Through the years, stereotypical representation of others has been present in video games. There exist numerous games which consist of characters that are being represented stereotypical in a negative way. The aim of this thesis is to discuss how stereotypes occur ingame animation and to see if an understanding of the culture represented will help inavoiding negative stereotypes. Possessing knowledge of the represented culture, I proposethat a negative stereotypical representation of others can be kept to a minimum in theanimations of the game Crest. This was tested on ten participants from Sweden and tenparticipants from South Africa with a qualitative questionnaire. Based on the questionnaire results, it can be seen that the majority of the participants think the animations was stereotypical. However, the participants also think the animations were not represented in a negative way, meaning that they find the animations stereotypical in a positive way. Thus, it indicates that with the knowledge of the culture represented, negative stereotypes in game animation can be minimized. This study shall serve as a small part of a solution to a worldwide and larger problem of stereotypical representations in game animation and games in general. With a larger and broader research on the subject, an answer to how to avoid negative stereotypes in games might be found.

Studien gick ut på att undersöka huruvida animationskurvor kunde användas för att generera slagrörelser som var användbara i spel samt om dessa uppfattades som tilltalande av en publik. Det undersöktes även i vilken utsträckning animationskurvor och rörelsekurvor kan användas för att generalisera animationsfenomen. / The purpose of the study was to examine whether animation curves could be used to generate punching movements useful in games, and if an audience perceived these movements as appealing. It also held the purpose of investigating to which extent movement curves and animation curves can be used to generalize animation phenomena.

This study examined the differences and similarities in how animated 3D characters were perceived by individuals from Sweden and China. The study also attempted to examine how cultural aspects influenced the participants’ perceptions. Parts of the study were conducted through collaboration with the Chinese game company, Focus Games. A literature study focusing on body language and culture was conducted, as well as a game animation analysis featuring games from both western and East Asian developers. Based on the game analysis, 6 animations were created with movement qualities inspired by each of the cultures. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire, as well as shorter semi-structured interviews. The results show that there were certain similarities and differences in how participants perceived the animations, however the reason as to how cultural aspects influenced the responses was partially unanswered due to lack of data.