'There's room for three' : a ludonarratological study of queer English-language visual novels

Abstract

Queer representation in games is typically limited to optional gameplay or stale narrative stereotypes. Amid this backdrop, visual novels (VNs) — a genre of games known for emphasizing interactive, branching stories— stand out for both how often they represent queer content, and variety and authenticity of such representation. The prevalence of queer VNs is widely attributed to the platforms by which they are produced, which allow queer creators to overcome financial and technical constraints, as well as cultural norms maintained at the level of game engines and mechanics. Such explanations, however, do not explain how many queer VNs, made with arguably mainstream platforms, find acclaim among queer and mainstream audiences; nor what sort of mechanics or structures these VNs employ to resist conventional ludonarrative norms. Considering queer Englishlanguage VNs as products of a distinct movement in the genre’s history, this dissertation aims to explore the ludonarrative strategies they use to represent queer identities and experiences beyond tropes and stereotypes to which they are confined in mainstream games. Following Tison Pugh’s strategies of queer ludonarratology, it examines different ways by which queer VNs disrupt the binary structures of conventional ludonarratology, such as victory and loss, allegiance and opposition, and even binaries of sex and gender. Through this analysis, queer VNs’ ludonarrative strategies emerge as a means of providing means by which players can resist norms of gender, sexuality, embodiment and ludonarrativity, in order to process and articulate their own identities and experiences.