| dc.description.abstract | Previous research finds roleplaying games, as well as the wider spectrum of geek culture that
they exist within, to be defined by discourses favoring a white, heterosexual, cis-male
viewpoint, drawing up and reproducing stereotypes and tropes that are inherently misogynist,
homophobic, and racist. Heretofore, research into discourses of gender, sexuality, and race in
roleplaying games has focused overwhelmingly on market leader Dungeons & Dragons (1971-
ongoing), largely neglecting to scrutinize other well-established titles that may adhere to or
break from the same tendencies. This thesis attempts to bridge part of that gap by looking at
the fantasy roleplaying game Exalted (2001-ongoing), a game with a reputation for challenging
conventions of the genre and the medium. Scrutinizing a dataset of 31 sourcebooks making
up the majority of the material published for the second edition of the roleplaying game, the
thesis uses a method of multimodal feminist post-structural discourse analysis to unpack
dominant discourses within the roleplaying game text. Putting findings in context with theory,
the thesis finds that the second edition of Exalted reproduces many of the same discourses
found in roleplaying games and in wider geek culture: In text and images, women are
constructed as normatively young and beautiful and as adhering to a pre-set, limiting and
commodified set of roles matching Irigaray’s (1985) virgin, mother, and prostitute; women
who fail to adhere to these roles are routinely Othered as are racial, sexual, and gender
minorities. This is entirely in line with similar findings for other roleplaying games, suggesting
that even active attempts to subvert genre tropes and discourses may result in reproducing
said tropes and discourses. This extensive study of a major roleplaying game edition may
provide a significant launching point for research into the continued evolution of roleplaying
games and geek culture. | sv |
