PC GAMING IN BRAZIL

EXORBITANT HARDWARE, IRREPRESSIBLE COMPETITIVE SPIRIT, AND THE MOST INFAMOUS LAUGH ON THE INTERNET

- Wes Fenlon

If Brazil is famous for one thing, it’s the laugh. Or maybe the Amazon – that whole rainforest is kind of a big deal. Or Pelé, legendary football player. Or right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro? Or the Caipirinha, the national drink? Look, Brazil is the fifth biggest country in the world: it has a lot to be famous for. Brazilian gamers will point to its history of Sega Master System clones and bootleg game cartridges, creative workarounds for outrageous import prices. But if you ask PC gamers, it’s gotta be huehuehue.

The Brazilian Portuguese version of hahaha became a meme in early MMOs, and later in League of Legends, as the games attracted huge numbers of Brazilian players. Huehuehue became a trolly way for others to mock Brazilian players, though the indie developers I met in São Paulo during the Brazil International Games festival felt like they were firmly in on the joke. “Those of us from Brazil, we love this,” says indie developer Leonardo Castanho. “We do this joke with ourselves, sometimes. Latin American players use jajajaja, and we make fun of that, too.”

Brazil’s famous laugh may have more than a little to do with the country’s competitive nature in sports and esports. Camilla Slotfeldt, founder of BitCake Studio, had mischief in her eyes when she broke down the difference between huehuehue and real Brazilian laughter. “It’s very common for people to laugh like huahuahua,” she says. “Huehuehue