{"id":8066,"date":"2021-02-03T16:59:27","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T14:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playlab.uta.fi\/?p=8066"},"modified":"2021-02-03T16:59:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T14:59:27","slug":"perverting-play-healslutting-in-overwatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/perverting-play-healslutting-in-overwatch\/","title":{"rendered":"Perverting Play \u2013\u00a0Healslutting\u00a0in Overwatch\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pro\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Strats<\/span><\/i>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Healsluts<\/span><\/i>: Overwatch, Sexuality, and Perverting the Mechanics of Play<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(2019)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>by Kyle\u00a0<\/span>Bohunicky<\/span>\u00a0& Jordan Youngblood<\/span>\u00a0discusses the\u00a0<\/span>phenomenon of \u201c<\/span>healslutting<\/span>,\u201d a form of roleplay<\/span>\u00a0where the act of healing other players is sexualized through gameplay mechanics and\u00a0<\/span>interactions with other players.<\/span>\u00a0The article focuses on the ways that\u00a0<\/span>Overwatches gameplay works and the community that has\u00a0<\/span>formed around th<\/span>is type of play.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The article first establishes that Overwatch has sexual themes in it, and that<\/span>\u00a0Activision<\/span>\u00a0Blizzard does not want to censor people completely in relation to the subject. However, more overt practices of sexualising the game\u2019s ch<\/span>aracters have been taken down by the company<\/span>, like the online magazine\u00a0<\/span>Playwatch<\/span>, which was an openly sexual form of fan content<\/span>, showing that the company wants to maintain a certain distance between the game and its sexualization.<\/span>\u00a0The\u00a0<\/span>healslut<\/span>\u00a0community is then proposed as a possible counter-cultural<\/span>\u00a0push against this.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The article then goes into Overwatch in detail as a game, explaining<\/span>\u00a0its different game modes, competitive elements, and<\/span>\u00a0playable characters. The Overwatch community has personalized many characters in their own ways ever since the game\u2019s launch in 2016 and has generated new personas for\u00a0<\/span>heroes such as Soldier 76 and D.va, with<\/span>\u00a0names like<\/span>\u00a0Daddy 76<\/span>\u00a0and Gremlin D.va<\/span>\u00a0respectively. These new personifications are related to both the characters gameplay styles as well as their\u00a0<\/span>canon personalities and roles in the game\u2019s overarching story. Mercy, origi<\/span>nally even designed to resemble an angel<\/span>\u00a0both aesthetically and mechanically, has been dubbed as the \u201cmother\u201d of the character cast, at least in the more innocent\u00a0<\/span>parts of the community<\/span>, but<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>i<\/span>n the\u00a0<\/span>healslut<\/span>\u00a0community, Mercy has become a sort of figurehead for the entire subculture<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Healslutting<\/span>\u00a0is not unique to Overwatch, and exists in other games as well, with the Reddit user u\/<\/span>ToasterTroll<\/span>\u00a0(2018) listing games such as Fallout, Fire Emb<\/span>lem, and the Payday series having potential for similar behaviour.<\/span>\u00a0A Kotaku article from 2016 similarly reinforces this idea: \u201cthe beauty of\u00a0<\/span>healsluts<\/span>\u00a0is you can make anything\u2014literally anything\u2014part of the kink.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>The community\u2019s own wiki states that sexualizing gameplay is\u00a0<\/span>similar to<\/span>\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>modding<\/span>\u00a0of games\u00a0<\/span>in an effort to<\/span>\u00a0breath new excitement into playing them.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Sexualizing gameplay is not exclusive to just healing either. There are other similar subcultures in the gaming sphere, like the\u00a0<\/span>TankSlut<\/span>\u00a0and the\u00a0<\/span>DPSDom<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>that make use of their distinct gameplay roles in different ways.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>healslut<\/span>\u00a0community has its own subreddit on the website Reddit, which sees active use like discussions, people looking for other players to roleplay with, and straight up pornographic content.<\/span>\u00a0The community has even created its own system of recognizing other users in-game, with the use of specific sprays and emotes.<\/span>\u00a0With the assistance of these tools, people can find others to engage with, and move on to personal messaging in order to roleplay without disturbing other players, which is\u00a0<\/span>strictly<\/span>\u00a0agai<\/span>nst Overwatch\u2019s community rules.<\/span>\u00a0People have even created \u201cgames within games\u201d for\u00a0<\/span>healslutting<\/span>, that give the player ex<\/span>tra rules outside of the game itself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These systems are an active way of sexualising otherwise non-sexual gameplay elements.\u00a0<\/span>The game starts to blend in with the out-of-game experience in new ways, in a way making the\u00a0<\/span>elements of the game sexual in themselves. As stated earlier, Activision Blizzard has attempted to root out sexuality that is too overt from their game, but this kind of metagaming makes it impossible to entirely get rid of the sexual\u00a0<\/span>aspects without fundamentally changing the core gameplay.\u00a0<\/span>Healslutting<\/span>, in a sense, is about revealing the sexual aspects of videogame mechanics<\/span>\u00a0that are already there.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The article concludes by compressing\u00a0<\/span>all<\/span>\u00a0the information\u00a0<\/span>above and<\/span>\u00a0adding that the authors are not implying that\u00a0<\/span>these sorts of sexualized experiences<\/span>\u00a0should actively be added by the developers<\/span>\u00a0or monetized for profit. There is a middle-ground between the niche community and the\u00a0<\/span>developers, and that the modern iterations of sexuality that the developers imply exist in the game are not as diverse an<\/span>d inclusive as the developers say that they are.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Picture from: https:\/\/www.mobygames.com\/game\/overwatch-origins-edition\/promo\/promoImageId,146972\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Original article:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bohucinky<\/span>, Kyle & Youngblood, Jordan.\u00a0<\/span>The Pro\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Strats<\/span><\/i>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Healsluts<\/span><\/i>: Overwatch, Sexuality, and Perverting the Mechanics of Play<\/span><\/i>,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0http:\/\/widerscreen.fi\/numerot\/2019-1-2\/the-pro-strats-of-healsluts-overwatch-sexuality-and-perverting-the-mechanics-of-play\/, 7<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0November 2019,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humans have the remarkable ability to\u00a0sexualize anything, so, naturally, playing\u00a0videogames\u00a0has been\u00a0subject to this\u00a0tendency. One interesting form of this is the\u00a0healslut phenomenon in\u00a0Activision\u00a0Blizzard\u2019s\u00a0Overwatch.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":8194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[237],"tags":[1253,1254,1255,1116,1256],"class_list":["post-8066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-research-highlights","tag-activision","tag-blizzard","tag-healslut","tag-overwatch","tag-sexualization","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}