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An Analysis and Expansion of Queerbaiting in Video Games Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Cultural Analysis and Social Theory Major Research Papers Cultural Analysis and Social Theory 8-2018 Queering Player Agency and Paratexts: An Analysis and Expansion of Queerbaiting in Video Games Jessica Kathryn Needham Wilfrid Laurier University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cast_mrp Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, and the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons Recommended Citation Needham, Jessica Kathryn, "Queering Player Agency and Paratexts: An Analysis and Expansion of Queerbaiting in Video Games" (2018). Cultural Analysis and Social Theory Major Research Papers. 6. https://scholars.wlu.ca/cast_mrp/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Cultural Analysis and Social Theory at Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cultural Analysis and Social Theory Major Research Papers by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Queering player agency and paratexts: An analysis and expansion of queerbaiting in video games by Jessica Kathryn Needham Honours Rhetoric and Professional Writing, Arts and Business, University of Waterloo, 2016 Major Research Paper Submitted to the M.A. in Cultural Analysis and Social Theory in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Master of Arts Wilfrid Laurier University 2018 © Jessica Kathryn Needham 2018 1 Abstract Queerbaiting refers to the way that consumers are lured in with a queer storyline only to have it taken away, collapse into tragic cliché, or fail to offer affirmative representation. Recent queerbaiting research has focused almost exclusively on television, leaving gaps in the ways queer representation is negotiated in other media forms. Using video games as a starting point, this Major Research Project seeks to fill in these research gaps by applying Eve Ng’s queerbaiting theory that situates queerbaiting at the intersection of contextuality and producer paratexts. Persona 4 and the Life is Strange series have been charged with queerbaiting and were selected for analysis on this ground. Each text was analyzed for queer potential, queer contextuality, and paratexts surrounding negotiated queer readings to make a case for queerbaiting in each text. Ng’s queerbaiting definition is then expanded to account for player agency in video games. Ultimately, this Major Research Project seeks to provide new areas of growth for research on queerbaiting, especially during a time of heightened awareness of the trope. It also aims to highlight Ng’s definition as an apt tool for the expansion of queerbaiting’s definition and application. 2 Acknowledgements This Major Research Project’s existence is built entirely upon the support from those around me. I cannot thank my supervisor Dr. Penelope Ironstone enough for not only her support throughout the process but also for her endless well of patience. I saddled her with a directed studies class in queer media, a queer media project, and three queer media essays, yet Dr. Ironstone met the (rather one-track) challenge with nothing but enthusiasm and good humour. My MA experience was shaped by her constant guidance. Another huge thank you to Dr. Milo Sweedler who served as the second reader for my Major Research Project and as a mentor during my time as his TA. His trust and confidence in me from the very first acceptance email until my defense meant the world to me. Thank you to my mother, father, Nana, Grandad, and sister for supporting me unwaveringly despite not understanding what the heck I was researching. To my lifelong friends, Matt, Perrin, Jayan, and Rachel, thank you for letting me wax poetic about the latest queer media trope that found my ire. Sorry for spamming the group chat with memes and 1970s gay manga. I could not choose better companions to traverse this blighted media landscape with. A special thank you to Heather for living with me in a dark grad studentshōjo basement apartment. Our evenings filled with comedy bit pieces, takeout sushi, and Hannibal and Kingdom Hearts marathons were the only things that got me through this MA. No acknowledgement page would be complete without a thank you to my friends and mentors Nat and Jesse who taught me through tough love and tougher edits how to become a better writer. And finally, to Oma and Opa, who I lost along the way: I might not be a medical doctor like you wanted, but I am now partway to a doctorate. Hopefully that counts for something. Jessica Needham 3 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 3 Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 13 Dual coding and gay window dressing .............................................................................. 13 Queerbaiting ................................................................................................................................. 19 Queerbaiting on television ...................................................................................................... 26 Consider: queer video games ................................................................................................. 30 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 37 Social semiotics and queer-coding ...................................................................................... 37 Data collection for texts ........................................................................................................... 41 Categorization and content analysis of texts ................................................................... 45 Queerbaiting and paratextual context ............................................................................... 48 Data collection for paratexts .................................................................................................. 49 Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 51 Persona 4 .............................................................................................................................. 52 Queer rationale for Persona 4 ................................................................................................ 52 Persona 4’s queer contextuality ............................................................................................ 58 Persona 4’s paratexts ................................................................................................................ 62 Queerbaiting rationale ............................................................................................................. 65 Life is Strange series ......................................................................................................... 68 Consider: queer romance, choice, and indie gaming .................................................... 68 Queer rationale for Life is Strange series .......................................................................... 73 Life is Strange's queer contextuality.................................................................................... 78 Life is Strange: Before the Storm's queer contextuality .............................................. 80 Life is Strange series’ paratexts ............................................................................................. 81 Queerbaiting rationale ............................................................................................................. 84 Summary of larger genre implications ...................................................................... 89 Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 93 Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 96 References ......................................................................................................................... 110 Secondary Texts ........................................................................................................................ 112 4 Introduction In 2009, I was sixteen years old, trying to look like a boy with unfortunate Justin Bieber hair, and had my first girlfriend. I was lent a copy of the video game Persona 4 (Atlus, 2008) by one of my friends and, upon playing it, I quickly saw myself in one of the characters, Naoto Shirogane. Naoto was an ace detective who struggled with their gender representation and whom, my friend assured me, you could “date” as the male main character (MC) in the game. While there were no homosexual options for dating in the game, I was confident that there would be something undeniably queer about dating
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