Rethinking Military Gaming

With the extensive use of military force by the U.S. government over the past decade, more scholarly attention has been directed at how mass culture is mobilized to support military objectives. Video games designed by the military or by civilians collaborating with military advisers are one of the major causes for concern, as these may provide ways of training players for military service or of building support for wars. This essay organizes prominent critiques of military gaming into structural/institutional, instrumental, and ideological perspectives and examines some of the most common arguments made from each. It argues that while critics of America’s Army and other military games are right to be cautious about military influence on gaming, critics tend to judge military games more harshly than the evidence warrants.

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