The semiotics of social justice: a multimodal approach to examining social justice issues in videogames

ABSTRACT

This article explores how principles of multimodality can be effectively incorporated into game analysis in the context of social justice. The authors use a multimodal framework to assist developers, researchers, and educators in better understanding representations of class, race, and gender in videogames. Videogames are multimodal in nature: not only do they ‘remediate’ and adopt the representational practices of other media, but also employ algorithmic, procedural, haptic, and interactive forms of expression. Videogames are uniquely situated to represent systemic oppression and privilege through what Ian Bogost calls ‘procedural rhetoric,’ i.e. the representation of systems through computational media. Videogames’ high multimodality allows players to experience and interact with systems of oppression and privilege in ways that other media cannot. To define these concepts, the paper will include examples from several videogames deal with issues of representation either implicitly or explicitly, including CartLife, a retail simulator; Overwatch, a competitive First-Person Shooter; and Apex: Legends, a battle-royale First-Person Shooter.

KEYWORDS:

• Multimodality
• videogames
• social justice
• procedurality
• gender
• race

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See Shaw (2010) for a detailed study of how ‘video game culture’ is defined across epistemological domains.

2 GamerGate was a targeted harassment campaign against game critics and developers from marginalized communities. It peaked in 2014/2015 but continues today in social media and other online spaces.

3 Crunch refers to a period of intense (over) work, usually before a deadline. It is typified by working extended overtime hours, which may or may not be adequately compensated.

4 It should be stated that when it comes to representation, more does not necessarily equal better. We simply note that their high multimodality gives videogames more options for representation when compared to other media.

5 While Apex loosely belongs to the same genre as Overwatch, we want to highlight the FPS genre because of its history of homogenous representation (i.e. its protagonists are largely white, male, and heteronormative): If diverse representation can happen here, it can happen anywhere.

6 Apex regularly updates their list of playable legends as a way to keep players invested.

7 In what may be a nod to toxic masculinity in gaming culture, the first white, male playable character to appear in Apex was Caustic, whose power is deploying toxic gas traps.