Jörg Friedrich

Paintbucket Games
 https://paintbucket.de/de/ttdot

Jörg Friedrich is a game developer from Berlin, where he and his team develop “Through the Darkest of Times” a digital historical resistance game in which you play as the leader of a civilian resistance group in Third Reich Berlin.
Friedrich has been developing digital games for more than 15 years and has worked on titles like “Spec Ops: The Line”, “Drakensang”, “Albion Online” or “Dead Island 2”.

In 2017 he co-founded the indie game studio Paintbucket Games in Berlin to focus on developing historical and political games.

Friedrich also teaches Game- and Narrative design as a lecturer at universities all over Germany.

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All Sessions by Jörg Friedrich

  • 19. Nov | Conference Opening

    The conference kick-off will include the opening keynote as well as the Young Academics Workshop

  • 18:40  - 19:25
    How games trivialize fascism, why this should concern us and how we could change it. This lecture aims to shed light on the long and pop culturally interwoven history of digital games, historical fascism and authoritarian thinking. It will show how the way historical Fascism is portrayed in video games is often dangerous and wrong, why we need to change it and how this can be achieved. 1. How it is wrong Most games fail on a fundamental level when they portray historical Nazism because they are: - Reducing historical fascism to the military aspects of World War Two - Skipping the slow rise of authoritarianism in the early 1930ies - Using tropes like the “brave and honourable German soldier in WW2” - Repeating and imitating fascist aesthetics - Leaving out the persecution and murder of Jews and other groups 2. Why this should bother us As game developers we should realize that our creations form and change human culture. - Neo-Nazis build their communities around games that don’t challenge their revisionist histories. - Gamer Gate worked as a blueprint for later similar Alt-Right and Pro-Trump-groups. - Games must learn to deal with critical topics responsibly if they want to be equally valuable as movies or books. 3. How to change it Games need to take responsibility when portraying such critical parts of history as the historical Nazi-Fascism: - Developers need to look out for different views outside of war and military. - We need to incorporate civilian perspectives and destinies into our game medium - We carefully choose our aesthetics and avoid fascist tropes and aesthetics. - Taking a stance - Making games post Christchurch - there is no neutral stance when it comes to hate.
    19. Nov | Conference Opening
    Where
    Cinema Lecture Hall

  • 20. Nov | Summit Day

    The Summit Day will feature talks, project presentations, panel discussions, and workshops.

  • 10:30  - 11:30
    The questions on how history will be made available to future generations are still to be answered. Digital games enable users to become an active part in historical-like situation with an unprecedented intensity. Individual experiences can exceed the effect from ‚classical‘ history lessons. Ultimately, digital games are very likely to have a significant impact on what is understood by history and how historical understanding is culturally passed on. The question is: How? How can real memories find their way into a medium, which allows recipients to create their own stories? What methods can be used to fulfill players’ need for agency, while keeping true to the topic? How can game mechanics be used to enhance the understanding for a historical situation? How can video games contribute to building and sustaining a culture of remembrance? How can entertainment and a critical reflection of the past be balanced? During this session I will try to discuss and answer these questions and discuss history through games in general and in “Through the Darkest of Times” in particular.
    20. Nov | Film and Games Summit: Crossing Boundaries in Narrative
    Where
    room 104 (ifs)




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Jörg Friedrich