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Time, Play and Games
  • ISSN: 1757-191X
  • E-ISSN: 1757-1928

Abstract

This article identifies the queer potentials of slow play by analysing the results of seven semi-structured interviews with players of the tabletop role-playing game (). During interviews, players acknowledged that a key element of playing was slowness: they took their time exploring locations, engaged in lengthy turn-based combat sessions and had in-depth discussions. Here players and their characters move slowly, in what I term ‘slow play’. In playing slowly, players created a queer experience of time through a resistance to heteronormative temporal orders defined by productivity and linear progression. I focus particularly on how interviewees wandered away from pre-established goals to produce a method of play that delayed resolution and formed new spatial locations. Ultimately, I contend that slowing down the pace of play queers time through its resistance to normative play movements.

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2025-10-31
2026-04-13

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/content/journals/10.1386/jgvw_00129_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): qualitative interviews; queer game studies; queer temporalities; slow play; slowness; table-top role playing games; wandering

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