Christian Huberts: Poor Stereotypes
Poverty in Games as Narrative Cliché and Ludic Paradox

Video games depend on narrative, visual and conceptual stereotypes to be playable – they offer quick orientation even in complex or unclear situations. But stereotypes never only serve as a neutral tool. They also convey simplified preconceptions and meanings about the world. When an used stereotype touches on a much discussed topic in society – like racism or sexism –, the game automatically becomes political. This is especially problematic, when the communicated cliché is not only superficial but gets reinforced by the underlying systems of the game. While you can simply put a half-naked heroine in reasonable armor, you can’t fix a game whose stereotypic depiction of poverty is mirrored in the rules of the game. The talk will focus on the misconceptions and paradoxes of the representation of class-related struggles in video games. Besides giving an introduction to the function of stereotypes for gameplay, it wants to show, how games misrepresent poverty as something that is unspoilt by the power structures of society.

Christian Huberts
Cultural and Media Studies Scholar and Editor, Games-Bookazine WASD.

When: 26th October 2016, 7pm
Where: BTK, Dessauer Str. 3-5, 10963 Berlin

For more information visit: http://stereotype.btk-fh.de/christian_huberts_poor_stereotypes/