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Uncovering student stereotypes: the Game Design student

Aila Kubat Uncovering Student Stereotypes

Five students from different studies share their thoughts on students they never met. They share stereotypes they have of certain groups of students, and we check which ones really apply in reality.

This week we look at the stereotypical Game Design student who, according to the students, is a ‘nerd who loves to game’. But is this true?

The stereotypical game design student
In the eyes of the interviewed students the game design student is an imaginative person who:

  • ‘always plays games’
  • ‘is passionate about technical things like computers, software, and so on’
  • ‘chose their study because they like games and designing’
  • ‘spends too much time behind a computer’

The student behind the stereotype
How much did the students get right? Amanda Wendt is a second year CMD Game Design student at Hanze UAS. Her favorite thing about student life is ‘doing and learning a lot of things, but not having the real-life bills and job pressures yet. There’s still a lot of freedom.’ Amanda’s interests go beyond playing games. ‘When I want to relax, I work out, hang out with friends, do art, watch Netflix and take care of my plant babies.’

Game Design students are normal students as well, who like to drink and party too

Amanda is not only passionate about technical things. ‘I am also passionate about art, sports and learning things about myself and topics I find interesting.’ Does she think the stereotype of the game nerd is generally true? ‘In my study, you do have the tech-crazy programmers who have worked on code since they first got a computer. But you also have people who are generally interested in games, how they work and how you make them. And you have the artists who mostly just want to create art for games.’
The reason why Amanda chose her study? ‘It has a great amount of creativity, but enough other fields to balance everything.’ Amanda doesn’t suffer from the bad habit of spending too much time. ‘I think what they’re missing is that game design students are normal students as well, who like to drink and party in their free time. Quite a lot actually!’