Monstrous Desires in Pornographic Videogames

This DiGRA 2026 paper by Petri Lankoski examines how monsters function in indie pornographic videogames, with the central argument that monstrous bodies fuse fear, disgust, and attraction to heighten arousal and player engagement. Drawing on Cohen's monster theory and Lankoski's framework for player allegiance, the work positions these figures as vehicles for exploring the limits of acceptable pleasure and taboo fantasy within a safe, fictional frame. The analysis rests on a corpus of 25 indie titles, and the author explicitly sets aside questions of ethics in order to focus on engagement and representation.

The study identifies three recurring themes: the sexualized non-human body, monstrous seduction and the erosion of will, and dominance, violence, and sexual control. Among the games examined, 32 percent cast the player character as a monster, 65 percent feature a male player character, and 7 percent feature a female one. Both consensual and non-consensual sexual content appear across the corpus. The paper argues that male monsters tend to reinforce patriarchal ideals of virility and dominance, while female monsters derive their threat from seduction, and hybrid figures such as female orcs can destabilize conventional gender binaries.

A further argument concerns game design. Mechanics such as save systems, progression structures, and tutorials are presented as removing the real-world risks associated with non-monogamous or coercive fantasies. The author contends that the fantasies on offer often mirror male-centred expectations of sexual access more closely than the reciprocal dynamics found in actual swinger communities. The overall conclusion is that these games transform taboo material into a source of pleasurable fascination by blending desire with disgust, and that monsters serve as figures of desire disguised as fear.