Playing for pay: gendered labor and identity in the game companion industry

The rise of platform-based gaming services has provided the opportunity for gaming to be not just a recreational activity, but also a form of digital labor. Within this context, the emergence of game companions, individuals who assist clients in gameplay and provide social interaction for a fee, represents a significant development. This study examines the ways in which gendered discourses shape and structure labor within the game companion industry. Utilizing Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis (FPDA), the research analyzes interviews with game companions to explore how they navigate power relations and construct professional identities. The analysis reveals three primary patterns: technical skill serves as a key source of legitimacy; emotional labor is unequally distributed (with women doing more) and undervalued; and platform structures, along with prevailing social discourses, reinforce gendered divisions of labor through specific mechanisms. Concurrently, workers actively negotiate their professional identities by adapting to, resisting, and reshaping dominant gender norms through daily discursive practices. This study explores game companionship as a new form of entertainment work facilitated by platforms, thereby expanding the research on gaming labor, platform labor, and gender. It shows how gendered disparities are both reinforced and challenged through daily discursive practices.