Reading, Writing, Queering: Active Passivity in Walking Simulators

Collaborating with Dr. Chloe Milligan, this article examines the reactions to narrative adventure games in the early to mid 2010s. Where point-n-click adventures from Sierra and LucasArts, text adventures from Infocom and Micropose, and the Myst series found critical success the 80s and 90s, the expansion of these styles in the 2010s evoked scrutiny and even resentment from various video gaming communities. In particular, this article takes up the negative connotations around the term “walking simulator” as video games in which “you don’t do anything.” Exploring player-made taxonomies for what constitutes “active” (good) and “passive” (bad) gameplay in narrative-driven games, explore how reading and walking are often used as key identifiers for passive video games. Our article considers how these passive activities are often entwined with feminine and queer connotations that evoke resentment through their interference with what players present as more masculine activities within video games. Using the concept of “lexigraphing,” our article considers how feminine and queer “passivity” plays an important and disruptive role in game design, play, and history.