Blomberg, et al.
Stefan Blomberg, Marie Eneman and Mathias Klang
stefan.blomberg@humlab.umu.se
marie@student.informatik.gu.se
klang@informatik.gu.se
Political Ideologies in Computer Games
Computer games act as agents of social change and provide a new information channel for different interest groups. The purpose of this paper is to study the political values internalised through the design of two recently released computer games. It is important to study the values that are built into the game environment through the design decisions, and not only studying the values and norms that are created by the users within a game environment. This area of study is important since computer games today constitute an activity that many people devote a large amount of time to. Studies have shown that games have an impact on the offline lives of the users. Online games tend to support the learning of social interaction and communication skills. It is therefore interesting to further explore what kinds of political values are being created, communicated and supported via computer games. The article will offer examples of political ideologies within games. To further illustrate our arguments we have chosen two games which seem to be on opposite sides of the political spectrum. The first is Americas Army (http://www.americasarmy.com/) and the second is Special Force (http://download.specialforce.net). The reason for our choice is that the former is produced by the American military and the Hezbollah produces the latter. Through our comparison of the games we hope to show how games are being used to market political ideas to the users. Considering that the content of the games can be seen as politically sophisticated it is interesting to note that these messages are being communicated via a medium which has a large youthful following. This article intends to show that the use of the game as a political medium requires that a certain number of complex issues are dealt with in a less than complex manner.
Short Biography
Stefan Blomberg is a Ph D student in ethnology at the Department of Media and Culture (UmeΠUniversity). His research area concerns the cultural studies of computer games and different kinds of game cultures. He researches and teaches in the fields of cyber culture, folklore and cultural Studies at the Department of Media and Culture (UmeΠUniversity).
stefan.blomberg@humlab.umu.se
Marie Eneman has a Master's degree in Computer Science from Chalmers University and researches within the field of social aspects of information technology. She is especially interested in the social complexity involved in MMORPG.
marie@student.informatik.gu.se
Mathias Klang researches and teaches in the field of cyberlaw and ethics at the Department of Informatics (Gšteborg University). He is at present writing his doctoral thesis with the working title "Free speech and corporate reputation" and other articles in the field of technology and law.
klang@informatik.gu.se
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