do I Pass? (McCue, 2019), a game about a transgender woman’s experience navigating social interactions, focused on the protagonist’s internal struggles with

“passing”, or being perceived as a cisgender woman by others (fig. 5). The game was created by

Taylor McCue, a trans woman who has also utilized GB Studio and Unity to create games expressing her struggles with depression and suicide. She specifically developed Do I Pass? as an interrogation of her own views on passing, ultimately seeing a focus on it as “self- destructive”, but necessary due to the “systems of gendering in place that exist even after death”

(McCue, 2019). Games developed using this tool offer a similar juxtaposition as fangames or

12 mods, where the intense topics explored in the games contrast with the traditionally rigid and conservative software environment on the Game Boy that Nintendo officiated.

Figure 5. Main character reading the thoughts of others on the bus in Do I Pass? (McCue, 2019).

Conclusion

Artists now have many tools at their disposal, a large and receptive audience, and the platforms necessary to create and share games. Like other artforms that have benefitted from the advent of the computer and , interactive media have been transformed by lowered barriers to entry. Interactive Fiction, game mods, games-within-games, and free/open-source game engines have all allowed marginalized artists and laymen access to the building blocks of digital expression. While the struggle between corporate interests and creative freedom is ever present, the broadening and demystification of game development has ushered in a new wave of both popular and niche gaming experiences.

Bogost’s (2007) concept of procedural rhetoric, or argument construction and substantiation through systems, is an important to conclude with. Considering games as

13 sets of systems to be interacted with frames interactive media as inherently experiential and educational. The democratization of game development through technological evolution then serves as a conduit for sparking both personal and socio-cultural change. Moreover, Zimmerman

(2014) notes that the social technologies defining the 21st century are intrinsically systematic and interactive, and that games, a fundamental technology of human systems, are how society interacts with them. It is thus important to consider not only how marginalized voices benefit from technological evolution, but in how access to these games construct ludic literacy, a necessity for communication, expression, and self-construction in the 21st century.

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