L.A. Noire is set in 1947 Los Angeles. Disco Elysium takes place in an invented, run-down city and is often praised as a smart, progressive game. Yet Sara Humphreys finds the same figure in both: the femme fatale of noir, the "bad woman" who deserves her fate. She follows the fans who push back against that convention, and asks what it would mean to play as her instead. [Please note: this essay includes images of violence against women and discusses sexual abuse and suicide.]
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Sara Humphreys (2026) studied this question.
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