Digital militainment by design: producing and playing SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs

Abstract

This article examines the nexus of global digital capitalism and US militarism in two popular war games: SOCOM I: Navy SEALs (SOCOM I) and SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs (SOCOM II). SOCOM supports digital capitalism's economic interests and the US military's promotional goals in four related contexts. In its production context, SOCOM is 'glocalized digital militainment' that was synergistically co-produced by Sony Corporation (a media corporation, based in Tokyo, Japan), Zipper Interactive (a US game design firm based in Redmond, Washington) and US Naval Special Warfare (an elite branch of the US Navy). In its development context, SOCOM is a 'hyperreal' war game that was 'digitally designed' to simulate Network Centric Warfare (NCW) and cyborg-soldiering; it serves PS2 branding functions and US Navy SEALs promotion and recruitment functions. In its publishing/circulation context, SOCOM's marketing messages visually merge the home front and battle front and promote militarized play as hyper-masculine identity affirmation. In the context of play, SOCOM's design structures virtual cyborg-soldiering.

Replaying Today’s Wars? A Study of the Conceptualization of Post-1989 Conflict in Digital “War” Games

“…At the same time, they primarily described Bwar^as a spectacle rather than a cause of violence and destruction, highlighting the use of weaponry, the ability for players to step into the boots of a soldier, and other, very specific, aspects of Brealism.^As such, elements of representational realism were not stressed more prominently than others, meaning that elements of subjective, experiential, behavioral, and narrative realism were deemed equally relevant in marketing strategies, which corroborates Payne's (2012), and Halter's (2006) and Mirrlees' (2009) analysis. Aspects of representational realism on the other hand were perhaps taken for granted, as most gamers have already come to expect a high-quality audiovisual representation.…”

“…In relation to the predominance of large-scale confrontations between the great military powers, this has important ideological implications, as it potentially reinforces a misconception of the nature of contemporary warfare, and perceptions of a continued relevance of large standing armies and extended military expenditures, at a time when this is not necessarily the case. Following Stahl's discussion on the militarization of cultural space through interactive Bmilitainment^ (Mirrlees 2009;Stahl 2006;see above), it could even normalize the inevitability of future mobilizations for war, even though here, Festl et al (2013) have shown that it is too straightforward to assume that players would directly adopt such a position. Further research into how players think about the nature of Bwar^itself, however, is certainly required.…”

“…Following this, they argued that military FPS games tend to prioritize representational realism over other aspects, describing it as Bwhat game developers and publishers usually have in mind when they market their products as 'realistic'^ (Breuer et al 2012, p. 218). This is partly contradicted by Payne, who also stresses the importance of narrative and behavioral elements (Payne 2012), andHalter (2006) and Mirrlees (2009), who, in their analysis of the Bmodalities of simulated realism^of war games, additionally highlight aspects of subjective realism, or the ability for players to take up a virtual soldier subject-position, and experiential realism, which refers to the overall ability for players to experience the feeling of virtually fighting a war.…”

“…In contrast to this notion of intensity, 11 of the weighted descriptions also contained references to aspects of Brealism^and Bauthenticity.^Here, we made a further distinction based on the frameworks presented by Breuer et al (2012), Payne (2012), and Halter (2006) and Mirrlees (2009). As such, we first of all found that, in relation to the military-themed games in particular, references to subjective realism, or the notion that players can take up the subject position of a soldier, were clearly present, in line with our previous findings on the references to state-based actors and specific national armies.…”

Відеоігри Як Інструмент Пропаганди В Умовах Російсько-Українського Протистояння

“…Останнім часом спостерігається зростання наукового інтересу до того, як масова культура і розважальні медіа репрезентують воєнні конфлікти з використанням пропаганди [4][5][6]. Зокрема, дедалі більшу увагу науковці приділяють відеоіграм: вони окреслили їхню роль у гарантуванні міжнародної безпеки, виявили, чим відеоігри відрізняються від інших медіа, а також дослідили потенціал відеоігор як джерела пропаганди [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”