GAME – Games as Art, Media, Entertainment

Special Issue: “Queer and Trans Game Studies in Global and Local Contexts”

Edited by Robin Zingarelli, Nicole Braida, Paolo D’Indinosante and Mark Maletska

Queer (Ruberg & Shaw, 2017) and trans game studies (Ruberg, 2022) have emerged as dynamic and growing fields of inquiry, investigating not only the increasing presence of queer and transgender identities in games (Shaw, 2015; Ruberg & Shaw, 2017; Thach, 2021; Kosciesza, 2023; Maletska, 2024), queer and trans players (Whitehouse et al., 2023), and queer independent designers (Ruberg, 2019a, 2019b), but also the subversive potential of games as a medium (Ruberg & Shaw, 2017; Ruberg & Phillips, 2018; Ruberg, 2019a; Chow, 2023; Ruberg, 2025). Stemming from transgender studies, queer studies, and their intersections (Stryker & Whittle, 2006; Stryker & Aizura, 2013), queer and trans game studies have stressed the need to diversify games and game studies, as well as to establish counter-hegemonic practices and perspectives (Hantsbarger et al., 2022). Yet, as most scholarship on queerness and transness in and around games continues to be produced by North American or native English-speaking scholars, it seems crucial to begin pushing queer and trans game studies beyond their dominant geographic and cultural boundaries by centring intersectional voices, particularly from underrepresented contexts, whose contributions to these emerging fields remain limited.

The concurrence of advancements in queer/trans game studies and heightened political scrutiny of queer and trans lives (Butler, 2024) underscores the urgency of critically examining the intersection between queer/trans studies and games. Queer and trans communities have become focal points of (often unwanted) attention in public discourse, especially as several countries keep adopting hostile legislation and censorship targeting transgender identities, including, among other things, institutional closures and funding cuts within anglophone academia (Butler, 2024). In times of unpredictability, with both dictatorships and democracies limiting freedom of speech and aiming for the silencing of queer and trans lives, we must strive to preserve counter-hegemonic approaches across both the academic and the non-academic spheres.

Through the special issue of G|A|M|E – Games as Art, Media, Entertainment, we want to map the current landscape of queer and trans game studies, critically reflecting on their developments (also in dialogue with adjacent fields). At the same time, we expect to envision and surface their potential to challenge, disrupt, and transform established paradigms in game studies scholarship, bridging existing gaps and encouraging research on underrepresented themes and from underrepresented subjectivities.

We invite scholarly submissions that explore the ongoing development of queer and trans games studies, asking contributors to reflect on its origins, current trajectories, methodological approaches, and possible futures. We are particularly interested in works that consider how increased visibility might serve – or complicate – the needs of queer and trans communities. We further welcome critical engagement with the limitations and gaps that persist within queer and trans games studies, as well as proposals for moving toward greater acceptance of queer and trans scholarship within game studies conferences, academic departments, and the broader research community. Contributors are encouraged to reflect on whether and how academic practices should align with transgender activism in order to promote awareness, safeguard rights, and cultivate a more inclusive and diverse scholarly environment.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Queer and transgender representation in games and interactive media;
• Queer/trans approaches in game, interactive, and immersive media production studies;
• Counter-hegemonic approaches in games, interactive, and immersive media practices;
• Queer/trans game perspectives from underrepresented cultural, linguistic, and geographical contexts;
• Intersectional perspectives and approaches in game studies;
• Historical genealogies and possible futures of queer and trans games and game studies;
• The intersections of queer and trans game studies, and their relation to queer/trans studies more broadly;
• The relationship between queer/trans game studies and activism, including strategies for safeguarding rights, visibility, and inclusivity.

Submission guidelines

Submissions of interests should take the form of abstracts of around 500 words (excl. references) and submitted to gamequeergamesstudies@gmail.com.

Full papers should be around 7,000 words (40,000 characters, spaces included) and submitted to gamequeergamesstudies@gmail.com using the .docx or .odt template. Each submission will be subject to a double-blind peer review process.

While English and Italian are the official languages of the publication, submissions in other languages may also be considered. Prospective authors interested in submitting in other languages are encouraged to contact the editors in advance.

For questions, please contact the editors at gamequeergamesstudies@gmail.com or via their individual email addresses (robinlongobardizingarelli@gmail.com, ni.braida@gmail.com,  paolo.dindinosante@uniroma1.it, mark.maletska@tuni.fi).

Timeline

• Proposal submission deadline: January 12th, 2026
• Notification of acceptance: January 26th, 2026
• Full paper submission deadline: March 30th, 2026
• Submission of revised articles: June 20th, 2026
• Publication date: Summer/Autumn 2026

References

Butler, J. P. (2024). Who’s afraid of gender? Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Chow, J. (2023). Games have always been trans. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 10(3–4), 388–409. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-10900914.

Hantsbarger, M., Troiano, G. M., To, A., & Harteveld, C. (2022). Alienated serendipity and reflective failure: Exploring queer game mechanics and queerness in games via queer temporality. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6, Article 221.https://doi.org/10.1145/3549484.

Kosciesza, A. J. (2023). The moral service of trans NPCs: Examining the roles of transgender non-player characters in role-playing video games. Games and Culture, 18(2), 189–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120221088118.

Maletska, M. (2024). Queer gender identities and videogames: A literature review. Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 15(1), 125–50. https://doi.org/10.7557/23.7432.

Ruberg, B. (2019a). Video games have always been queer. New York University Press.

Ruberg, B. (2019b). The precarious labor of queer indie game-making: Who benefits from making video games “better”? Television & New Media, 20(8), 778–788. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419851090.

Ruberg, B. (2022). Trans game studies. JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 61(2), 200–205. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2022.0006.

Ruberg, B. (2025). How to queer the world: Radical worldbuilding through video games. New York University Press.

Ruberg, B., & Phillips, A. (Eds.). (2018). Queerness and video games. Game Studies, 18(3).

Ruberg, B., & Shaw, A. (Eds.). (2017). Queer game studies. University of Minnesota Press.

Shaw, A. (2015). Gaming at the edge: Sexuality and gender at the margins of gamer culture. University of Minnesota Press.

Stryker, S., & Aizura, A. (2013). The transgender studies reader 2. Routledge.

Stryker, S., & Whittle, S. (2006). The transgender studies reader. Routledge.

Thach, H. (2021). A cross-game look at transgender representation in video games. Press Start, 7(1), 19–44. https://press-start.gla.ac.uk/index.php/press-start/article/view/229.

Whitehouse, K., Hitchens, M., & Matthews, N. (2023). Trans* and gender diverse players: Avatars and gender-alignment. Entertainment Computing, 47, Article 100584. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2023.100584.

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