Recent years have seen an increase in public attention to identity and representation in video games, including journalists and bloggers holding the digital game industry accountable for the discrimination routinely endured by female gamers, queer gamers, and gamers of color. Video game developers are responding to these critiques, but scholarly discussion of representation in games has lagged far behind. Gaming Representation examines portrayals of race, gender, and sexuality in a range of games, from casuals like Diner Dash, to indies like Journey and The Binding of Isaac, to mainstream games from the Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, Spec Ops, The Last of Us, and Max Payne franchises. Arguing that representation and identity function as systems in games that share a stronger connection to code and platforms than it may first appear, the contributors to this volume push gaming scholarship to new levels of inquiry, theorizing, and imagination.

Foreword / Anna EverettAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: "Identity, Representation, and Video Game Studies Beyond the Politics of the Image" / Jennifer Malkowski and TreaAndrea M. RusswormPart 1: Gender / Bodies / Spaces1. "I Turned Out to Be Such a Damsel in Distress": Noir Games and the Unrealized Femme Fatale / Jennifer Malkowski2. No Time to Dream: Killing Time, Casual Games, and Gender / Braxton Soderman3. "Aw Fuck, I Got a Bitch on My Team!": Women and the Exclusionary Cultures of the Computer Game Complex / Carly A. Kocurek and Jennifer deWinter4. Attention Whores and Ugly Nerds: Gender and Cosplay at the Game Con / Nina Huntemann5. Machinima Parodies: Appropriating Video Games to Criticize Gender Norms / Gabrielle Trépanier-JobinPart 2: Race / Identity / Nation6. Dystopian Blackness and the Limits of Racial Empathy in The Walking Dead and The Last of Us / TreaAndrea M. Russworm7. Journey into the Techno-Primitive Desert / Irene Chien8. The Rubble and the Ruin: Race, Gender, and Sites of Inglorious Conflict in Spec Ops: The Line / Soraya Murray9. Representing Race and Disability: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a Whole Text / Rachael Hutchinson10. Entering the Picture: Digital Portraiture and the Aesthetics of Video Game Representation / Lisa PattiPart 3: Play / Queer / Games11. Playing to Lose: The Queer Art of Failing at Video Games / Bonnie Ruberg12. Romancing an Empire, Becoming Isaac: The Queer Possibilities of Jade Empire and The Binding of Isaac / Jordan Wood13. A Game Chooses, a Player Obeys: BioShock, Posthumanism, and the Limits of Queerness / Edmond Y. ChangAfterword: Racism, Sexism, and Gaming's Cruel Optimism / Lisa NakamuraIndex