Table of Contents

Contents

Preface

Introduction. Clichés versus Women: Moving beyond Sexy Sidekicks and Damsels in Distress

1. From Custer’s Revenge and Mario to Fable and Fallout: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Digital Games
2. Does Anyone Really Identify with Lara Croft? Unpacking Identification in Video Games
3. He Could Be a Bunny Rabbit for All I Care! How We Connect with Characters and Avatars
4. When and Why Representation Matters to Gamers: Realism versus Escapism

Conclusion: A Future Free of Dickwolves

Acknowledgments
Notes
Gameography
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Adrienne Shaw is assistant professor of media studies and production at Temple University.

Reviews

"Gaming at the Edge offers a fantastic intervention into not only gaming, but media studies more broadly. Adrienne Shaw astutely argues that our approach to understanding representation in games has been far too simplistic and, through her careful fieldwork, offers a rich framework for future studies. This is an important book for not only those interested in gaming, but anyone thinking about the complexities of representation and media."—T.L. Taylor, MIT"Gaming at the Edge is the book that video game studies needs right now. Adrienne Shaw explodes the notion that video game's gender and race problems will be solved by greater representation of these groups. "—Lisa Nakamura, author of Race After the Internet

"Straight-forward, thoroughly argued and well-illustrated."—Digital Culture and Education"In Gaming at the Edge, Shaw offers an astute critique of come of the common wisdom about video games, their players, and representation."—Women’s Review of Books"This is an excellent, well-researched, and well-argued text that would be welcomed by any researcher or designer interested in more fully understanding the complexities of how identity relates to the world of games and play."—American Journal of Play"Scholars of gender, game studies, or media studies more generally would find Gaming at the Edge to be a critical and thought-provoking analysis of race, gender, and sexuality in video games."—Contemporary Sociology"Shaw's book is valuable for the study of representation across media and should be required reading on the politics, possibilities, and problems of media representation."—Communication, Culture & Critique"Shaw’s powerful words evoke utopian visions of inclusivity and intersubjectivity that are sure to serve as productive forces of inspiration in a number of diverse disciplines."—The Geek Anthropologist"Shaw’s Gaming at the Edge is both accessible and academic, and takes a much-needed critical, sociopolitical stance on the importance of diversity and inclusion in video games."—The Learned Fangirl"Shaw is extremely skilled at conveying complex and important concepts in an understandable and engrossing way."—International Journal of Communication"Offers an ethnographic study that explores the ways members of marginalized groups engage with video games, how the ability to identify with the characters represented in games shapes this engagement, and argues that ongoing conversations about diversity in games should be reframed to account for the intersectional nature of identity."—First Person Scholar