2024
Ruotsalainen, Maria
Examining Gender in the Gameplay and Reception of Housemarque's Returnal Book Chapter
In: Korpua, Jyrki; Koistinen, Aino-Kaisa; Roine, Hanna-Riikka; Tveit, Marta Mboka (Ed.): Nordic Speculative Fiction : Research, Theory, and Practise , Routledge, 2024.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Game reception, Gender
@inbook{nokey,
title = {Examining Gender in the Gameplay and Reception of Housemarque's Returnal},
author = {Maria Ruotsalainen},
editor = {Jyrki Korpua and Aino-Kaisa Koistinen and Hanna-Riikka Roine and Marta Mboka Tveit},
url = {https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003561101},
doi = {10.4324/9781003561101},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-12-20},
urldate = {2024-12-20},
booktitle = { Nordic Speculative Fiction : Research, Theory, and Practise },
publisher = {Routledge},
abstract = {Returnal, a psychological horror/sci-fi game developed by the Finnish game studio Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2021, has a rather atypical protagonist for a video game: a middle-aged woman, a rarity in player-characters in the world of gaming. Against this backdrop, this chapter examines how intersections of age and gender are represented through this character in the game Returnal and discussed in its reception. The analysis of the game shows how Selene's gender is negotiated within masculine game culture by depicting her as a masculine woman, but also how this is both complicated and emphasised by depictions of motherhood. The analysis of reception both highlights the meaningful absences related to the intersections of gender and age in the reception and traces places where these resurface as meaningful themes.},
keywords = {Game reception, Gender},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
Returnal, a psychological horror/sci-fi game developed by the Finnish game studio Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2021, has a rather atypical protagonist for a video game: a middle-aged woman, a rarity in player-characters in the world of gaming. Against this backdrop, this chapter examines how intersections of age and gender are represented through this character in the game Returnal and discussed in its reception. The analysis of the game shows how Selene's gender is negotiated within masculine game culture by depicting her as a masculine woman, but also how this is both complicated and emphasised by depictions of motherhood. The analysis of reception both highlights the meaningful absences related to the intersections of gender and age in the reception and traces places where these resurface as meaningful themes.