Challenge the Default
To date, this is my most popular talk, presented at various games conference 9 times with varying length and focus points. In this provocative talk I present a short analysis of popular game genres, and their creators, the “default humans”. Default Human is a term I have developed for white, male, cis, heterosexual, able-bodied middle class people who are often considered “normal”, when in reality, they are a minority who gets to make many decisions in the entertainment industry (and many other places), which affect all of us. What is cultural appropriation and why is this question relevant to making video games? Which are the kind of games, mechanics, themes, settings, and characters we have been neglecting? What could games look like if they were made by non-default people? Contact me to book this talk or to take a look at the slides.
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