ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines military videogames from a counterintuitive perspective: by focusing on how they project and enable empathy. Military war games have frequently been criticised both for promoting violence and offering inappropriate racist depictions of stereotypical "enemies." The chapter counters this form of caricature and shows how videogames – even war videogames – can play an important role in generating empathy. He defines empathy as allowing a person to feel what someone else feels from their perspective. The chapter focuses on how visuals interact with what is called the "possibility space" of "gameplay": the constraints related to what the player can and cannot do. It traces the move towards empathy in war-based videogames: from games in which players are meant to empathise with the US; to games that give players the chance to feel what it is like to be a soldier; and to games that allow players to take on the role of victims of war.
