Video Games and the Ideology of War

Video games have become a central part of Western popular culture, and while the academic study of the medium has progressed greatly in the past decade, analysis of games is still profoundly underdeveloped in comparison to analysis of other popular media such as film and television. Moreover, in the context of a highly mediated society characterized by volunteer-based militaries, direct experience with the reality of warfare is rare, and for the majority of citizens, war is something that is understood and engaged with primarily through the distorting lens of popular media. War is often a central theme in video games, but it is rarely examined with any substantial level of criticism. The goal of this project, therefore, is to explore the question how is ideology present in the depictions of war and political violence in video games?