Through the lens of hegemonic masculinity in the contemporary game development industry, this paper will present the current state of the LGBTQ+ representation in major Japanese fighting games that were released from 2010 to 2021. By performing a quantitative data analysis of the characters from the games, where each character is coded for their gender and sexuality, the frequency of representation can be determined over the period of time and across games which can indicate the state of LGBTQ+ representation in these games. Not much research has been conducted in the field of gender studies and representation when specifically focusing on fighting games. It is also a genre that has the reputation of not having good representation and inclusion in the games, but also within the community. It is a genre where the characters are front and center and play a primary part in the appeal of the game, so having good representation should be a requirement. Many players will want to be able to identify and connect with the characters they play but for many this is not a possibility due to the lack of diversity. The results show that there may be a slight increase in the representation over time, but the numbers are still surprisingly low. This shows us the importance of needing to bring more attention to this topic as it is a critical issue that is present within this game genre but also within the gaming industry as a whole.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-504664 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Sherman, Nathaniel |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för speldesign |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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