Creating an Archive of LGBTQ Video Game Content: An Interview with Adrienne Shaw

In this interview, Temple University assistant professor of media studies and production Adrienne Shaw discusses her work creating the LGBTQ Video Game Archive. Today, the dynamic interplay between queerness and video games provides scholars with an emerging area of exploration. The methodologies of queer game studies are also developing and expanding into new territories. Bringing together close reading, reception studies, and the quantitative tools of social science, Shaw has created the first scholarly database of queer content in video games. With the help of research assistants, Shaw compiled a list (already more than 700 titles long) of games that include LGBTQ characters and references. The archive was published online (lgbtqgamearchive.com) and made available to the public in spring 2016. For each game in the archive, Shaw and her collaborators include a description of the game's LGBTQ content and often its queer interpretation by fans. The archive represents a massive undertaking, and Shaw encourages those who use it to help by contributing content. As Shaw discusses in the interview, the expansiveness of the archive format reflects an ethos of inclusivity and breadth in the queer games community. By combining scholarly analysis and fan perspectives, the LGBTQ Video Game Archive offers new possibilities for thinking about how the work of queer game studies is done.