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Abstract
Women and queer folk are frequently marginalized in gaming communities: this is a much-studied phenomenon. Far fewer studies have focused on interventions which empower marginalized players to make safer, more supportive communities for themselves. This dissertation presents a methodology adapted from Freirean culture circles to a specific population (women and queer folk) with a specific interest (video games) and in a specific place (Discord). Culture circles are participant-led discussion groups which focus on critical discourse as a means of emancipation (Freire, 1968; Souto-Manning, 2010). The culture circles in this study were a blended, qualitative approach which drew from feminist and queer research practices, methods for community-based online research, the concept of participatory culture drawn from fandom studies, and an ethics of care. The design of the Discord server where the study took place and the structure of the culture circles were informed by background ethnographic research and semi-structured interviews with participants and iterated upon using a participatory process in collaboration with participants.
The two culture circles in this study met weekly on Discord from September to December 2024. During circle meetings, participants engaged in critical dialogue around the topics of gender and gaming. Through this process, participants were able to better understand their own experiences and produce knowledge which allowed them to find space to make meaningful and positive change in their lives. Two examples of circle outcomes are discussed in the dissertation. First, participants shared and developed queergaming practices: means of engaging with games and gaming culture which are alternative to normative structures, and which make space for queer bodies and queer modes of play. The findings in this chapter extended Edmond Chang’s (2017) initial queergaming framework by showing that queergaming practices are built atop a critical praxis and are deeply participatory in nature. Second, participants used critical narrative analysis within the circles to examine the effects of societal narratives on the media they enjoyed and on their own lives. In doing so, participants developed new narratives which matched their own values and through those narratives, found space to make impactful change in their lives. I also used critical narrative analysis to interpret the narratives and practices participants developed in the circles, and in doing so, extended Souto-Manning’s (2014) conception of the critical narrative analysis tool to include media narratives as an important object of analysis.
This study contributes to the fields of games studies and to computer supportive cooperative work (CSCW) by showing the value of an interventionalist approach to research which focuses on community well-being. This dissertation also shows a blueprint for how culture circles, a methodology typically only used in education and health-related contexts, can be adapted to a unique context by closely considering the place, demographics, and interests of the people the circles are intending to impact and by collaborating closely with participants. Ultimately, this dissertation is a call for interventionalist research which materially improves the lives of participants in the process.
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