Prosthetic Metaphors, Rejection, and Representation in Games

This paper proposes that the prosthetic metaphor, long used in game studies to describe how players attach to avatars, can be sharpened by drawing on medical and disability scholarship about prosthetic rejection. The authors argue that prosthetic theory often treats devices as agentic while overlooking the lived experiences of their users, and that the concept of rejection, defined as the non-use or minimal use of a fitted device, offers a way to analyze how players respond when virtual bodies do not fit them. Using the survival game Rust as a conceptual case study, the paper examines how a 2015 update that randomly and retroactively diversified avatar skin tones, physical traits, and genitalia prompted a backlash from players who had been accustomed to default white male avatars.

The authors document this backlash through press coverage and player reactions, including refund requests, negative reviews, and hostile forum messages, and interpret these responses as rejection in the medical sense: players described their avatars as a poor fit and struggled to adjust to a changed bodily representation. Because Rust avatars function identically regardless of appearance, the authors argue that the rejection stemmed from representational rather than technical factors. The analysis draws on prior work showing that default avatars in mainstream games have overwhelmingly been designed for white male players.

The study is preliminary and qualitative, relying on a single game, a limited set of publicly reported incidents, and secondary literature rather than systematic player data or surveys. Its scope is therefore conceptual: it proposes prosthetic rejection as an analytical lens rather than measuring its prevalence. The authors suggest the framework could help scholars understand how underrepresented players, who often cannot reject poorly fitting default avatars without leaving games entirely, relate to virtual bodies and worlds.