This time I’m talking about something that comes across as far less insidious on the surface, and yet in some ways is actually far more dangerous, because these games tend to attract far less criticism for the… nasty… things that they do. I’ve written about the overt and egregious forms that these games take often enough at this point, but today’s little op-ed is going to be a little different.
Those whose job it is to manufacture consent, as Chomsky beautifully explained once, know it too. It’s not just game developers and publishers that know that video games occupy a dominant role in the mainstream entertainment arts. They’re also increasingly attracting the involvement of actual military interests.
Whether it is an explicit recruitment tool for the army, or simply a way to align the records of war with the rhetoric and perspective that the West likes to claim is the accurate one (note: it never is) these games are, if anything, increasing in frequency. As far as I’m concerned, the biggest problem that faces gaming as an art form is how easy it is proving to be for developers to use it for the purposes of pure propaganda.
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