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Targeting the Player Cover
By: Rune Ottosen  
Open Access
|Feb 2017

Abstract

The historical roots of the technology and design of computer games can be found in Pentagon-supported research in 1960s. Many computer games had their origin as simulators and training equipment for the armed forces. It can be argued that the content of computer games concerning real wars reflects the ideological interest of the military-industrial complex or the military-entertainment complex, as Robin Andersen has redefined it. Selected games such as ’America’s Army’, ‘Army of Two’’ and companies such as ‘Kuma War’ are analysed critically within the framework of the fight for ideological hegemony in the Global War on Terror. It is argued that when computer game are read as text, they can also be read as propaganda.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0150 | Journal eISSN: 2001-5119 | Journal ISSN: 1403-1108
Language: English
Page range: 35 - 51
Published on: Feb 7, 2017
Published by: University of Gothenburg Nordicom
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

© 2017 Rune Ottosen, published by University of Gothenburg Nordicom
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.