Hangar 13

Portraying Unfavorable Sociocultural Circumstances Through the Videoludic Picaresque

This paper examines how contemporary video games use the rogue figure and the picaresque framework to portray unfavorable sociocultural circumstances, arguing that the videoludic picaresque continues a centuries-old literary tradition of depicting marginalized lives in oppressive societies.

• The paper argues that the videoludic picaresque continues a centuries-old tradition: picaresque fiction, from sixteenth-century Spain onward, served as an early form of intersectional storytelling addressing class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality.
• The author proposes that urban density, visible economic disparity, and institutional corruption, prominent in early modern picaresque novels, closely parallel present-day conditions, which is a key reason for the rogue's renewed popularity in games.
• The rogue protagonist is framed as a vehicle for exploring how identities are treated within oppressive systems, with games shaped by their historical moment in the same way early literature was.