Queerness in Playexamines the many ways queerness of all kindsfrom queer as LGBT to other, less well-covered aspects of the queer spectrumintersects with games and the social contexts of play. The current unprecedented visibility of queer creators and content comes at a high tide of resistance to the inclusion of those outside a long-imagined cisgender, heterosexual, white male norm. By critically engaging the ways gamesas a culture, an industry, and a mediumhelp reproduce limiting binary formations of gender and sexuality,Queerness in Play contributes to the growing body of scholarship promoting more inclusive understandings of identity, sexuality, and games.

Todd Harper is Assistant Professor in the Division of Science, Information Arts and Technologies at the University of Baltimore, USA. His research centers on games as culture and communication.

Meghan Blythe Adams is a PhD Candidate at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Their research interests include representations of androgyny in media, as well as death and difficulty in games. Their work has appeared inLoading,Kinephanos, andFirst Person Scholar.

Nicholas Taylor is Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University, USA. His work applies critical, feminist, and socio-technical perspectives to experimental and mixed-methods research with digital gaming communities.

1. Queer Game Studies: Young But Not New (Todd Harper, Meghan Blythe Adams, and Nicholas Taylor).- Part 1: Queer Foundations.- 2. Queer(ing) Game Studies: Reviewing Research on Digital Play and Non-normativity (Sarah Evans).- 3. Envisioning Queer Game Studies: Ludology and the Study of Queer Game Content (Evan W. Lauteria).- Part 2: Representing Queerness.- 4. The Representation (or the Lack of It) of Same-sex Relationships in Digital Games (Yowei Kang and Kenneth C. C. Yang).- 5. Affliction or Affection: The Inclusion of a Same-sex Relationship inThe Last of Us (Daniel Sipocz).- 6. What if Zelda Wasnt a Girl? ProblematizingOcarina of Times Great Gender Debate (Chris Lawrence).- 7. Maidens and Muscleheads, White Mages and Wimps, From the Light Warriors toLightning Returns (Mark Filipowich).- 8. The Big Reveal: Exploring (Trans)Femininity InMetroid(Evelyn Deshane and R. Travis Morton).- 9. Bye, Bye, Birdo: Heroic Androgyny and Villainous Gender Variance in Video Games (Meghan Blythe Adams).- Part 3: Un-Gendering Assemblages.- 10. Cues for Queer Play: Carving a Possibility Space for LGBTQ Role-Play (Tanja Sihvonen and Jaakko Stenros).- 11. Sexified Male Characters: Video Game Erotic Modding for Pleasure and Power (Nathan Thompson).-12. Lets Come Out! On Gender and Sexuality, Encouraging Dialogue and Acceptance (Maresa Bertolo, Ilaria Mariani, and Clara Gargano).- Part 4: No Fear of a Queer Planet: Gaming and Social Futures.- 13. Outside the Lanes: Supporting a Non-normativeLeague of Legends Community (Nick Taylor and Randall Hammond).-14. The Abject Scapegoat: Boundary Erosion and Maintenance inLeague of Legends (Elyse Janish).- 15. Out on Proudmoore: Climate Issues on an MMO (Carol A. Stabile and Laura Strait).