Sex and play in game and porn studies: an interdisciplinary roundtable discussion

Building on a panel discussion which took place at the 2025 Canadian Game Studies Association conference, this roundtable (re)convened a group of game, sexuality, and porn studies scholars digitally in February 2026 to discuss the relationship between pornography and game studies and consider how deeper engagement between these fields might be reciprocally beneficial. Participants include Charlotte Courtois, Harrison Charles, Maggie MacDonald, Ummni Khan, and Matthew Wysocki. Jean Ketterling chaired the panel. This discussion provides the opportunity for participants to discuss play in games and sex, research creation, how definitional challenges can artificially narrow the scope of porn studies, and how shared concerns around platformization and deplatforming might produce the conditions for a broad coalition of ‘sexy media’ scholars and makers.