Dr. Thomas Apperley: Keynote Speaker of the 7th International Conference on Computer Games; Challenges and Opportunities (CGCO’2022) Posted on:2022-02-09 Dr. Thomas Apperley, a Senior Research Fellow (Yliopistotutkija) at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, Tampere University, Finland, is One of the key speakers of CGCO’2022. Dr. Apperley conducts research on digital games and playful technologies with an emphasis on their impact and influence on culture, particularly areas such as social policy, pedagogy and social inclusion. He will talk in CGCO’2022 on “Modeling the Gamer: The Gendered Dynamics of Fashion and Affective Labor in Game Cultures”. The slides of the presentation can be found here and the video is available here. Abstract: This exploratory talk will consider the role that fashion, and fashion photography has in including women in gaming cultures. This inclusion has often framed women in game cultures as objects to be looked at, yet fashion and clothes also provides people with intimate ways of expressing their sense of connection to and feeling of belonging in game cultures. The role of clothing and fashion in gaming culture has taken on additional significance in the contemporary image-rich social media environment as part of the affective labor of crowdfunding, influencers, streaming and esports. In this environment gaming fashion becomes deeply contested, as while it provides people with access to connections, community and commerce, others seek to reassert a misogynist visual regime to judge women gamers by their clothing to determine if they are ‘real gamers.’ Back
