Skip navigation
SuUB logo
DSpace logo

  • Home
  • Institutions
    • University of Bremen
    • City University of Applied Sciences
    • Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences
  • Sign on to:
    • My Media
    • Receive email
      updates
    • Edit Account details

Citation link: https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/406
07_gamevironments_Seiwald.pdf
OpenAccess
 
copyright

Play America Great Again. Manifestations of Americanness in Cold War Themed Video Games


File Description SizeFormat
07_gamevironments_Seiwald.pdf674.06 kBAdobe PDFView/Open
Authors: Seiwald, Regina 
Editors: Pfister, Eugen 
Winnerling, Tobias  
Zimmermann, Felix 
Abstract: 
This study analyses mechanisms through which Cold War themed video games played from an American perspective propagate US authoritarianism by reiterating concepts of Americanness generated in popular media during the Cold War era. These video games work with cultural, historical, and social stereotypes to generate a dichotomy between good and evil and they heavily rely on emotions and morality in their portrayal of communist, socialist, and Soviet enemy forces. Popular concepts associated with America are used to propagate democracy and (political) freedom, while simultaneously vilifying their adversaries. Through drawing parallels to American Cold War propaganda and its utilisation of popular media, this paper asks how stereotypical notions of America are generated through symbolism in an engagement with material objects as well as thoughts and beliefs. Topics engaged with are media control, free speech, programming, espionage, intrigues, paranoia, trust, and the morality of the individual in a hyperreal environment. This study is conducted in reference to Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (2001), Freedom Fighters (2003), Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010), Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction (2010), Homefront (2011), and Alekhine’s Gun (2016). By considering mechanisms of propaganda in these games, it is shown how manifestations of Americanness are generated in them and how they affect friend and foe images.
Keywords: America; Cold War; Video Games; Propaganda; Democracy; Baudrillard; Hyperreality; American Symbolism; Popular Media; gamevironments
Issue Date: 21-Dec-2020
Journal: gamevironments 
Start page: 223
End page: 256
Band: 13
Type: Zeitschriftenartikel
ISSN: 2364-382X
DOI: 10.26092/elib/406
URN: urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-elib46099
Institution: Universität Bremen 
Faculty: Fachbereich 09: Kulturwissenschaften (FB 09) 
Institute: Institut für Religionswissenschaft und Religionspädagogik 
Appears in Collections:Forschungsdokumente

  

Page view(s)

196
checked on Apr 13, 2021

Download(s)

35
checked on Apr 13, 2021

Google ScholarTM

Check


Items in Media are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Legal notice -Feedback -Data privacy
Media - Extension maintained and optimized by Logo 4SCIENCE