Romance in the Digital Game

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-041-02814-7
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 188 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Reihe: Routledge Advances in Popular Culture Studies

In the last decade, the popularity of ‘romance’ in the AAA game has exploded. It has become an expectation for major releases and a regular object of fan obsession. High profile games such as Baldur’s Gate III (2023), Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) and Starfield (2023) all prominently feature in-game romance in their multi-million-dollar promotional campaigns. Moreover, rampant speculation by gaming journalists and fans about who is ‘romanceable’ will regularly accompany the announcement of a new title. However, representations of romance have long been under-examined and vaguely defined by scholars. This leaves important questions unanswered. How does the digital game mediate cultural attitudes towards love and sex? How can we classify representations of romance in the digital game? Does romance simply replicate existing hegemonies surrounding gender and sexuality, or does it offer a space for transgressive play?

Book title positions optional romance in the AAA game as a central object of analysis. Based on the close analysis of some of the most commercially and culturally significant games of the last 30 years like Grand Theft Auto IV (2008), the Mass Effect series (2007-2021), and the Elder Scrolls series (1994-2024), it is the first full-length monograph to effectively and comprehensively categorise how mainstream gaming asks its audience to engage with romance. It interrogates the idiosyncrasies of romance in the popular games to provide fresh insights into messaging surrounding normative social understandings of love, sex, and intimacy.

Through theorising four representational categories of romance—Limerent, Physical, Domestic, and Ludic—Automatic Love introduces a new theoretical framework for scholars to understand romance, gender, and sexuality in gaming.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brierley-Beare, Amy

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Professionelle Anwendung Interaktionsdesign für Computerspiele
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstformen, Kunsthandwerk Installations-, Aktions-, Computer- und Videokunst
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: Could it be Love? 2. Why Romance Matters: Understanding Romance as Play 3. Love or Limerence? Interrogating the ‘Epic Love Story’ 4. ‘The Dollhouse Effect’: Domestic Representations of Romance 5. Powering Up with Love: Ludic Representations of Romance 6. Always up for it: Physicality and Sex in Video Games 7. Transgression and Exploration: The Opportunities of Romance 8. Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Amy Brierley-Beare is a Lecturer in Media at the University of Adelaide. Her research investigates how mainstream gaming represents and negotiates romance and social intimacy. Other research interests include game studies, emergent narrative, audience studies, experiential metaphor, and transgressive play.