A Porn Studies Exploration of X-rated Skyrim Mods
The following is an abstract for a conference paper:
This presentation explores video game modding through a porn studies lens. Game modding, like fan fiction, allows players to repurpose game assets to create their own content that can be played and shared with others in the gamespace. Like other forms of fan fiction, many mods are erotic in nature but differ in that the practice is as troubled by issues of misogyny and non-inclusivity as any other popular gaming forum, pornographic or otherwise. I’ll trace the practice of pornographic modding from its origins in early pornographic and porn-adjacent games such as Custer’s Revenge, Night Trap, and the “Hot Coffee” mini-game embedded in the code of GTA: San Andreas (as well as the troubling presentation of racialized sexuality in these games); briefly explore the history of erotic fan fiction communities in other media; and discuss the way video games, because they already evoke somatic responses (like pornography does), and because developers often allow users to modify their in-game assets, lend themselves to adaptations of this kind. Finally, I’ll focus on SexLab, a fan-created platform that facilitates the creation of X-rated content for Bethesda Softwork’s popular 2011 sword-and-sorcery game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Creators using SexLab claim it is a form of resistance and counterplay, challenging the prudish sensibilities of the vanilla game, but the mod output largely jettisons the vanilla game’s race- and gender-inclusive content in favor of heteronormative and often violently misogynistic sexual scenes and characters that border on incel wish-fulfillment. For instance, one gameplay mechanic causes (female) player characters, instead of dying and respawning when defeated, to be gang-raped by enemies, including monsters, machines, and animals. On the other side of the equation, some queer and female modders have begun to add their own more inclusive content (some of it playing with non-consent more sensitively and with greater care to context), in a way that gently challenges both the sexlessness of the base game and the misogyny of early SexLab creators, and which parallels the greater presence of diverse and female voices within the mainstream pornography industry.