When Mad Science Found its Way in Digital Games: On the Ludification of a Cultural Myth

As part of popular culture, digital games are always a media of collective identity construction. Thus, politically, socially and culturally relevant issues are also communicated, constructed and discussed here. This also includes the question of the freedoms and limits of science. A historical analysis of the figure of the Mad Scientist in digital games thus allows us insight into its changing history of ideas, specifically the history of discourse on science.