Becoming the other: examining race, gender, and sexuality in Detroit: Become Human

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although the popular choose-your-own-adventure video game Detroit: Become Human is fictional and set in a futuristic time involving humanoid androids, its characters face issues of race, gender, and sexuality that exist today. With unique game mechanics and storytelling choices that enable the formation of parasocial relationships and identification with marginalized game characters, Detroit: Become Human creates an immersive experience for players. We argue that it serves as a promising example of how video games and the parasocial relationships therein can become a means of exploring the social locations and experiences of marginalized others. Our analysis focuses on how race, gender, and sexuality are constructed and complicated in Detroit: Become Human. More specifically, we focus on the following: constructions of racial identities, the meaning of a strong female protagonist, and the problematic objectification and hypersexualization of female characters. Ultimately, we call for future scholarship to further investigate what it means to “try on” marginalized identities in video games.