The Customisable Gender Play: Affordances and Constraints Across Systems, Play, and Development in Avatar Customisation

This thesis examines how videogame avatar customisation supports or limits gender expression and exploration across game design, play, and development. It shows that gender is often treated as a required menu choice that organises what the system recognises as “valid”. This binary logic becomes self-reinforcing through interface structures, default settings, and production routines. At the same time, the thesis shows how players and developers create small but effective openings that exceed this frame. It introduces concepts and analytic tools to identify where gender is being fixed, where it can move, and how inclusive change can be implemented in practice.