UNCANNY GAMING The Ravenhearst video games and gothic appropriation

As video games are increasingly designed for and marketed to women players, new gaming styles, themes, and mechanics have become popularized. This analysis considers how the games in the Ravenhearst trilogy both reinforce and complicate expectations of women gamers through repurposing the gothic romance. While the series does not market itself exclusively to women, the narrative specifically places the player in the subject position that implies a heterosexual female. By tapping into gothic genre expectations the games help to marginalize the player within the larger scope of video games. The games play with gothic storytelling style, yet push against many traditional conventions of the genre, illustrating how digital spaces have begun to rewrite traditional narrative conventions, but still maintain their gendered affectations. Through gaming, the gothic romance premise is reproduced, but ultimately shifts the player from the role of an onlooker to the subject position of victimized protagonist.