Harald Koberg

Harald Koberg manages the department for digital games at Ludovico, an NGO in Styria/Austria focusing on gaming culture and game education. He conducts educational programs dealing with digital games in the social context, works as an expert for the BuPP and runs a study on differing perceptions of gaming and their social significance as part of his PhD-studies at the Institute for European Ethnology at the Karl-Franzens-University in Graz.

Ludovico; Institut für Volkskunde und Kulturanthropologie der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz


We are still weirdos. Challenging the notion of gaming culture at the “center of society”

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Friday, 13th October, 15:00 – 15:30

Based on ongoing qualitative research, Harald Koberg argues that gaming as a cultural practice is far from the broad social acceptance it has repeatedly been diagnosed with by scientific and journalistic commentators. Referring to sociological theories of deviant behavior and stigmatization he demonstrates, how and why players might still feel the need to defend themselves against accusations and stereotypes – fostering the formation of strong gaming communities on the go. Attempting to uncover the underlying structures of social powers and protected norms, he draws attention to scarcely researched questions about the significance of gaming in the bigger social context.

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