Game-Assisted Social Activism: Game Literacy in Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Movement

Abstract

This paper describes the appropriation of video game culture for discursive use during the 2019–20 Hong Kong anti-extradition movement, with participants relying on game argot for mass protest communication and mobilization purposes, and employing game frameworks (especially from MMORPGs) for organizing protest actions. Data from online forums are used to present examples of video game rhetoric and narratives in protest-related online discourses, to speculate on their symbolic meanings, and to examine ways that borrowed aspects of game culture influenced movement activities. After describing ways that game culture spilled over into social movements, we highlight examples of gaming literacy during dynamic protest situations. Our evidence indicates that the combination of game culture and online gaming literacy strengthened activist toolkits and intensified the “be water” nature of a social movement that many describe as leaderless.