Ideologies and Games

Metagame Book Club: Game Studies. "Ideologies and Games" by Sherry Jones. Published Nov. 11, 2014. Last Updated: Jan. 15, 2019.

**This page was first published on the Metagame Book Club.

Image Source: A rebel soldier character from the game Fallout.

Image Source: Character Master Chief from the game Halo 4.

Image Source: Characters Ryu and Honda from the game Street Fighter.

Image Source: Characters Red Coats in the game Assassin's Creed III .

Welcome to Week 2 of Track 1: Game Studies!

Welcome to the second week of Reading Track 1: Game Studies! We are continuing our discussion on how games reflect cultural consciousness by focusing on how games express certain ideologies.

Before discussing ideologies in games, I would like you to consider that games are naturally ideological machines. The term, ideology, refers to a system of values, conscious or unconscious, that orient our goals and actions in the world. Louis Althusser uses the term, interpellation, to describe the process by which ideology addresses us, in that we become the subject of an ideology once we socially interact with its institutions and discourses. Our identity becomes constituted by the ideology that governs our actions. Similarly, games are rule-based systems that impose certain logic. Games also express ideas that reflect the consumers' cultural consciousness. In this sense, games express certain ideologies to which the game consumers would "respond." We, as game consumers, via the process of interpellation, are subject to the logic, rules, and ideologies of game systems, as we allow game systems to govern our in-game actions. Since the topic of ideology is quite diverse, we only will focus on certain types of ideologies in games, such as politics and ethics, for this week's discussion.

What are the educational implications of thinking about games in terms of ideology? As educators, we can in fact use games to teach how ideology works, as I have discussed in my past presentation titled, "Studying Video Games as Ideological Texts."

Below are several articles that I have organized under specific sections/themes. Please feel free to choose which texts you would like to read from each section/theme to learn about the issues at hand (please know that you are not expected to read all of the texts!). We will have a live discussion on some of the issues and theories mentioned in the reading materials at the #Metagame Book Club G+ Community website on November 16th, 5pm MT (use this nifty time zone converter to figure out when the live discussion will occur in your time zone). Join our G+ Community to receive the latest notifications of upcoming webinars and discussions.

Enjoy the intriguing readings! Onward~

-- Sherry Jones (Track 1: Game Studies Facilitator)

Ideologies and Games

Welcome to Week 2 of Track 1: Game Studies!

**This week's recorded live streaming video is published at the end of the page.

Political Ideologies & Games

War Ideologies & Games

Ethical and Moral Ideologies & Games

Cultural Ideologies & Games

Historical Ideologies & Games

Recorded Live Streaming Video (Review of This Week's Readings)

Game Studies and Education Series Playlist (Fall 2014)