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Video Games and Gender Assemblages

Understanding #Gamergate and Beyond

Sian Tomkinson

In this book, Sian Tomkinson examines why, despite around half of gamers being female, highly-gendered stereotypical assumptions pervade the video game industry and communities of play, leading to toxic attitudes and events such as Gamergate and beyond. Tomkinson utilizes a Deleuzoguattarian lens through critique of categories to encourage a shift away from the binary oppositions that often lie at the root of this tension. Through the use of concepts including the assemblage, faciality, and the refrain, the book argues that the increased diversity of games, producers, and players have challenged traditional gamer identities. Gamers faced with this challenge, Tomkinson posits, can either embrace new experiences and affects – deterritorialising this identity – or become destructively reactionary by reterritorializing and refusing to meaningfully engage with difference. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how video game cultures and communities have a unique assemblage of influences while also functioning as a microcosm of broader social, cultural, and political tensions. Scholars of media studies, video game studies, women’s and gender studies, philosophy, and sociology will find this book of particular interest.

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Lexington Books
Pages: 264 • Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-66694-589-8 • Hardback • May 2025 • $115.00 • (£88.00)
Series: Emerging Insights into Esports and Video Games
Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies, Social Science / Gender Studies, Social Science / Technology Studies

Sian Tomkinson is a media, culture, and philosophy scholar based in Perth, Western Australia.

Chapter 1: Gendered Play

Chapter 2: The Industry and Gender

Chapter 3: The Witcher 3: A Game Assemblage

Chapter 4: Assemblages in Detail

Chapter 5: Player Norms and Categories

Chapter 6: What Do Games Do?

Chapter 7: Gamergate: Fear and Hate

Video Games and Gender Assemblages

Understanding #Gamergate and Beyond

Cover Image
Hardback
Summary
Summary
  • In this book, Sian Tomkinson examines why, despite around half of gamers being female, highly-gendered stereotypical assumptions pervade the video game industry and communities of play, leading to toxic attitudes and events such as Gamergate and beyond. Tomkinson utilizes a Deleuzoguattarian lens through critique of categories to encourage a shift away from the binary oppositions that often lie at the root of this tension. Through the use of concepts including the assemblage, faciality, and the refrain, the book argues that the increased diversity of games, producers, and players have challenged traditional gamer identities. Gamers faced with this challenge, Tomkinson posits, can either embrace new experiences and affects – deterritorialising this identity – or become destructively reactionary by reterritorializing and refusing to meaningfully engage with difference. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how video game cultures and communities have a unique assemblage of influences while also functioning as a microcosm of broader social, cultural, and political tensions. Scholars of media studies, video game studies, women’s and gender studies, philosophy, and sociology will find this book of particular interest.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 264 • Trim: 6 x 9
    978-1-66694-589-8 • Hardback • May 2025 • $115.00 • (£88.00)
    Series: Emerging Insights into Esports and Video Games
    Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies, Social Science / Gender Studies, Social Science / Technology Studies
Author
Author
  • Sian Tomkinson is a media, culture, and philosophy scholar based in Perth, Western Australia.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Chapter 1: Gendered Play

    Chapter 2: The Industry and Gender

    Chapter 3: The Witcher 3: A Game Assemblage

    Chapter 4: Assemblages in Detail

    Chapter 5: Player Norms and Categories

    Chapter 6: What Do Games Do?

    Chapter 7: Gamergate: Fear and Hate

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