Introduction

As stated by the Newzoo report from 2021, the number of video game users in the world currently amounts to three billion people. This multitude of players also comprises representatives of minorities and excluded groups, such as people with disabilities.

Foreseeably, communities of people with disabilities have undertaken many actions to increase the accessibility to games, the examples of which are “Open Letter to Polish Game Developers on Facilitating Access for People with Disabilities” from 2019 and the activity of many international organizations and associations, whose mission is to facilitate access to various forms of digital entertainment for users with special needs (for instance, the SpecialEffect Foundation, Games Accessibility Special Interest Group in the International Game Developers Association or the DAGER Systems website, which publishes regular reports on accessibility in specific games).

Nonetheless, these groups demand not only greater access to digital entertainment through, for example, dedicated controllers, functionalities, and interfaces, but also proper representation in games. Underrepresentation appears to be a significant problem. As Danielle M. Marascalchi wrote on First Person Scholar (2020): “searching ‘Best Video game characters of all time’ leads you to a list of some of the most popular video games ever created. Of the characters featured on the list: 27 are white men, 12 are non-human men, 9 are white women, 1 is a man of color, and all 50 are able bodied.”

Therefore, the aim of the presented report is to investigate in what ways representations of people with disabilities in video games shape up. We chose to demonstrate several fields corresponding to these representations. Disability has been discussed in the following contexts: narrative, visual, game mechanics, and language. Games for the youngest players have been analyzed separately. We hope for the development of a fairly complete picture of disability in video games and contribution to its more proper and comprehensive representation. The report also includes a set of recommendations/suggestions for the video game industry related to the presentation of disability and formulated in cooperation with players with disabilities. We expect that these remarks shall translate into a greater presence of characters with disabilities in games and that they shall encourage game developers to draw on the unique experience and ways of perception of reality by people with disabilities. Ulti-

mately, we also wished to study the legitimacy of using the term “fragile avatars” in relation to game characters and investigate how it “works” when describing disability representation in games.

Research concept

Subject of the research

The subject of the study is the representation of disability in video games. The research area defined in this way primarily requires a discussion on the basic terms used in a research reflection. To define disability, we have employed the characteristics with a focus on the “nonmedical” and social dimension of disability, which results from the perspective of critical cultural studies on disability, described in greater detail later in the report. Such perception of disability, not as a reparable defect, but as an “effect of disabling environments which produce disability in bodies and require interventions at the level of social justice” (Siebers, 2014, p. 290), began, as indicated by Shakespeare (2017, p.214), in the 1970s with UPIAS manifestos. The studies of Oliver (1996), Garland-Thomson (1997),1 Silvers (2003), and many other researchers are also noteworthy in this perspective. Helen Meekosha and Russell Shuttleworth (2009, p. 50) pointed out, however, that the social model of disability, as opposed to the medical one, has evolved towards critical disabilities studies, which attempt at building models of disability by eliminating binary differences in the discourse, such as impairment—disability, medical and the social model of disability, and so on (see also Shakespeare, 2014). The “International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health” developed for WHO in 2001 distinguished three sections: functions and structures of the body, activity and participation, and environmental factors, and also followed this direction. Therefore, disability is encompassed here within a broader spectrum of problems and “interaction among other bodies, activities, communities, and environments” (Ellis and Goggin, 2015).

For our study, the basic elements of the definition of disability in social and critical terms are the following: its presentation as cultural identity, social definition and stigmatization of the body of people with disabilities and determining them as minorities (bearing in mind that in a critical approach disability goes beyond the framework relat-

1 Thomson wrote about disability more as a representational system rather than as personal misfortune and bodily flaw (Thomson, 1997: 6).

ed to the category of minorities and that it requires to be “universalized”) (Zola 1989). From critical disabilities studies, it is also worth drawing on a specific understanding of the body with disabilities as a variation of the human body and the recognition of its complexity. These elements enable the presentation of representations of disability in video games as a result of a normative discourse on the body, gaming practices rooted in ableism, and the decisions of creators on the shape of these culturally and socially motivated representations.

A significant issue is a discussion on the category of disability representation. As Garland-Thomson wrote, “…representation frequently obscures these complexities in favor of the rhetorical or symbolic potential of the prototypical disabled figure” (1997, p. 15). Thus, it is a kind of cultural construct that gives specific meanings to a body with disabilities. In this case, representation has a double context. On the one hand, it is an object that symbolizes and imagines the represented, and on the other hand, it represents and thus is a “representative” in the world of cultural messages. In the studied area of video games, these representations are based on many elements of the presentation, including an interactive visual layer, an audio layer, a complex system of character mechanics (ways of moving, ways of perceiving the environment), and so on. The simulation nature of games, their interactivity, various strategies, and the player’s position towards the character (a character as an avatar—a role to play, a character as an extension of the player, a character as a puppet, a tool, a prop; see, for instance, Linderoth 2005 and Bayliss 2007) contribute to the complex relationship between the player and the character and complicate the problem of representation to a greater degree. Interactions with the character with disabilities thus become an exemplification of the complex embodiment theory, which assumes that the body and its representations mutually transform. In this perpetual game, social representations (built from an ableist perspective) seek to impose on people with disabilities the way they should perceive themselves and their bodies. Even given this social pressure, people with disabilities take measures to avoid being controlled by these representations. Therefore, the report attempts at investigating to what degree a general lack of such representations in video games is also a kind of representation of people with disabilities as non-existent, overlooked, and unnoticed.

Furthermore, few cases in which the game features such representations2 have been presented with an indication with what kind of attitudes, frequently biased, they have been constructed, and in what ways the communities of people with disabilities and people who are concerned about their adequate representation in games can oppose these unfavorable strategies (see the section on “modding” in Sims). Hence, our report has situated in a critical position, but we sought to show also those representations of disability in games that stem from respect and an open approach to the problem of disability, and a deeper reflection on the essence of this representation at various levels: mechanics (its authenticity or deception, semblance), language or plot.

The last category, a video game, also raises issues of interpretation due to a considerable number of its definitions. Two approaches, narratological and ludological, have competed with each other in video game studies for many years. The first focused on the functioning of video games as interactive plots; narratological and literary studies tools were employed in their analysis. The latter viewed games as interactive structures and simulations, defined by means of a set of rules of the gameplay. In the case of the ludological approach, the player was perceived more as an initiator of action in the game, whose role is not only to

2 It is very difficult to accurately determine the number of games in which representations of disability appear. Using the Giantbomb.com website, which was used for the first time by Gałuszka and Żuchowska-Skiba (2018) to find games with disability representations, one can try to estimate this number at several hundred titles. The database of games on the website can be searched according to the so-called ‘concepts.’ i.e., key ideas or objects present in the game. Among them, one can find several categories related to disabilities, e.g., blindness, hearing impairment, wheelchair, autism. The number of concepts and objects related to disabilities is not very large; it lacks many diseases causing disability, it also lacks categories such as prostheses, crutches, etc. Meanwhile, it is equally difficult to define the global number of all available game titles. In 2019, the Gaming Shift blog tried to do so, which estimated the number at over 1,181,000 (GamingShift, 2019). However, the authors of the calculations made only a simple sum of the offer of the largest gaming websites, the offer of digital purchases on mobile platforms, and the range of in-house game consoles stores. This result does not take into account the duplicate offer. Even if the total number of games offered is currently 600-900 thousand titles, then several hundred games in which we can recognize representations of disability is a negligible percentage, considering, for example, the UN estimates that 15% of the world’s population are people with disabilities (United Nations, bd).

perceive the setting and the plot but to actively co-create them (or simply interact with the game system in a situation in which the game does not have a narrative layer). Over time, this polar opposition ceased to be so strongly emphasized, and new interesting views began to emerge, for example, procedural rhetoric of Ian Bogost, who indicated that games have a persuasive potential manifested not through words, still and moving images or sounds, but through procedures typical for computer operations. Thus, meanings in games are created by means of these very processes.

The legacy of these discussions consists of a substantial number of game definitions. Among them, the concept of Nicolas Esposito (2005), the author of the so-called the simplest definition of the game, is noteworthy. He wrote that a videogame is a game which we play thanks to an audiovisual apparatus and which can be based on a story. Other researchers, focusing on video games, frequently propose more extensive definitions, including non-digital games. For example, Salen and Zimmerman (2003, p. 93) indicated that a game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome. Jesper Juul (2003, p. 93) described a game as “a rule-based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.”

What would stem from these various approaches for the study on the representation of disability in games? Primarily, it is necessary to point to an important role of the player in building these representations. Games are not a medium that is subject to passive perception; therefore, representations of disability are to some degree and, in some cases, modifiable elements of the game environment. Whether it is possible to actively influence these representations also bespeaks the attitude of the game creators to the problem of disability and constitutes the scope of the player’s significant autonomy. In this case, the issue of the so-called subversive play, that is, the possibility of playing against the game system, against the scenarios planned by the developers, deserves attention. It is also a strategy that can be revealed in the context of disability depicted in the game—players opposing its representations may wish to take action to creatively manifest this objection. Moreover, as in Juul’s definition, the player emotionally related to the outcome of the game is frequently engaged in the gameplay, and thus can also express emotions related to representation of disability, both inside and outside the game, for example, as comments and posts in social media or on Internet forums. Furthermore, there is a reference to the so-called game mechanics in

many definitions, that is, the necessary forms of player’s activity in the game, which are often unique to the given gameplay.3 Game mechanics frequently take the form of simple activities, such as running or shooting; however, they can be complex choices that must be made by the player-controlled character, for example, ethical judgement (see Zalen, Zimmerman 2003). These simpler and more advanced decision models create behavior patterns in the player, which can be of significant importance when the player controls or interacts with a character with disabilities. The way in which the “disability mechanics” are reflected in the game undoubtedly has an immense impact on the perception of this problem by able-bodied players and also determines the attitude of players with disabilities to the game. These “disability mechanics” are also within the scope of procedural rhetoric discussed earlier and thus translate into the final consciously or unconsciously created image of disability in the game.

State of the research

The research work undertaken so far has primarily included solutions to increase the accessibility of games for people with disabilities and to use the potential of games in therapy and rehabilitation. Nonetheless, the findings related to the representation of disability in games are very “sparse.”

The field of increasing accessibility and therapeutic applications concerns the analyses of the use of both existing and innovative game interfaces in the therapy of people with disabilities, for example, through the use of kinetic interfaces (Microsoft Kinect, Sony Wii), see, for instance, (Chang et al., 2013); (Weybright et al., 2010) or the development of gameplay control systems through eye movements (Gips, Olivieri 1996), or the use of Brain-Computer Interface (see Monaco et al., 2019, Sakharkar et al., 2019). These studies are largely connected with the therapy of motor disability (for instance, Breugelmans et al., 2010), and the experimental games produced in this way frequently pertain to the genre of fitness games (exergames). A certain part of the research conducted thus far consists of works on the development of serious games related to the educational support of people with learning difficulties or mental disabilities (Corrales Astorgano et al., 2016). While there is a number of

3 According to Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al. (2020, p. 314), they are “events or actions that the game design allows for; for instance, driving, regaining health, or shooting. Mechanics may be thought of as the ’verbs’ of a game, that is, what the player can do.”

recommendations regarding the design of games accessible to people with disabilities, they are formulated primarily from the perspective of representatives of the game industry (Bierre et al., 2005); they do not result from wider scientific research (with the possible exception of Costello et al., 2019, Cairns et al., 2021). An example of concern for the issue of diversity in games, including representation of disability, is the trade report entitled ”Diversity in Gaming” financed by a consortium of game developers (Ubisoft Montreal, Naughty Dog, BioWare, Telltale Games, and Blizzard Entertainment); however, the report devoted little space to disability. There is little research focused on the social and cultural aspects of using video games by people with disabilities. In this area, studies indicating the functions of games in the lives of people with disabilities appear quite occasionally (Gibbons 2015).

As mentioned, there are very few studies on the representation of disability in games. Thus, a double lack of representation is addressed here. Underrepresentation of people with disabilities in the games, which has been investigated in our report, overlaps with the absence of such a subject matter in scholarly sources.

Historically, Chapter Seven of Ellis and Kent’s (2011) “Disability and New Media”— “Avatars with Wheelchairs, but No Virtual Guide Dogs: Disability in Second Life” can be considered a study related to the subject of representation of disability in games. While it is difficult to fully reflect on Second Life as a game, the methods of mediatizing the disability connected with this environment seem to be quite akin. Ellis and Kent emphasized that such virtual spaces, by definition, may turn out to be excluding, for example, for people with visual impairments. The discussion on visibility strategies of disability in the virtual environment has been an important part of the consideration. The authors pointed out that for some people with disabilities, the possibility of showing themselves as able-bodied avatars is a way of equalizing chances; contrastingly, hiding disability supports the ableist discourse. Furthermore, the analyses related to the motivations of Second Life users to employ avatars with visible disabilities and the reactions of other players to these characters comprise an interesting part of the work.

A few more analyses of disability representation can be found in Diane Carr’s works (2013, 2014, 2020). Her articles confirm that if the subject of game characters’ disability appears, rather titles for older adolescents or adults are analyzed, with a general lack of research on games for children and younger adolescents. In the text from 2013, Carr analyzed a game entitled Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and in her text from 2014—a horror Dead Space. Both games have been aimed at adults. Inspired by the theories of “narrative prostheses”

and “body genres and disability sensations” by Snyder and Mitchell, the author investigated them with literary studies tools. Carr reflected on the functions of game mechanics, such as extensions and modifications to the body of Adam Jensen, the protagonist of Deus Ex, and the deformations of the terrifying Necromorphs in Dead Space, in the metaphorical presentation of disability.

Simon Ledder’s (2018) work brought new findings in the field of representation of disability in games. He deliberated on the vulnerability of the game characters. Vulnerability in this medium is inseparable from mechanics of overcoming, which translates into a natural medical approach to disability in games as a problem that characters have to handle. The main subject of Ledder’s research is a subsequent part of the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which, in his opinion, due to a common wish of characters to improve their bodies using implants and biomechanical prostheses, becomes a metaphor for the technological discourse related to repairing the body as a desired idea connected with a transhumanist perspective.

Among the remaining few studies, the works of Dakoda Barker deserve mention. Barker indirectly referred to aspects of disability, studying representations of chronic illnesses in video games. This issue has been discussed on the basis of the content analysis of the selected games in the book entitled “Games as Texts: A Practical Application of Textual Analysis to Games” (Cole, A. & Barker, D. 2020). In the chapter called “Games and Chronic Health Conditions,” the author pointed to the problem of stereotypical perception of people suffering from chronic diseases as weak, while players rather expect strong characters; hence game developers avoid the issue of disability, neurodiversity, or mental diseases. In his previously unpublished doctoral dissertation from 2018, Barker focused on constructing tools and presenting the entire process of creating representations of chronically ill people in games. He employed these tools in three games he has developed, which can be applied by the developers as an example of creating characters in a credible way, not based on the stereotypical perception of them. Rarely does research focus on discussions of game project implementations with the goal of highlighting the issues faced by people with disabilities. Such is the nature of, for example, “On Fighting Shadows,” da Silva’s project of the game (2020), presenting a young man—Marvin, who suffers from anxiety and depression caused by hydrocephalus.

In Poland, the subject of video games and disability has appeared only recently and only in a few studies (see Gałuszka 2017, Gałuszka, Żuchowska-Skiba 2018). The latter study

is particularly noteworthy, as the authors reviewed representation of disability in games, discussing selected titles in terms of the role of characters with disabilities in game the plots and ways of reflecting the functional and social limitations encountered by characters. Importantly, the authors undertook the analyses of various forms of disabilities in games. They concluded that it is easier to represent the problems of the locomotor system in games than less visible forms of disability, such as deaf and blind characters, as well as those with developmental disorders and mental illnesses. They have addressed the deficiencies in the representation of disability in games as a result of a transition state in the development of this medium.

When comparing our report with the few studies on representation of disability in games discussed previously, it should be noted that our research is of a more cross-sectional nature; it refers to the analysis of a larger research sample of games and also indicates the specificity of disability in various layers of the game, not limited to research of the plot only.

Purpose of the research and sample selection

The aim of the report was to provide answers to several research questions related to the scope of representation of disability in games, as well as their nature. We were particularly concerned with issues such as the degree of incompleteness, selectivity, schematic and stereotypical images of characters with disabilities, the nature of mechanics reflecting disability, types of disabilities represented in games, and their proportions in the studied research sample (including unrepresented disabilities). Furthermore, we aimed at investigating the presence of disability representations in different layers of the game. Finally, we also sought to form recommendations for the gaming industry on how to represent disability in games.

The implementation of the latter goal was also accompanied by the method of devising the sample of the analyzed games, which included 79 titles. Primarily, their selection resulted from the willingness to analyze games that were perceived in the industry and among players as important from the perspective of representing disability. Therefore, we created a research sample that is the result of “industry” recommendations, using statements from fan forums of the selected games, industry texts that constitute discussions and rankings of such characters, posts on social media in groups gathering players discussing the topic of disability in

games.4 And although the original requirements of the project financed by The State Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons obliged us to include games addressed to children and adolescents in the research, we expanded the sample to comprise games addressed to adults so that balanced representation of all age categories would contribute to formulating entirely useful recommendations for the gaming industry on how to represent disability in games.

Theoretical background

General methodological assumptions

The research perspective employed in the report is the resultant of critical cultural disabilities studies, critical studies on video games, and the research on characters in video games.

Let us consider what elements of the social approach to disability and critical disabilities studies can be applied in a video games analysis.

Importantly, many views perceive people with disabilities as a minority and an oppressed group (see Barnes 2016, Garland-Thomson 1997). This approach overlaps with the extensive critical studies on games focused on showing how games relate to the representation of racial, sexual and political minorities. People with disabilities constitute another research group here.

4 The following texts and discussions constituted the grounds for the selection of games for the research sample: type2cryabetes. (n.d.). [post] Reddit. Has there ever been a disabled videogame character? https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/p78ms/has_there_ever_been_a_disabled_videogame_character/; Parlock, J. (Jan 8, 2020). Video games and disability: Looking back at a challenging decade. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2020/1/8/21056713/disabilities-video-game-characters-inclusion-accessibility-decade-in-review; discussion in the comments below the article in Eurogamer magazine, Henley, S. (Apr 28, 2021). BioWare is wrong, Dragon Age doesn’t need to replace its disabled protagonist. Eurogamer. Downloaded on Dec 3, 2021 from https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-04-28-bioware-is-wrong-dragon-age-doesnt-need-to-replace-its-disabled-protagonist; a discussion in Girl Gamers group on Reddit Games featuring physically disabled protagonists, (n.d.). [post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/p78ms/has_there_ever_been_a_disabled_videogame_character/; Marascalchi, D. (12 Feb, 2020). Where Are the Disabled Sims? First Person Scholar. Downloaded on Dec 3, 2021 from http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/where-arethe-disabled-sims/; the research sample of games for the youngest players was completed based on recommendations from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Diagram 1. The area of cultural studies on disability

Furthermore, we have utilized the findings related to normativization, the key of which is the Garland-Thomson term “normate,” that is, a social model that allows people to present themselves as definitive human beings. In the games under study, we have researched the bodies of the heroes with disabilities in relation to the game normate. On the other hand, the concept of Garland-Thomson also involves the presentation of the body with a disability as a spectacle (Garland-Thomson 1997). In video games, disability is quite frequently presented as a visual (also ornamental and cosmetic) effect, which has been the subject of our analysis.

Moreover, we have sought to show in what way the social construction of the image of disability in video games is the resultant of technological processes, team design and player’s interference. This view allows for triggering the research strategies known from the software studies and platform studies, which approach the cultural and social conditions of code writing (in this case, games) and similar contexts of functioning of game platforms, such as consoles, personal computers, and smartphones.

Subsequently, the social model of disability emphasizes the role of institutions that impose an “oppressive” image of people with disabilities and determine their access to resources. This aspect has allowed us to investigate institutions and communities, such as game

studios, as places where this exclusion occurs at the level of decisions regarding the narrative shape of games, the selection of genre conventions, mechanics, and character concepts.

Also, we have referred to Garland-Thomson’s discussion on the act of “staring” at a disability (2009). In relation to games, this aspect has developed in a new direction because staring turns into a kind of voyeuristic manipulation in games. The player is able to interactively impact on characters, which, on the one hand, gives the impression of a virtual “groping,” and, on the other hand, allows for various modifications and experiments with characters. In this perspective, the concept of Walters’ rhetorical touch is recontextualized. It indicates in what way the touch is for people with disabilities an element of identification with others, a way of acquiring knowledge, sensing, and communicating. The touch becomes a form of creating meanings and persuasive action. In the case of voyeuristic virtual touches in the game, we encounter the opposite situation—a character with disabilities may become an object of oppressive touch, the player “touches” with a specific intention.

In turn, the vulnerability theory proposed by Tomassini (2019), in his view, should replace existing categories such as physiological impairment and social disability. According to the researcher, both of these categories are normatively restrictive. Vulnerability seems to have many links with the category of ”fragile avatars” we have proposed. Tomassini indicated that thinking about vulnerability also results in “meta-narratives of vulnerability,” the main narrative tropes of which are the figures of the victim, the restoration, and the seeker (activist and self-discovery). In the course of the analysis, we have investigated to what degree characters with disabilities fit in these figures in games.

Social and critical concepts of disability, which are connected with the research on culture (including popular culture), have been of particular importance for our report. Renowned and classic works on critical studies on representations of disability in cinema (Norden, 1994), literature (Hall 2016, Beauchamp et al., 2015), comic books (Foss et al., 2016), and media messages (Ellis & Kent, 2011, Ellis & Goggin, 2015, Worrell, 2018) can be found here. Representations of disability were studied in these works in distinct contexts; however, the area of games appears to be completely intact, underrepresented.

Nonetheless, the research on film, television, or literary representations may prove helpful in the context of the analysis of narrative and visual aspects of games. The aforementioned concept of “narrative prostheses” and “marked bodies” by Mitchell and Snyder (2000) holds a special place here. The authors of the concepts showed that in literary works (and more

broadly in various works of culture), disability is “always meaningful,” it is a rhetorical ploy that the authors of the work base on. In our report, this perspective supports thinking about game plots as places of often simplified and schematic roles of heroes with disabilities and about frequent “confining” in such characters hidden forms of ableism. Moreover, a very interesting concept of aesthetic nervousness also stems from the field of literary research on disability. Its author, Ato Quayson (2007), proved that the presence of characters with disabilities contributes to the creation of numerous tensions in the work; they appear, for example, between able-bodied characters and those with disabilities, but mainly between the dominant protocols of representation in the work and disability. Aesthetic nervousness accompanies the reader, who feels discomfort in the face of disability, resulting from the fact that they do not know whether a character with disabilities is presented in the work as a full-fledged hero or as an inferior and degraded character. Shall it be a legitimate character, or just a metaphor of the human condition, and so on? These tensions are located on distinct levels of the structure of the work. In video games, this model of aesthetic nervousness can be associated with different attitudes of players to characters with disabilities, which is manifested both through the gameplay and in the form of fan discourse, also analyzed in this report.

The area of critical video game studies and the concept of critical play

The second area that comprises the methodological framework of the report are critical video game studies, which focus on responding to questions about the role games play in creating power relations, the way of representing or not representing minorities in games, and finally about places, in which there is stereotyping and stigmatization. Works from feminist and gender studies showing gender stereotypes dominating in games and ways of manifesting cultural gender (Cassel & Jenkins 1998) can be found here. Certain researchers also focused on the presence of LGBTQ+ communities in the gaming industry and their representations in games (Ruberg 2020). Game-related racial issues have been widely researched (Mou & Peng 2009). Integrated studies on identity, gender, sexuality, and race representations are also noticeable (Malkowski and Russworm 2017). Remarkably, in most literature sources concerning the discussion on representation of minorities in video games, there are no references to disability.

Other branches of the game research that may prove useful in investigation on disability representations are studies related to the so-called critical play and critical design. The creator of the concept of critical play is Mary Flanagan; in her work entitled “Critical Play. Radi-

cal Game Design” (Flanagan, 2009), the author showed that games (not only video) could go beyond their entertainment functions. In her view, games can and are able to communicate values and create meanings with a significant social and cultural role. Flanagan proposed a game design model which takes these important ideological aims into consideration. Surprisingly, with all the ambitious goals of her work, it does not contain any reference to disability.

The concept of Flanagan concurs with the intensive development of various types of games that are not intended for entertainment purposes, such as serious games, games for purpose, or alternative games. Persuasive games and news games, to which Ian Bogost dedicated a lot of attention, deserve inclusion in this set (Bogost 2010). The subsequent scientific analyses devoted to values in games, such as “Values at Play in Digital Games” (Flanagan & Nissenbaum, 2016), have appeared. Our report has investigated to what degree serious games are present in the analyzed research sample of games in order to define the proportions between them and entertainment games. Also, similarities and distinctions between representations of disability in entertainment and serious games deserve investigation.

Research on characters in video games

The last area employed to create a research scheme is the line of a research reflection focused on characters in games. Among the multiple opinions connected with the analysis of characters in video games, the studies by Consalvo and Dutton (2006), Markku Eskelinen (2001), Fizek (2014), and Felix Schröter and Jan-Noël Thon (2014) require attention.

Focusing the study on playable characters, Sonia Fizek pointed to their pivotal position towards the setting—all objects and the game system revolve around them (Fizek, 2014). Eskelinen, in turn, wrote about the character as a set of possibilities. All these studies have proven that the character in the game is a complex narrative and technological construct and that its interactivity distinguishes it from the predetermined heroes of comic books or movies (Eskelinen, 2001).

Schröter and Thon emphasized, for instance, that game characters are intersubjective in nature, being the resultant of predefined properties, appearances, and narrative structures, as well as mechanics and operation of artificial intelligence and the player’s actions and reactions to the changing environment of the game. Researchers referring to studies on film characters cite, among others, Eder, whose conceptualization of fictional characters seems to be taken directly from Garland-Thomson’s works placed within the studies on disability. Within this approach, characters are “communicatively constructed artifacts” and intersub-

jective constructs “based on normative abstractions about the ideal characters-imaginations” (Eder 2010, p.18).

Schröter and Thon devised an interesting and valuable for our report three-layer definition of a character, which is the result of different types of player experiences. The protagonist of the game, as an effect of the narrative experience, is a fictional being whose mental model, containing various bodily, intellectual, and social properties, is constructed during the gameplay. This character is normally placed in a chronological cause-effect sequence related to the plot. In accordance with the effect of the ludic experience, the character becomes a tool and an extension of the player’s agency in the game. Therefore, the character’s attributes, such as health points or special skills, as well as the possibility of modifying the character, are important. Characters as a result of social and communication experience are representations of other players, for example, in multiplayer games.

There are many interesting contexts relevant to the research on the representation of disability in games linked with the different layers of constructing game characters discussed: they can be narrative prostheses, as in the literary works studied by Mitchell and Snyder (2000), they can be a ludic resultant of the game system, or they can be representatives of other players, which also determines the reactions of a game user (for example, “I feel anxious shooting at disabled people,” “this character scares or makes me laugh”).

In turn, the article by Mia Consalvo and Nathan Dutton (2006) entitled “Game Analysis: Developing a Methodological Toolkit for the Qualitative Study of Games,” in which the authors outlined four areas for the qualitative game analysis (object inventory, interface study, interaction map, and gameplay log), has analyzed characters in the context of the interface understood here as a resource of all information about the heroes to which the player has access.

Research tools and techniques

In terms of the research techniques employed in the report, it should be pointed out that the main research tool has been a qualitative critical analysis of the selected game research sample, including the following elements: visual analysis of in-game avatars of characters with visible physical disabilities, investigation of the influence of the game characters’ disabilities on their mechanics, analysis of the dramatic structure of the game, taking into consideration the role of these characters in the plot and interactions with other characters, classification of game characters’ disabilities, linguistic analysis of the text layer of games on the basis of dialogues, and the analysis of players’ discussions on representation of disability in games.

The study has used a detailed game analysis questionnaire specifically developed for the purpose of the report, which uses analytical categories related to the four researched layers of games: narrative, visual, game mechanics, and language. The questionnaire has also been used for the quantitative analysis, the results of which have been presented in the final chapter. The analysis of games for children, based on the study of the content of selected games, maps narrative and gameplay against children’s development and forms a separate part of the research. The conducted focus group interview constitutes a crucial element of including people with disabilities in the research process. Due to the survey, it was feasible to formulate a set of recommendations for the video game industry concerning the proper representation of people with disabilities in games.

Difficulties related to video game research and limitations of the research

In the section devoted to the methodological aspects of the report, the difficulties related to the research on the representation of disability in video games are noteworthy. The genre range of games, numerous perspectives of presenting the setting, which affect the perception of characters with disabilities and the mechanics associated with them (top-down perspective, side view, isometric view, FPP—first-person perspective, TPP— third-person perspective) may cause problems. The games also differ in terms of plots—we find those with an extensive plot, but also games without a plot and even games without heroes if the player controls a vehicle or a geometric object.

Since game characters are not always humanoid, in numerous cases, it is difficult to attach categories corresponding to the “human” perception of disability. As characters in the games are also non-human beings, for example, more or less anthropomorphized animals or animal-human and human-technological hybrids and “non-terrestrial” aliens, the report has also sought to capture the context of non-human disability with reference to issues connected with the disability of animals.

In our research, there were a few limitations related to the use of the aforementioned tools and techniques. Four players, all of whom were male, participated in the focus group interview, which narrowed the observations obtained from it. Undoubtedly, physical disabilities represented by the interviewees do not correspond to the full spectrum of disabilities.

In order to obtain a more complete picture, the research should be broadened to comprise other focus groups, including female players, as well as the participation of people of various genders representing cognitive and sensory disabilities. The quantitative study did not concern the data on the ethnicity of characters with disabilities in games. The research on the statements of players on the representation of disability was limited to the analysis of those in Polish and English.

Report structure

Our report comprises six chapters in which representations of disability in video games correspond to the game layers we chose to analyze.

The first chapter discusses the narrative contexts of disability in games. The selected games have served as illustrations of basic narrative strategies related to the presentation of disability, ranging from entire settings associated with the concept of disability, the analysis of the chosen antagonists and protagonists, to situations in which disability is an isolated or minor plot point.

Chapter Two is devoted to the visual contexts of disability images in video games and aspects corresponding to the afore-defined “disability mechanics.” This part attempts at verifying to what degree characters with disabilities conform to the dominant ableist visual model of games. Furthermore, this section presents the degree to which games can reflect the unique forms of being-in-the-world of people with disabilities.

The third chapter is the resultant of language studies and linguistic analysis of the discourse in terms of video games. The study of dialogues of selected games as well as the discussion of the statements of players in which they refer to the representation of disability in games have been presented.

Chapter Four discusses children’s games. We assumed that the utter lack of scientific studies on the representation of disability in games for users of PEGI 3 and PEGI 7 age groups (occasionally also PEGI 10—North American rating standards include the lowest ranges, “for all” and “for all aged 10”) necessitated devoting more space to these groups in the report. The analysis has been carried out in the perspective of children’s interaction with games at different stages of their cognitive development.

The fifth chapter summarizes the quantitative analysis of the studied sample of games. This part presents the results of the research showing which representations of disability

dominate in the studied group of games and in what way they situate in relation to various aspects of games, such as their distribution platforms, genres, or reception strategies.

Chapter Six demonstrates the outcomes of a focus group interview conducted with players with disabilities. This part includes the results of fruitful conversations with this group, which translated into recommendations for the video game industry, concerning not only the manner of adequate and proper (reputable and authentic) presentation of disabilities in games, but also the potential (for example, for the plots and mechanics) which is related to unique ways of reality perception by people with disabilities.