Abstract
The aim of this paper is to discuss the acted or performed dimension through which Western warfare videogames are employed in the creation of culturally divided identities. During the interaction, affects and emotions are channelled in order to shape subjects acritically embracing Western values, while also driving a larger process of construction of a generic Muslim enemy. On the one hand, Middle-Eastern subjects work as agents of a polarizing process which prompts users’ aggressive reaction; on the other, whole Middle-Eastern cities and regions are being re-created as three-dimensional spaces, and then digitally stored to expand huge terrestrial and cultural databases. These function on two levels: first, as virtual training grounds for prospective soldiers, and secondly as affective maps providing cultural coordinates as to how Muslim territory is to be felt and, consequently, lived.
Highlights
When NATO and Israel began preparations for military actions against Iran in May 2003, part of the American army had already envisaged and Alicante Journal of English Studies participated in a computer-simulated third world war scenario
In about the same period Kuma/War! (Kuma Reality Games, 2003) and America’s Army (U.S Army, 2002) two war games developed with the involvement of the American Department of Defense (DoD for short) were freely published
Verisimilitude and timeliness in the supply of new missions serve to strengthen the players’ perception of witnessing real events, and it is no coincidence that the advertising trailer, whose transcript is reported below, strongly emphasizes this combination: From the headlines to the frontlines, we put you there! Introducing Kuma/War!, an intense, boots-on-the-ground experience of actual news events occurring around the world
Summary
This becomes especially relevant with regard to the interface employed in first person shooters videogames, since they are based on the recreation of an embodied condition which makes it essential to consider how it feels to be present and move in their virtual spaces. By the acronym FPS we refer to a kind of videogame in which interaction occurs through a first person perspective, that is to say the user experiences the world as seen directly through the eyes of his or her own avatar within a three-dimensional space.
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