Jennifer Malkowski is Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Smith College. Her research areas include digital media; documentary; race, gender, and sexuality in media; and death and dying. She is the author of Dying in Full Detail: Mortality and Digital Documentary.TreaAndrea M. Russworm is Associate Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where she teaches classes on digital media, race, and popular culture. She is coeditor of From Madea to Media Mogul: Theorizing Tyler Perry and author of Blackness is Burning: Civil Rights, Popular Culture, and the Problem of Recognition.

"...an important contribution to scholarship in the field of game studies." -Mia Consalvo, author of Players and their Pets: Gaming Communities from Beta to Sunset "...a new benchmark for the critical engagement of race, gender and sexuality in the study of video games and virtual representation." -Alan Brookey, editor of Playing to Win: Sports, Video Games, and the Culture of Play

• Foreword / Anna EverettAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: "Identity, Representation, and Video Game Studies Beyond the Politics of the Image" / Jennifer Malkowski and TreaAndrea M. RusswormPart 1: Gender / Bodies / Spaces1. "I Turned Out to Be Such a Damsel in Distress": Noir Games and the Unrealized Femme Fatale / Jennifer Malkowski2. No Time to Dream: Killing Time, Casual Games, and Gender / Braxton Soderman3. "Aw Fuck, I Got a Bitch on My Team!": Women and the Exclusionary Cultures of the Computer Game Complex / Carly A. Kocurek and Jennifer deWinter4. Attention Whores and Ugly Nerds: Gender and Cosplay at the Game Con / Nina Huntemann5. Machinima Parodies: Appropriating Video Games to Criticize Gender Norms / Gabrielle Trépanier-JobinPart 2: Race / Identity / Nation6. Dystopian Blackness and the Limits of Racial Empathy in The Walking Dead and The Last of Us / TreaAndrea M. Russworm7. Journey into the Techno-Primitive Desert / Irene Chien8. The Rubble and the Ruin: Race, Gender, and Sites of Inglorious Conflict in Spec Ops: The Line / Soraya Murray9. Representing Race and Disability: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a Whole Text / Rachael Hutchinson10. Entering the Picture: Digital Portraiture and the Aesthetics of Video Game Representation / Lisa PattiPart 3: Play / Queer / Games11. Playing to Lose: The Queer Art of Failing at Video Games / Bonnie Ruberg12. Romancing an Empire, Becoming Isaac: The Queer Possibilities of Jade Empire and The Binding of Isaac / Jordan Wood13. A Game Chooses, a Player Obeys: BioShock, Posthumanism, and the Limits of Queerness / Edmond Y. ChangAfterword: Racism, Sexism, and Gaming's Cruel Optimism / Lisa NakamuraIndex