ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to interpret the meanings players create about their engagement with wargames, and contextualize players’ interest in and use of video wargames within the state of the real, ongoing Global War on Terror.Three popular theories about video gameplay are addressed: the catharsis hypothesis, realism, and military indoctrination.These concepts are investigated in regard to games with counterterrorist narratives where players work within a military organization to achieve various rescue, intelligence gathering, assassination, and security missions. Data were gathered in multiple focus group and participant observation sessions between 2005 and 2007 with self-described avid players of the Kuma\War, Metal Gear Solid, SOCOM, Splinter Cell, and Rainbow Six video game series. While the responses drawn from this relatively small sample size-a total of 26 male players ranging from 18 to 36 years of age-certainly does not encompass the full spectrum of meanings players may generate about video wargames, the observations offered here are meant to contribute to an ongoing discussion about the role video games do play in the lives of citizens/players.Three reference points are employed to frame this analysis: the “Long War” military doctrine adopted during the later years of the U.S. President George W. Bush administration; Susan Faludi’s socio-historical examination of the United States’ psychic response to attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001; and the precarious popularity of war-themed media during wartime.
