How playing as each other might bring us together

Abstract

Games are a promising tool whose value to influence notions of the self and the world should not be underestimated (Mul, 2015, p. 181). In contemporary societies, the integration of foreign cultures in multicultural societies is often met with much opposition (Appadurai, 2002, p. 44). Games might affect cultural awareness through the identification with foreign cultures. This thesis seeks to explore the value of games in multicultural societies by researching the identification in games with foreign cultures. The research uses a combined approach of autoethnography and ethnography to investigate how game audiences experience identification. Such an approach is lacking in the developing field of game studies (Shaw, 2013). Identification will be analysed by combining narrative identification with interactive identification. This research shows, amongst the most important findings, that games, due chiefly to interactive identification in combination with narrative identification, have a unique potential to be a communicative tool for cultural awareness. Games affect the audience’s cultural awareness through the identification with cultural gameplay mechanics, the discussion between the self and the role-played character and the personal narrative.