This project is a scholarly manifesto on unplaying games by (both figuratively and literally) burning them. Building from the work of trans feminist game and media scholars and designers, this dissertation asks: how can we play in the unplayable, that we might live in the unlivable? To contend with these questions, this dissertation explores "ludoarsony"—the practice of un-playing games—as a critical design philosophy and theorical approach to play. It analyzes self-immolating and self-destructing games that burn away paper, plastic, characters, and stories and gray market games that have been ‘burned' with legal dubiousness in order to show how trans play can be found in ending the (game)world. This project builds its case for ludoarsaony across three case studies, each attending a different play practice. In the first chapter, it explores self-immolating games as examples of un-ending play. By playing with fire, we can become doombringers that (un)make worlds and games alike. In the second chapter, it contends with emulation as un-recognizing play that troubles computational ontologies. By emulating games, we can explore de/compilation of software and cultural systems. Finally, it demonstrates how un-balancing play—and flipping tables—upheaves unspoken exclusionary rhetoric and ludic traditions. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to claim the "unplayable" as a space of trans imaginary—at once speculative and material—that emerges from the ashes of ruptured ludic and computational systems. It serves as an introductory investigation into the playful possibilities of what lies beyond the horizon of the so-called unplayable.

This thesis aim was to find the answer the following research question: What do queer gamers think of the game Monster Prom. The material gathered for this thesis was through a participant observation with four people from the LGBTQIA+ community playing the game Monster Prom and a subsequent focus group interview with these people. The material was analysed using Queer Game Studies research. In this paper I came to the conclusion that representation does matter to queer gamers. According to my interviewees, there is a need for representation in games and that it needs to be diverse and made undramatic. The interviewees brought forward how and why this design of an avatar system gives the player freedom, queer possibilities, and being positively received by queer players. The interviewees also brought forward how and when one should/shouldn't write a story surrounding the representation of queer oppression from a queer player´s point of view.