Propaganda in Video Games

Do video games make you more violent? This is the question that researchers have been interested in since the beginning of violent video games. It is the age old question that parents have been asking themselves since the beginning of time. Well not quite, since the beginning of time. In Delwiche's article he delves into not quite this question of "Do video games make you more violent" but rather he looks at manner in which video games present discourse and ideology.


Delwiche's article reminds me of all the Call of Duty games that I played growing up. Also the article reminds me of my time as a child. As a child, I thoroughly enjoyed watching my favorite YouTuber Chris Smoove play a variety of video games ranging from the highly acclaimed professional basketball video game, 2k to watching his call of duty playthroughs. The games focus mainly on killing the other people with guns. However, there are other game modes in which the most important goal instead of killing other people is capturing flags or capturing specific areas in domination.

In Delwiche's article he focuses on case studies in which he dissects multiple different games ranging from Kuma\\War, Take Back Illinois, September 12th. He also focuses on how propaganda plays a role in these games. In these games, there is obviously a hidden agenda or a message that the producer of the games is trying to push. For example, in September 12th you fire cruz missiles off into a village trying to kill terrorists, but you also kill civilians and when civilians die you increase the number of terrorists. The hidden agenda in TakeBack Illinois is to show how hard it is for teachers to actually do their jobs.

Overall, Delwiche does an amazing job of laying out his case for how video games and propaganda are interrelated.