Using Cultural Representations in Video Games to Confront Stereotypes and Misconceptions About Brazil: Favelas, Futebol, and Brasilidade

Despite being the fifth largest country on earth, Brazil’s representation in video games, from stories to settings to characters, has been limited. Brazilian settings in video games include the exoticized Amazon or the famous shantytowns, the favelas. Portrayals of the favelas turn them into shooting galleries, built on stereotypes of lawlessness and militarism. Brazilian video game characters are built on signifiers of Brasilidade, or “Brazilian-ness,” including the hypersexualization of women and futebol (i.e., soccer) fanatic men. Characters originating from the Amazon have been portrayed as exotic literal monsters, electric green men, and fish people. This chapter explores these stereotypes and misrepresentations, as well as recent positive developments in Brazilian video game development that confront these tropes, presenting a richer, more diverse view of Brasilidade, or what it means to be Brazilian. Recommendations for how to teach around and with these representations will be discussed as a way to challenge stereotypes and move toward more critical gaming practices that unpack the role global cultural representation in gaming plays in power and social justice in online encounters, and ultimately, with the Other.