ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a synoptic analysis of the interplay between video games and their innovative applications by state and non-state actors in the United States and the Middle East. It provides a theoretical framework based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social action. Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practices, with its three key concepts of habitus, field and capital, constitutes a useful thinking tool in uncovering the complex relationship between the uses of video games and civilizational configurations. Statistics about the users of video games in the Arab world are rare. Islamic video games aim to contribute to the 'correctness of representation' of Arabs and Muslims by recounting historical stories. Playing Islamic video games can thus be regarded as an act of emancipation from the American images that have previously dominated the world of video games. Imperialist video games capitalize on war, because war itself is conceived in terms of a zero-sum game.
