Parsing the Paramour: How Players’ Sexuality, Motivation, and UDO Influence Their Romantic Subplot Decisions in Western RPGs
Abstract
This article is the culmination of a study conducted by the author on players of five Western Role-playing Games (WRPGs) who participated in the romantic subplots of those games (n=1001). Influenced by Sherry Turkle’s The Second Self (2005) and publications from Adams (2015), Dym (2019), and McDonald (2015), this study investigated the relationship between participants’ sexualities, player motivation types, and universal diversity orientation (UDO) scores. This study found data to support significant relationships between these variables as well as (a) the frequency with which player sexuality influences their in-game romantic decisions, (b) the perception of how different sexualities are portrayed in WRPGs, and (c) the perception of how diverse sexualities fit along the games’ critical narrative paths. These results contribute to the body of work that advises the industry to spend the energy and resources on more inclusive narratives and better portrayals of the sexuality spectrum.
