Unsettling the Military Entertainment Complex: Video Games and a Pedagogy of Peace

Leonard, David J.

doi:10.3138/sim.4.4.004

Cited by 42 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Building on current studies of the political-economy of digital games (Kline, Dyer-Witheford and De Peuter 2003), the US military-industrial-entertainment complex (Der Derian 2001;Halter 2006;Lenoir 2000Lenoir , 2003Turse 2003), and the cultural consequences of war gaming (Hall 2006;Kingsepp 2007;Leonard 2004;Power 2007;Stahl 2006), this article examines the nexus of digital capitalism and ideologies of US militarism in SOCOM I: Navy SEALs (SOCOM I), released 27 August 2002, and SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs (SOCOM II), released 4 November 2003. Following a brief discussion of the cultural geopolitics of 'militainment' and the US military-industrial-entertainmentmedia complex, I explore the multiple ways that SOCOM supports digital capitalism's economic interests and the US military's promotional goals.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Mirrlees

2009

International Journal of Media &Amp; Cultural Politics

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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.

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confidence: 99%

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

Mirrlees

2009

International Journal of Media &Amp; Cultural Politics

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“…Mainstream games usually allow players to take the role of members of elite counterterrorist forces that respond to hostage situations, prevent nuclear and chemical attacks and destroy terrorist training camps, thereby casting their characters as the same type of heroic lone individuals as one finds in Special force and Under ash. Finally, as critics of militaristic games correctly point out, because mainstream wargames present pro-Western and pro-military values they can be just as easily read as constituting propaganda as games produced by VNSAs (Leonard 2004;Halter 2006;Delwiche 2007). Western and non-Western wargames are alike in allowing players to take part in simulated wars that glorify one side while demonizing the other and that generally celebrate the efficacy of military force.…”

Section: The Meaning Of Simulated Violencementioning

confidence: 97%

Simulating terrorism and insurgency: video games in the war of ideas

Schulzke

2014

Cambridge Review of International Affairs

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This article analyses several video games created by Hezbollah and Afkar Media which simulate recent conflicts in Israel and Lebanon. These games are representative of an important new means of waging ideological warfare which is increasingly a part of the media strategies that states, violent non-state actors and media corporations employ in their efforts to persuade audiences. I argue that video games allow their developers to address players as though they were participants in ongoing conflicts, rather than passive observers, and that this style of presentation is extremely useful to efforts to create an attractive image of people who are frequently described as 'terrorists'. Video games also enable their developers to carefully construct media narratives that appear to be realistic depictions of contemporary conflicts even when those narratives show signs of bias. Through these mechanisms, video games provide violent non-state actors and organizations sympathetic to them with a means of presenting their grievances and displaying their fighting prowess in ways that advance the organizations' strategic goals.

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“…30 Grossman and DeGaetano (1999). 31 Leonard (2007). and points out that it depends on an assumed similarity between the actions performed in the game and actions in the real world:…”

Section: Training Killersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defending the morality of violent video games

Schulzke

2010

Ethics Inf Technol

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The effect of violent video games is among the most widely discussed topics in media studies, and for good reason. These games are immensely popular, but many seem morally objectionable. Critics attack them for a number of reasons ranging from their capacity to teach players weapons skills to their ability to directly cause violent actions. This essay shows that many of these criticisms are misguided. Theoretical and empirical arguments against violent video games often suffer from a number of significant shortcomings that make them ineffective. This essay argues that video games are defensible from the perspective of Kantian, Aristotelian, and utilitarian moral theories.

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Unsettling the Military Entertainment Complex: Video Games and a Pedagogy of Peace

Cited by 42 publications

References 5 publications

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

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

Simulating terrorism and insurgency: video games in the war of ideas

Defending the morality of violent video games

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