Evan W. Lauteria

Position Title

PhD Candidate

ewlauteria@ucdavis.edu

Social Sciences & Humanities

About

Education

MS, Cultural Foundations of Education, Syracuse University
BA, Women's Studies, University of Florida

Research Focus

Research Interests

Sociology of Culture, Video Game Studies, Science & Technology Studies, Gender/Sexuality, Translation and Localization, Sociology of Organizations, Social Network Analysis

Dissertation

My dissertation, “Global Games, Localized Cultures: The Rise of the Japanese Games Industry” compares the production practices, marketing techniques, and localization strategies of prominent Japanese video game companies as they moved beyond the borders of Japan to North America and Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. The project draws from archival data—magazines, game guides, marketing materials, and industry trade documents—and oral histories—those of designers, marketers, and journalists—collected with collaborators in Japan. The project simultaneously merges formal and materialist approaches to game studies with cultural and social inquiry, connecting the contexts of game production and marketing and localization activities to the contents and mechanics of games themselves.

Publications

Selected Publications

Shaw, Adrienne, Evan W. Lauteria, Hocheol Yang, Christopher J. Persaud, and Alayna M. Cole. 2019. “Counting Queerness in Games: Trends in LGBTQ Digital Game Representation, 1985‒2005.” International Journal of Communication 13: 1544-1569. Accessible online at https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/9754

Lauteria, Evan W. 2018. “Envisioning Queer Game Studies: Ludology and the Study of Queer Game Content.” Pp. 35-53 in Queerness in Play, edited by T. Harper, M.B. Adams, N. Taylor. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

Lauteria, Evan W. 2016. “Affective Structuring and the Role of Race and Nation in XCOM.” Analog Game Studies III(I). Published online at http://analoggamestudies.org/2016/01/affective-structuring-and-the-role-of-race-and-nation-in-xcom/

Lauteria, Evan W. 2015. “Assuring Quality: Early-1990s Nintendo Censorship and the Regulation of Queer Sexuality and Gender.” Pp. 53-71 in Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Games, edited by M. Wysocki & E.W. Lauteria. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press.

Lauteria, Evan W. 2012. “Ga(y)mer Theory: Queer Modding as Resistance.” Reconstruction 12(2): Playing for Keeps: Games and Cultural Resistance (Special Issue). Published online at http://reconstruction.eserver.org/122/Lauteria_Evan.shtml

Lauteria, Evan W. 2011. “ ‘Procedurally and Fictively Relevant’: Exploring the Potential for Queer Content in Video Games.” Berfrois Online Literary Magazine 13, December 20. Published online at http://www.berfrois.com/2011/12/queer-gaming-evan-lauteria/. (Invited Contributor)

Book Announcement

Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games, co-edited collection with Matthew Wysocki (Flagler College).

About: The word sex has many implications when it is used in connection with video games. As game studies scholars have argued, games are player-driven experiences. Players must participate in processes of play to move the game forward. The addition of content that incorporates sex and/or sexuality adds complexity that other media do not share. Rated M for Mature further develops our understanding of the practices and activities of video games, specifically focusing on the intersection of games with sexual content. From the supposed scandal of “Hot Coffee” to the emergence of same-sex romance options in RPGs, the collection explores the concepts of sex and sexuality in the area of video games.

For more information, please visit Bloomsbury Publishing's site for the book: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/rated-m-for-mature-9781628925760/