Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies Vol. 11, No. 1 (March 2015) ISSN: 1557-2935 <http://liminalities.net/11-1/stretching.pdf> Stretching the Code: Sexual Performances and Online Gaming Economies Lyndsay Michalik New online gaming technologies are normalized, and the demographics of gamer communities are changing. Meanwhile, stereotypes of the lonely, socially challenged, “hardcore” gamer man and the sexy game girl of his dreams continue to shape videogame character design. Sexualized characters and gender stereotypes in videogames is not a new story. Yet, multi-player online gaming is adding a new chapter. World of Warcraft, for example, has no “sexual content” in the game, but players can (and do) manipulate characters to look like they are engaging in sexual activity. Second Life’s Adult Continent, meanwhile, hosts the virtual equivalent of a red light district. Additionally, the gam- ing/dating website GameCrush extends gendered videogame stereotypes beyond in-game characters, into users’ “about me” descriptions, profile pictures, and interactions. In this light, this study focuses on how stereotypical roles of women in videogames are performed by players, who engage in various forms of sex work (an exchange of sexual services for non-sexual compensation, including financial and social capital) on web-based gaming platforms. Drawing examples from World of Warcraft, Second Life, and GameCrush, I show how each of these platforms encourages (or allows for) specific types of sexual performances, how online gamers manipulate the games to engage in various types of sex work, and how each type of sex work fits a different online economy. Gamers. 1  For a good time, click here. The word “gamers” for many, conjures stereotypical images “of overweight, acne-ridden males, living in their parent’s basements,” surviving on Burger King and energy drinks. Gamers, those “smelly, unsociable cave dwellers,” sit at com- puters or consoles for days, wearing “sweat laden t-shirts [of] the latest internet meme that would only ever make sense to another gamer that they have no chance of running into, as they never leave their darkened rooms.” 2 This gamer Lyndsay Michalik (PhD, Louisiana State University) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at Oberlin College & Conservatory, where she teaches courses in Video Production, Remix Culture, Digital Adaptation, Performance and Intermediality, and Video Art. Editor note: the hyperlinks in this essay are active if you are reading on a screen. 1 YaoiVixenBoi, “Dead Alewives - D&D,” YouTube video, June 6, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_9VPqMbxUM. 2 Shaun Cahill, “Gamer–The Stereotype,” Wordpress (blog), Aug. 29, 2010, http://gamerstereotype.wordpress.com/.