Mass Effect: A utopia free from queer people?

Abstract: A small set of qualitative interviews were held to explore the thoughts and choices of queer players of the Mass Effect trilogy. The participants‘ discussions and answers were transcribed and analyzed with the support of texts about compulsory heteronormativity, queer theory, Huizinga’s magic circle, as well as the charmed circle. The text explores how even with the Mass Effect trilogy storyline presenting a futuristic utopia, it still has issues ranging from the aforementioned compulsory heteronormativity, but also the male gaze, and queer content being hard to access if it is present at all. It also highlights a strong preference for mods as a way of accessing queer content within the franchise. This thesis would be useful for further studies about queer studies in games, as well as game developers and content creators portraying queer characters. Key words: Mass Effect, Compulsory heterosexuality, LGBT, Romance in video games, Charmed circle, Magic circle