Gamework/Sexwork: Domestic Playbour in the Covid era

Gamework/Sexwork: Domestic Playbour in the Covid era

Tom Apperley
Sunday 29th May, 10:30

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the intertwining of gaming and intimacy. Already present, but suddenly intensified by months of quarantine and/or self-isolation. The potentials of this new situation were perceived by entrepreneurial sex workers, leading to a proliferation of adult content, and challenges for many existing platforms to either exclude or embrace such content.

This paper explores history of the multiple periphery roles of sex workers in the gaming industry. It considers this history against the contemporary intersections of gaming and sex work to reflect on what is counted as games work and how platforms’ efforts to implement distinctions has further entrenched inequality in game cultures.

Thomas Apperley is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University. He 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.