What’s on at Beyond Limits

Current major digital archives of queer characters in video games have done a great job tracking the presence of these characters over the past few years. The LGBTQ Video Game Archive alone has around 1200 games with registered characters containing detailed information on LGBTQ+ content and fan interpretations (Shaw, 2020, 2019, 2017; Ruberg, 2017). Queerly Represent Me also contributes to the data, focusing on LGBTQ+ characters and games and player experience. However, at the same time, they point to limitations related to language (predominance of English), reliance on pre-existing lists, a restricted focus on gender/sexuality, and little attention to intersectional dimensions (Shaw, 2025). Furthermore, studies indicate that queer gender identities (especially non-binary) are less discussed and often treated as "checkboxes" rather than lived experiences (Látal, 2022; Hibbard, 2021; Lacey, 2023). This project proposes Press Q, with Quiu, an AI-supported bot and dataset designed to complement existing archival projects. The project uses a human-led methodology based on manual data entry gathered from LGBTQ Video Game Archive and Queerly Represent Me. The expected outcome is a searchable dataset that helps address gaps in existing archives including categories such as race, class, disability, cultural context, narrative role, and genre. Furthermore, it is expected that Quiu will make it possible to generate percentages, distributions, and historical trends on how queer characters are distributed across years, genres, platforms, and intersecting identity categories. Press Q contributes to queer game studies and digital humanities by presenting an AI accountable model for tracking queer video game characters. The AI tool can also support researchers, educators, students, and community users interested in LGBTQ+ game history.