August 27, 2024
Gaymers Unite: Finding Queer Joy Through Gaming
Words by Arin Young
Edited by Abigail Vela and Nina Alegre
Note from the Editors: This article was written by one of the six fellows who participated in the 2024 Pluma Libre Journalism Fellowship. This year’s fellowship focused on developing stories about local LGBTQIA+ and immigration issues.
I first connected with the queer community when playing Dungeons and Dragons in the library after school. I have always been interested in the kind of narrative storytelling offered by tabletop role play games (TTRPGS), and it didn’t take long until I had made several friends through the hobby, the majority of them LGBTQIA+. Dungeons and Dragons became the place where you could meet other queer and questioning folks.
While playing games is important for people of all ages, gaming as a subculture typically exists on the fringes of society, sustained by a core community of nerds and geeks. Queer people who find themselves unable to fit into mainstream straight society often gravitate towards these fringe areas to find a connection. Playing games takes us out of our regular lives and dares us to imagine new worlds with different rules. Game worlds give us the place to create our own narrative in a culture that often refuses to allow us to define ourselves. For LGBTQIA+ folks, game worlds function as sites for creative expression, allowing them to find joy and community through play.
Gaming As A Third Space
The Valley is home to a small but growing community of game and hobby shops where people can connect with those who share their interests. Shops like Myth and The Flux in McAllen are hobby shops dedicated to gaming and libraries across the Valley host frequent game nights for video games and card games like Magic the Gathering. Gaming spaces tend to arise organically in communities as places where casual and hardcore players can come together. While not explicitly created as queer spaces, places like these inevitably attract LGBTQIA+ people. I propose these places have the potential to be the site of much-needed queer third space.
Vicente Quintanilla (he/they), a writer from Trucha’s Pluma Libre Fellowship, and a gamer himself, discusses the need for more LGBTQ+ spaces in his work. Quintanilla expressed interest in seeing gaming spaces help fill that gap. “I think the biggest benefit of having these spaces is giving queer people the opportunity to safely explore their identities through a less direct channel than self-confrontation. This idea goes even further than just queer concepts as well. I have made characters who are shy and timid to reflect my own introverted nature and playing those characters and giving them growth has allowed me to become more comfortable and grow alongside them.”
Gaming has played a role in Quintanilla’s own queer journey as well, so he sees why such events would be attractive to LGBTQIA+ people. “For myself, something as simple as picking the female character model as opposed to the male became a way to explore my own gender identity and my comfort with it.”
The accessibility of gaming and the varied games one can play make these spaces the perfect place to meet new people and share new experiences with one another. They create ideal spaces for self-discovery.
Where to Learn More about Gaming Space
For those interested in getting into gaming, resources are aplenty, thanks to the internet. Numerous online communities exist to share material and give advice on how to play and run games. Itch.io is a popular site for game creators to share their work in tabletop and digital games. The site frequently hosts ‘game jams’ where creators create their own games for the event. The game jam is done under a particular theme and creators have a length of time to submit their works to the jam. At the end of the jam’s run time, the collection is released for the public, sometimes ranked, sometimes not, but everyone gets to share their work. The site is popular for indie developers, and with many games being free or low cost, it is very accessible to players looking to try something new next game night.
Carol Noe (she/her) is a Valley resident who has found great creative fulfillment in designing games. She has participated in community game jams before and has even become more adept at designing digital games through a free program called Bitsy.
Noe, an English major at UTRGV, shared what she learned about herself through her experiences with game design. “I never really expected myself to be able to do this kind of stuff. I put those limitations on myself before I even bothered to look at it.” After getting more involved in game design, Noe submitted a game to an online game jam that placed 9th out of 33 entries. “It’s cool to know that the limits you place on yourself are so easily surpassed by yourself.”
For those interested in digital gaming, sites like Bitsy and twine have pre-made assets that can be moved around to create simple games. For tabletop games, there is a plethora of free content available on sites like Itch.io and in libraries and hobby shops. Often, all you need is a pen, paper, maybe some dice, and a bit of imagination.
LGBTQ+ Identity in Games
Through gaming, I discovered the intricacies of my own queer identity and found solidarity with others. My interest in gaming allowed me to meet people like Noe and Quintanilla and learn from them. These spaces were incredibly helpful to me as a young queer person, and with the gaming community in the Valley growing steadily with small hobby shops and meet-ups thriving, I hope to see others embrace the hobby.
Playing games with people fosters discovery, connection and learning. It can be a valuable experience for queer people who lack genuine spaces for free exploration. It’s also just fun! We cannot forget to uplift queer joy in our community. The interest and desire are here, finding it is as simple as inviting others to play where together you can craft a new narrative.
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