Análise do discurso de ódio e homofobia em relação a jogos com personagens LGBTQIAPN+

Abstract

This study analyzes manifestations of hate speech and homophobia in online comments on AAA video games featuring LGBTQIAPN+ characters. The research adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis, Text Linguistics, and the perspective of Linguística Aplicada Transviada. The corpus consists of five high-engagement comments: four taken from an Instagram post by IGN Brasil about The Last of Us Part II and one from the Metacritic user review page for the DLC Horizon Forbidden West™: Burning Shores, within the 2020-2025 period. The analyses show that these utterances are not isolated opinions; rather, they function as discursive practices that mobilize pejorative lexical choices, ideological intertextuality, algorithmic validation, and mechanisms of symbolic exclusion. Terms such as “woke agenda,” “lacração” (a Brazilian Portuguese pejorative term for ostentatious progressive positioning), “minority,” and “forced” contribute to the delegitimization of LGBTQIAPN+ representation and to the reaffirmation of heteronormative norms within gamer culture. The findings indicate that language operates as a site of dispute, regulation, and resistance, making it essential to critically understand how homophobic discourses are structured and circulated in digital environments. This study contributes to discussions on language, power, sexual diversity, and representation in video games.