Video gaming is preparing a new generation for war

I went to a very interesting conference recently, Artists Against Fascism organised by the Communist Party. One presentation, Control-alt-right-delete by video games designer Scott Alsworth, considered how video games are used by the far right to instil a certain kind of consciousness – a smack ’em in the teeth, fight ’em till they die, not over ’ere, kind of consciousness. But first some facts from Scott’s presentation:

• The working class experiences culture primarily through video games.
• £8.76 billion is generated by video games – the largest amount of any cultural form in the UK culture industry.
• The origin of video games is rooted in the US military industrial complex.

OK, neither I nor Scott intend to be snobbish about class and cultural forms, but gaming is not only escapist entertainment but ideological apparatus. Excessive games players – and I quote from his terrific talk ‘lose the imaginative space of possible futures’. This is profound and the right are all over it. Ludic Subversion was a new concept for me, it means the use of play, wargames, or playful interactive systems to challenge, critique or overthrow established political, economic, and social power structures. I would add to that – and create new ones – as Reform are trying to do through generating a certain kind of gaming.

Anti-nuke origins subverted

The first videogame was produced by William Higinbotham in 1958. It was called Tennis for Two, a far cry from his earlier work which was helping to develop the atom bomb. He deeply regretted his work on the bomb and became an anti-nuclear campaigner. In 1972 Ralph Baer developed the world’s first video games console. He said, ‘Shooting at targets in an arcade game is not too different technically from shooting at targets in a weapons training exercise.’ And the real deal? War? Of course. The Pentagon have been using gaming as a war primer ever since, anaesthetising the reality of bullets in flesh, the pain and anguish, grief and suffering of families, fitting it into the psyche as a patriotic game.

Beer’s work paved the way for ‘militainment.’ It’s clever stuff, presenting capitalism as imperfect. Conflict is glorified, suffering desensitised and non-western nations or actors are ‘othered’ as the enemy. It’s vile stuff and heavily consumed by our NEETS (not in employment, education or training). When my son was seven, in 1999, and video games were all the rage, I packed him off for a weekend at Forest School Camps to re-mind him of nature. He went every year until he was 17. That’s another thing. I believe that excessive gaming removes our youth from the natural world – and this is dangerous.

Video games are being made by the far right to normalise extreme views – like white suprematism (35% of adult gamers have reported seeing it). There is some vile stuff out there – from the 1982 game Custer’s Revenge, a racist video game where players have to rape a native American to win, and the current Small Boats Scramble, produced by Reform which makes light of human suffering, while stirring up fear and hatred.

Anything good on offer?

So, is there any good stuff out there? Yes, for example, Disco Elysium challenges contemporary fascism by helping the player understand its dreadful conclusions.

Scott Alsworth’s presentation was important and should be widely shown on media, warning of the brainwashing of our youth. That electrically stimulated solo interaction removes us not just from the natural world but from authentic human interaction. I asked Scott for a comment for this piece:

‘It’s fair to say that many of us on the left have already drawn our conclusions on video games: we hold that they are corrupting the young, that they are preparing a generation for war, and that they are normalising violence, racism, and the Panglossian idea that under capitalism, “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”.

‘This is true enough. But I would call on us to see the untapped potential in video games as an educative, critical, and above all interactive form of mass culture. For the anti-war campaigner, there are titles like This War of Mine for the union activist; Hardspace: Shipbreaker for the revolutionary spirited; yes Disco Elysium, or for the nature lover Firewatch. To be sure, the resistance is already in full swing. Whatever we think of digital play, it is the future, and it is a future we must fight for.’

Scott Alsworth is a freelance video game developer, and the Morning Star’s Video Games reviewer.