Hidden Political Propaganda in Video Games

After reading “From the Green Berets to America’s Army: Video Games as a Vehicle for Political Propaganda” by Aaron Delwiche, it became apparent that most video games have some sort of political propaganda behind them. Games such as “Special Forces and America’s Army are consciously designed to foster support for the military objectives of their creators, while recruiting youth to pick up arms in support of those goals” (Delwiche 92). The Special Forces and America’s Army games present war in an exciting manner for the player, in the hope they will be enticed to join the army from a relatively early age.

Political Propaganda in video games doesn’t end here. There are various other genres in the video game industry that also have a political background. If Delwiche is going to go as far as saying that a shooting game is a tool for military recruitment, would it be so far fetched to say that sport games are tools for participation. The government, especially in the UK, has always been trying to tackle obesity and low exercise levels. FIFA, and other sport orientated video games can be a tool to promote exercise and thus government objectives; without publicly enforcing it.

Video games can also be used to promote gender balance in sport. FIFA 16 has been used as a catalyst for increased female participation, aiding in the governments objectives for the youthful and adult population. On the cover of FIFA 16 there is Alex Morgan. In the game players can play as female national teams. Millions of dollars have gone into the advancement of FIFA and its visual quality, so much so that it encourages players to play soccer afterwards. As a result of the persuasive coverage of female soccer in the gaming industry, female soccer is on the rise.

Other video games, such as Call of Duty can often set misleading views upon young children. Call of Duty is a very popular game among youths, which is set upon the values of terrorism and mass killing. It can be thought that the production of so many shooting games makes killing acceptable, misleading people to thinking war is acceptable. 

The Quest for Bush video game is a shooting game in which American soldiers occupy 6 levels. Terrorists storm the building, and the aim is to complete all 6 levels and get to George Bush (the president). This video game was released by the Global Islamic Media Front which is an Al-Qaeda ran organization. It was used as a catalyst for recruitment, and a medium for which terrorist organizations could fictionally present their aims. By allowing young people to play this, it was thought, in 2006, that it would perhaps reconfigure children’s minds. The game tried to promote hatred towards the United States in the hope that players would eventually gain more interest in terrorist organizations, strengthening their standpoint. From reading Aaron Delwiche’s article, it can be highlighted that many video games contain political propaganda, with some hidden messages being stronger than others.