In 2013, Marcus Schulzke set about discussing the significance of the depiction of Terrorism in video games, stating that it is commonplace for video games to reflect the binary battle of good and evil. Whilst in most cases, the majority of war-based video games sees the player donning a heroic persona, Schulzke questions the impact of when the player adopts that of a villain instead.

In games such as Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2¸the player does just that. Though for only a brief period of time, the player takes on the role of Terrorist during the “No Russian” mission, which sees countless innocent civilians gunned down in an airport by the player’s temporary allegiance. The level itself has been described as the “most provocative” and “emotionally disturbing” part of the game by Schiesel (2009), and yet Schulzke expresses concern that Terrorists may potentially be humanized during game excerpts such as this. Interestingly, whilst on this mission, the player has the option not to actively take part in the genocide, further supporting that there is no agenda forced on the player.

However, Schulzke does then describe how video games “fail” to humanize Terrorists – the notion of which is rather peculiar as it implies an active attempt to humanize and rationalize Terrorists to begin with – the likes of which certainly would be a “radical gesture”.

Rather than this, it could be argued that offering the player a change in perspective in games such as Garry’s Mod: Trouble in Terrorist Town, is seen as novel – a chance for the player to play as the bad guy for a change. In TTT, the players playing as the Terrorists are offered no reason to connect on a personal level with that role – in fact, the game itself can be likened more to a parody of Terrorism than to any attempt to sympathise with them, challenging Schulzke’s perception that video games allowing players to play as Terrorists actively blur the lines between good and evil.

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• Schulzke, M. (2013’ Being a terrorist: Video game simulations of the other side of the War on Terror’, Media, War & Conflict, vol. 6, Issue (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1750635213494129)
• Schiesel S (2009) Choices in infiltrating a terrorist cell. The New York Times: C1.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. 2009. Infinity Ward.
• Garry’s Mod: Trouble in Terrorist Town. 2004. Valve.

The process of designing and creating a game is not as straightforward as one may first presume – in fact, it is a process that requires multiple reworks – any single idea will endure multiple iterations until the game is just right. In this way, games can be likened to how we understand history and historical events; a historian may uncover new information that continuously reshapes and adjusts our perceptions of the past.

Both iterative in nature, History lends itself well to the medium of video games – if video games reflect the “behavior of systems” (Fullerton and Swain, 2008), then they can effectively be used to demonstrate the politics and social norms of a previous society and culture. For example, if, in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (Ubisoft, 2015), the player kills one of the Palace Guards in front of another Palace Guard, the guards would then pursue the player, reflecting the real-life attitudes of 19^th Century London.

Furthermore, it could be said that the detail a Scholar could lend to a game (the intricacies of accurate lighting, furniture, architecture and art, etc.) could “put the player into a historical moment” and give them a glimpse into a time different to their own. However, a question then arises: how does a “moment” become more than just that?

In theory, there is a difference between a “scholarly game” and a game merely rooted within historical contexts – where a game with a history-rich setting may be accurate in all regards but story, more sophisticated games – those closer to an academic truth – will not only ensure the historical accuracy of architecture, characters, landscape, culture, and weapons, but will likely veer more towards simulation than action-adventure, thus can be seen as an authentic “gamic mode of history”.

For example, in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, the player may liberate children from factory work, bearing in mind the attitudes of today’s culture although this is arguably not an accurate reflection of Victorian opinions as labour laws were much different to our own. For inaccuracies such as these, it should be remembered that not every historical game is scholarly.

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• Spring, D. (2015) ‘Gaming history: computer and video games as historical Scholarship’, Rethinking History, 19:2, 207-221, DOI: 10.1080/13642529.2014.973714
• Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. 2015. Ubisoft.

Whether it involves crowding around arcade machines or playing online with your friends, gaming is a heavily social activity for most gamers – although this cannot be said for everyone. UKIE suggests that there are between 2.2 – 2.6 billion gamers worldwide, though of this estimate, it is difficult to ascertain what percentage consider themselves disabled, and therefore it is difficult to estimate just how restricted certain games can be for them.

It is supposed that physical or mental impairment would surely detract from a person’s ability to be social – whether that is going to an arcade with friends or simply communicating with other players online. Research carried out by Jen Beeston supports this as her research shows that in a sample of 230 disabled gamers, 195 played single player games more often than multiplayer ones, which would suggest a correlation.

Whilst this is the case, the games industry has made strides towards making games more universally accessible, though findings suggest a focus on issues they are “immediately aware of” such as colour blindness or hearing impairments rather than limb disabilities, which Beeston’s sample suggests is the most common form of disability amongst gamers.

Many disabled gamers have made a point of using assistive technology to aid in their experience – “eye gaze tracking” and various “customized controllers” are examples of such, though are rarely supplied with the games or consoles they buy. Largely, people with disabilities are left to get themselves on equal footing, which can cost a significant amount of time and money.

Beeston’s research also shows a clear overlap between the sample’s favourite games and the best-selling games of 2017 (Rockstar’s GTA V, for example), suggesting that the interests of disabled gamers are similar to those of non-disabled gamers. Because of this,  it is clear that more effort should be put into the development of assistive technology and accessibility settings in games – after all, games have the power to create “a sense of wellbeing”, the likes of which should be universally available.

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• Beeston, J. et al. ‘Characteristics and Motivations of Players with Disabilities in Digital Games Work in Progress’, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.11352.pdf 
• Grand Theft Auto V. 2013. Rockstar.

In his 2010 book “A Casual Revolution”, Jesper Juul discusses a “new wave” of video games – one that sees new (or “once”) players able to pick them up and experience “meaningful play” within a “short time frame”. He remarks that there have been many games “ignored by potential players” and ponders the reasons behind this – whether a lack of time to invest, prior knowledge, money, or hardware – but describes how games released in recent years have managed to re-establish a “pull” on the public.

A prominent example in his argument is the Nintendo Wii (Nintendo, 2006) – the likes of which sold far more units than rival consoles (Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3) despite its lesser graphics and focus on casual games. It is supposed that this is because the Wii was revolutionary in that it made video games accessible once again. In Juul’s research, he discovered many potential players felt “frustration [at] not knowing which button to push” but that these people could still play Wii games.

Furthermore, the Wii Remote bears a striking resemblance to a standard TV remote, which near-enough every household owns. The simplified, familiar design can be seen as a means to translate the “new expressive and creative language” developed by the hardcore games industry of recent years into terms they can understand – especially with the majority of Wii games being mimetic and therefore easier to learn.

However, mimetic games do not only allow for quick pick-up. As Juul puts it rather eloquently, the “player space and 3-D space appear continuous” while playing games such as Wii Sports Boxing (2006). In games such as this, the player’s actions (punches, dodges, etc.) are replicated on-screen, thus blurring the lines between fiction and reality – it is easier for new players (regardless of age) to derive meaning quickly because they are so immersive especially when in a social context.

However, this may not always be the case as Juul suggests that the distinction between “casual” and “hardcore” will forever “co-evolve” with audiences. As games are once again becoming “normal” (as of 2010, 65% of US households own a gaming device), the definitions of “casual” and “hardcore” are getting harder to separate, and so should be seen as a  “number of changing parameters” that should continuously be studied.

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• J. Juul, A casual revolution. Reinventing Video Games and Their Players, The MIT Press, Cambridge MA & London, Ch. 1 (available online: https://www.jesperjuul.net/casualrevolution/casual_revolution_chapter1.pdf) 
• Wii Sports Resort Boxing. 2006. Nintendo.