Skip to main content

“A Real Effect on the Gameplay”: Computer Gaming, Sexuality, and Literacy

  • Chapter
Gaming Lives in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

During the summer of 2004, two of my former students, Mike and Michael, insisted that I play Final Fantasy XI (FF11) with them. FF11 is a massively mul-tiple online role-playing game (MMORPG) that’s fairly typical of its genre: players select a character, join “parties” of other online players, kill various creatures, amass experience points to “level up,” and chat, often voraciously, with their fellow online warriors and gamers. Part of my gaming experience with my two students involved periodically setting up a “LAN party,” in which our various computers and Play Station 2 game consoles (PS2s) were all in the same room. We would play for hours, sometimes all night, conversing both with each other and with online friends from around the country and sometimes from around the world.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Aarseth, Espen J. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on ergodic literature. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, Jonathan. (2004, February). “In their own words: How LGBT youth represent themselves on the Web.” Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Retrieved February 4, 2006, from http://www.glaad.org/programs/csms/papers.php?

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkins, Barry. (2003). More than a game: The computer game as fictional form. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Barton, Matthew D. (2004, March). Gay characters in videogames. Armchair Arcade. Retrieved October 7, 2004, from http://www.armchairarcade.com/aamain/content.php?article.27

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, Deborah, & Kulick, Don. (2003). Language and sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, John Edward. (2004). Getting it on online: Cyberspace, gay male sexuality, and embodied identity. New York: Harrington Park Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassell, Justine, & Jenkins, Henry. (Eds.). (1998). From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and computer games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Consalvo, Mia. (2003). Hot dates and fairy-tale romances. In Mark J. P. Wolf & Bernard Perron (Eds.), The video game theory reader (pp. 171–194 ). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Consalvo, Mia, & Paasonen, Susanna. (Eds.) (2002). Women and everyday uses of the Internet: Agency and identity. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, Helen. (1995). Moral Kombat and computer game girls. In Cary Bazalgette & David Buckingham (Eds.), In front of the children: Screen entertainment and young audiences (pp. 188–200 ). London: British Film Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darley, Andrew. (2000). Visual digital culture: Surface play and spectacle in new media genres. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. (1978/1990). The history of sexuality: An introduction volume 1 (Robert Hurley, Trans.). Vintage Books: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frasca, Gonzalo. (2004). Videogames of the oppressed: Critical thinking, education, tolerance, and other trivial issues. In Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Pat Harrigan (Eds.), First person: New media as story, performance, and game (pp. 85–94 ). Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee, James Paul. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, Donna. (2003). A cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century. In Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Nick Montfort (Eds.), The new media reader. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henthorne, Tom. (2003, April). Cyber-utopias: The politics and ideology of computer games. Studies in Popular Culture, 25 (3), 63–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendall, Lori. (2002). Hanging out in the virtual pub: Masculinities and relationships online. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • King, Brad, & Borland, John. (2003). The rise of computer game culture: From geek to chic. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oksman, Virpi. (2002). ‘So I got it into my head hat I should set up my own stable…’: Creating virtual stables on the Internet as girls’ own computer culture. In Mia Consalvo & Susanna Paasonen (Eds.), Women and everyday uses of the Internet: Agency and identity (pp. 191–210 ). New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ray, Sheri Graner. (2004). Gender inclusive game design: Expanding the market. Hingham, MA: Charles River Media.

    Google Scholar 

  • Score, Avery. (n.d.). Rainbow road. GameSpotting Jump Around. Retrieved October 7, 2004, from http://www.gamespot.com/features/6102243/p-3.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Tapscott, Don. (1998). Growing up digital. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thurlow, Crispin, Lengel, Laura, & Tomic, Alice. (2004). Computer mediated communication: Social interactions and the Internet. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vered, Karen Orr. (1998). Blue group boys play Incredible Machine, girls play hopscotch: Social discourse and gendered play at the computer. In Julian Sefton-Green (Ed.), Digital diversions: Youth culture in the age of multimedia (pp. 43–61 ). London: UCL Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waskul, Dennis. (2003). Self-games and body-play: Personhood in online chat and cybersex. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2007 Cynthia L. Selfe and Gail E. Hawisher

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Alexander, J., Mccoy, M., Velez, C. (2007). “A Real Effect on the Gameplay”: Computer Gaming, Sexuality, and Literacy. In: Selfe, C.L., Hawisher, G.E., Van Ittersum, D. (eds) Gaming Lives in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230601765_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics