We got the brief for our next essay:

3500 words total. Split it into 2 pieces. Academic essay around 2000 and a journalism style essay of around 1500 words both about the same topic (the idea of it being two different audiences).

With this in mind, it was time to try and think about possible ideas/ topics that I could use for a written piece.

At the start, this was easier said than done.

While we had the option to relate it to our current games- the one we were working on for the final degree show, I opted not to. I wanted to possibly do something related to my own game ideas that I didn’t take forward, or simply something within the gaming sphere that really interested me.

At first, it was things like, horror graphics in the indie scene and how reverting them to this PS1 style era was blowing up in popularity.

Then, it was, how psychological horror games use their medium to really raise awareness about mental illness.

And now I have currently settled on, the positive light of fandom, the fan-fiction, and the creativity that comes from playing games (as well as how the actors react).

I plan to talk to Emma about this and see if it has any liable avenues. I dabble a lot in fan-fiction myself, so I could do some ‘research’ on the academic side.

While this was a good starting idea, I decided to change it and focus on something that really means a lot to me. Being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, having good and apt representation while being an engaging game is important and I have found in the past that sometimes games will try and either miss the mark through ignorance or grossly play it up for laughs. Thus, I decided to make my full essay topic: ‘Transgender and Queer Experiences are Important When it Comes to Video Games’.

With this topic, I feel I could really show a good understanding as both a games student and someone who is Queer and plays video games.

With my reading, I looked at only a few papers.