Cultural Influences in Video Games

Abstract

With this paper I intend to analyse some of the worlds of video games by referencing the real-world cultures that inspired them, whether in terms of aesthetics and architecture, social, cultural, or even linguistic terms. In order to facilitate the execution of this paper, I will focus as much as possible on games that I myself have extensive knowledge of or have played. This will allow me to give more detail to my descriptions or even summarise them as appropriate. Given that there is a wide variety of game styles, I will also try to avoid focusing too much on just one or two types of games. It would be easy to keep all the examples in this article focused on games that place more emphasis on their story and the emotional reactions of players, as these tend to have a much greater attention to detail when it comes to the fictional cultures they present. On the other hand, games that place more emphasis on action and focus more on offering their players a more adrenaline-filled experience don't spend as much time presenting different cultures (fictional or otherwise). This doesn't necessarily mean that the game's creators didn't pay attention to detail or take inspiration from a real culture to create a fictional world, it just means that this effort isn't as prominent as it is in other types of games. Because of this very devaluation, I will try to include in this article some examples of cultural influences in games of this genre. In more specific terms, the games I will refer to in this article are called Dragon Age, Diablo II, HeavenlySword and Bioshock, the first being more focused on the story, the second and the third focusing on both story and action, and the last one focusing more on action.