Oltre la rappresentazione: la griglia Q.U.A.K.E. per l’analisi queer-intersezionale dei videogiochi

Abstract

The article proposes a hermeneutic and pedagogical tool for the critical analysis of video games in education, situating game studies within an intersectional, feminist, and decolonial perspective. Starting from current data on the growing diversification of gaming communities and industry structures, the study recognizes both the increased visibility of marginalized identities and the persistence of structural inequalities in media representation, access, and production. Video games are interpreted as sociotechnical and cultural systems capable of shaping imaginaries, affective experiences, and forms of citizenship, which requires a true video game culture to be developed. Integrating contributions from the tradition of Critical Media Education, in particular the dimensions identified by Soriani (2024), with the Queer Media Education framework developed by Messina (2025), the article reformulates game literacy as a political, ethical and affective competence. From this perspective, game literacy implies not only knowing how to understand game mechanics and narratives but also being able to critically interrogate how video games contribute to the construction of identities, distribute power, and promote or inhibit agency. To operationalize this approach, an analytical grid is developed, which examines authorial positioning, accessibility, gameplay mechanics, interactional dynamics, aesthetic-affective dimensions, representations, and narrative quality through the Q.U.A.K.E. dimensions (Queer, Underground/Unlearning, Affective, Knowledge and Emancipatory). The objective is to provide educators and researchers with a tool to investigate the ways in which videogames embody or challenge hegemonic logics, placing care, justice and community as foundational values of design and transformative digital citizenship.