“Playing with Gay Sex”: Exploring the Sexual Play of Gay Adult Video Games

Harrison, Charles (2025) “Playing with Gay Sex”: Exploring the Sexual Play of Gay Adult Video Games. Doctoral thesis, Birmingham City University.

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Text Charles Harrison PhD _Thesis_Final Version_Final Award May 2025.pdf - Accepted Version Download (1MB)

Abstract

This research sits at the intersection of games, play and (gay) pornography. Though there is already a limited amount of academic work focusing on these games – emerging through the rise in queer game studies – such work does not engage with these texts from beyond the “researcher” positionality. As of such, research into adult gaming has rarely explored them from the perspective of the player. Playing with Gay Sex seeks to critically examine these texts whilst being inclusive to my subjectivity as a player within the research. Through a textual analysis that is interspersed with my autoethnographic gameplay accounts, I explore the affective sensations and affordances these texts offer in terms of sexual navigation and play. What this thesis concludes is that the sexual play within these games allows the player to discover new horizons of sexual pleasure that has been afforded by these games’ affective encounters.

The study examines past perspectives that surround (sexual) play and critiques them as aiming to offer more firm definitions of play. Instead, I argue that play is not firmly structured or defined; instead, play is subjective and ambiguous, tied to the affective sensations of the player. As such, sexual play is contextualised as actions that have been motivated by our (subjective) affective desires to strive and attain pleasure. I interrogate this further with sexual scripting frameworks to consider (dominant) structures that has prescribed (sexual) interactions within specific contexts and its relationship to affect and games. Following on from this, I explore the gay adult video game itself, overviewing a brief history and its respective content to provide context and continue the emerging work within this area.

With this perspective of sexual play, I analyse a selection of single-player gay adult video games in relation to avatars, sexual game mechanics, and transgression within the game space. Using my own gameplay accounts as points of provocation within the analysis presented, I argue that the sexual play of (gay) adult video games allow for affordances to construct forms of the sexual self, feature gameplay that is purposeful at mediating sexual intimacy and satisfaction and offer spaces to indulge in “deviancy” as a form of sexual possibility or fantasy.

Yet, within the parameters of this study, the inclusion of my subjectivity and its autoethnographic method is also a point of contestation. What emerged during the process of research was further questions around the method’s application within single-player video games. Whilst the study mainly provides analysis into how these single-player gay adult video games mediate visceral affective pleasures within their confines, the thesis is also reflecting on further methodological questions. I consider the “appropriateness” of my own autoethnography, reflecting on paradigms of conducting subjective research within single-player video games. Further, it also broadly considers the implications of subjective research into explicit sexual materials and pornography. As such, alongside its conclusion of the affective potentials of sexual play in these game spaces, it also has an additional conclusion that questions the scope of the autoethnographic method and proposes for a maximalist definition in relation to this study.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Dates:	Date Event 6 May 2025 Accepted
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Pornography, Games, Video Games, Play, Sexual Play, Subjectivity, Autoethnography, Affect, Transgression, Avatar, Sexuality, Gay Pornography, Queer Gaming, Queer Studies
Subjects:	CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-06 - computer games and animation
Divisions:	Doctoral Research College > Doctoral Theses Collection Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > College of English and Media
Depositing User:	Louise Muldowney
Date Deposited:	12 Jun 2025 10:39
Last Modified:	12 Jun 2025 10:39
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16426

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