One thing I notice regularly in Germany is that video gaming is not very popular in German politics. Games are even considered as dangerous for the youth, the conservatives tend to call many of them “Killergames” and they are seen as a productivity killer and a waste of time. Only the rather small “Piratenpartei” openly supported the e-sports idea. One reason of this might be that political decision makers are too old to understand the phenomenon. 81% of German 14-29 year old play video games, while only 25% of the 50-64 old people.
Germany could learn a lot from the US to accept video gaming as a modern media, while politicians do not take them seriously, because gaming could also generate a general interest in IT, hard- and software development and programming. Actually, I learned a lot from videogames – they helped me to lear English and created interest in security policy and strategy. I also noticed in 2005 that our commanding General had no idea about network centric warfare and also admitted that he was too old for it, while this was on the youth’s agenda for years, because of for example Command & Conquer Generals or Battlefield2. Even my squadron commander had the opinion that “Killergames” should be forbidden, while we were at the same time running out of young people who were willing to serve as a soldier after the de-facto abolishment of conscription, so you can see at this example how unpopular games are in the population group at the age 50+.
What I want to emphasize is that videogames are today a part of popular culture and a possibility to connect young people from different countries with the same interest and passion.
Obviously – too few young people engage in transatlantic understanding. America-bashing is “in”, due to the disastrous decision of the Bush-administration 2003 to invade Iraq or the scandals following the election of President Trump.
A common understanding could be created by concentrating not so much on politicians, but on pop culture instead, especially through a modern medium like videogames. Most of the games played in Germany actually come from the United States, especially California, and were produced/ developed by companies like Blizzard, Electronic Arts, 2K Games and many more.
Games can enhance the understanding of historical and political events on both sides of the Atlantic, for example military history or tactics, which the following examples show:
In “Counter-Strike” players from all over the world have been fighting since 1999 against terrorists in the role of German GSG9 elite policemen. After 9/11 the once unrealistic scenarios became almost scarily realistic.
In the “Call of Duty” games you typically fight as a US soldier and quite often in Germany, weather in the 2nd world war against the Wehrmacht or in this case in Hamburg to rescue the US Vice President, who has been captured during a head of state summit.
Few games showed the devastation of a Cold war gone hot as drastic as “World in Conflict”, including a soviet attack on Berlin with desperate American and German soldiers trying to survive together.
In Assassin’s Creed III, the player learns a lot about US history and participates in the war of independence.
In Fallout, you can visit the same locations like Boston or Washington, just 300 years later, after a fictional World War 3.
The USA are the leading nation in producing high quality games, just to mention World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, StarCraft , Fallout and many more. These games produced billions of dollars, even twice as much as the Hollywood movie industry.
While you watch a movie for 90-180 minutes, you play video games for 100+ hours, simply because of creativity, open worlds and side stories. These open worlds create virtual countries which you can visit together and therefore it might feel like you lived in the same country with a foreigner, when you discuss your common experiences in these fantasy worlds.
To enhance understanding between young Germans and Americans one could for example focus on an event like Gamescom in Cologne, one of the world’s biggest game trade fair. One possibility could be hosting an e-sport event. Unlike the USA, Brazil or South Korea, Germany does not recognize gaming / e-sports as a sport at all and therefore gives not much financial support to successful players, because of more skeptical media coverage, despite the fact that the games produce more sales than soccer. In Korea and the USA, gamers can live from their price money, if they are good. In Germany they are threatened by social decent.
To conclude my essay, I think the bridge between the Atlantic has already been rebuild by internet gaming, but to connect even more, Germany has to support young people to engage in young, promising branches like game/ software development. The USA are the leader in game development and therefore Germany could learn a lot by supporting for example not only movie makers, but also game programmers.
Young people should be encouraged to go to the USA/ California as interns into the gaming branch, sponsored by for example the ministry of education or economic affairs and energy. There is a large potential to bring young people from both sides of the Atlantic together, online and in real life by building mixed bilateral e-sport teams or gaming companies. Germany needs further exchange with the US-knowledge to keep pace, because not only gaming companies are located in the silicon valley – the step from gaming to Google, Facebook, Microsoft or Intel is not far.
Hi Christian – thank you for your service. Very interesting take on the opportunity for video games – I never thought about it, but I can actually see how young people might develop a peripheral respect for Germany (or at least in its security apparatus) by playing as the GSG9 in CounterStrike, etc. My questions surround the role of the government in this – you mentioned that we aren’t going to focus on politicians, but also that government ministries could play a role in supporting internships and exchange programs in the field of gaming. How are we going to convince them of the value-add of this? And assuming that it works, would the government ministries also want to have a say in what specific games are acceptable for such programs? Being that military matters are especially sensitive in Germany, I am concerned about the level of conditionality that might be placed on support for these programs. -Mike
Hi Michael,
thank your for your comment. You are absolutely right, that it would be difficult to convince policy makers to give financial support to gaming branch. The main reason would be the lack of IT personell in Germany – the problem will intensify, when industry 4.0 will appear on the scene. So it should concern the ministries of education and economics, how to create more interest for programming and dealing with hard- and software. The step from gaming to serious business is not far – I have friends myself who changed from developing mobile games to Google Germany or other companies. The bigger the company, the better the internship – so even if the games are perhaps not optimal in the view of education, working in a company like EA or Blizzard would widen the horizon. Concerning pure military programs like America’s Army from the US MoD you’re right – a similar program would be very difficult to do in Germany. I think chancellor Merkel already discovered the potential of gamers as future IT-specialists and the possibiliy of games as trade value and therefore will open the Gamescom in Cologne.
Kind Regards,
Christian
Hi Christian,
very creative article! I would note that games focused on historical events in the US are especially important to teach a younger audience (on both sides of the Atlantic) about events such as the American Revolution or the Civil War. Do you think historical accuracy should play a role in developing those games?
– Florian
Hallo Florian,
I think artistic freedom plays always an important role when creating an interesting story in a historical book, film or game. However, when it concerns learning about history it is important for a teacher to emphasize the difference to real events. Most of the time, young people will play the games without this help – so there should be a at least a historic glossar. One of the best game series to learn about history are the strategy games from “Total War”. You can learn about eras from ancient rome to American Revolution with only some historical mistakes and one can ged a good overview about history and geography. In my opinion historians should play a role for enhancing quality whenever movies/ games deal with historic events.
Viele Grüße,
Christian
Dear Christian,
I like your approach to bring “our issue” to places (i.e. video games) where the youth is already quite active. In this vein, could s mobile game of this genre be beneficial to our mission? On a more sceptical note, do you think that gamers pay enough attention to the underlying idea of importance of the transatlantic relation or would they decouple the reality from the gaming-story?
Best,
Jonas
Hi Jonas,
thank you for your questions! I think mobile games are a bit too superficial for dealing with rather complex topics regarding transatlantic relations or big historic themes. It depends on the type of gamer – it is hard too say how high the percentage is, who is only interested in quick fun in comparision to the people who want to know more afterwards about the game setting, for example the first world war. WWI is a good example, you could learn more about operational history from ‘Battlefield 1’ than from history at school, because WWI was simply not taught in detail in my example. I think games can be a good start to create curiosity about certain topics, wich COULD lead to real interest. Interest in transatlantic relations could for example emerge from the question, why so many US soldiers were send to Europe 1917 or 1944 and what happened after, but it needs really depends on the type of player.
Best regards,
Christian
Christian,
What a great angle! I agree that video games offer immense potential to engage younger (and not so young) generations. I’m wondering how would you avoid the issue of the medium being utilized as “educational” element that would make it seem less attractive to gamers? I have worked with institutions on using gaming to engage youth, and the issue of rising/falling attractiveness of an “entertaining” vs “educational” game often came up. Cheers, Jasmin
Hi Jasmin,
thanks for the comment! I agree that it is often rather difficult to keep the audience entertained and give interesting information at the same hand, but that is not only a problem for game makers. The “Assassin’s Creed” Series uses a quite interesting way: the information found in the players encyclopedia/ journal are added during the game, but the viewing is optional. The game is also quite ironic about it, because the virtual ego is directly adressed sometimes, that he has no interest in history and just wants to complete the missions. A similar way with a big optional ingame encyclopedia is used in the “Total War” series, where you can find endless extra info about for example military units and kingdoms which really existed in certain eras. However, if you use games for education, I would only use it as an extra tool, like a movie and for example ask afterwards, which mistakes/ uncorrect aspects did the students find in a scene. Players can be surprising precise concerning historical correctness in games sometimes. I noted for example online discussions, where the question came up, whether certain weapons were used in WWI or not and why they were included in a game.
Cheers, Christian
Hi Christian,
video games definitely have a lot of influence on the young generation and their understanding of transatlantic relations. How do you think about the idea of examining and analyzing video games and their content in school or universities? I think it would lead to more reflection and comprehension of what the messages and views transmitted by the presentation of the content are.
Regards,
Mathias
Hallo Mathias,
thanks for your comment! I only once had a seminar, which dealt with games. It was called ‘International relations and security policy in popculture’ and was really refreshing. It included the movie “Zero dark thirty” as well as the game “Medal of Honor”. There was an analysis of the view on the USA the regisseur/ game publisher wanted to show, as well as scientific articles to read, despite there are not many about games, yet in political science.
Analyzing movies is not so uncommon at university. The same could easily be done with games, if they were seen as a form of art, which is often not the case. I would say, that the artistic aspect is at the same level, because there are more interactive possibilites and more hours of content have to be written and filled without that it gets boring – often real actors are used for cutscenes to explain the story.
So I would agree that universities could deal with many aspects of games in various subjects.
Regards,
Christian
Hi Mathias, hi Christian,
I had a class about video games in popular culture two semesters ago and it was extremely fascinating especially for someone like me whose experiences in video gaming are very limited. A guy at my institute is analyzing narrative instabilities in video games as his dissertation project, so I feel regarding video games as a serious subject is up-and-coming – at least in the American Studies departments.
Christian,
I just wanted to say I thought this article was extremely fascinating and “out of the box”. I think the accuracy some games have in reflecting society and allowing individuals to gain a historical perspective on events they would otherwise not read about is interesting has potential. However, as I am sure you know, online gaming is a different beast in that- competition often gives rise to profane language and often times racial discussions. How do you believe the German officials can be persuaded to see the educational and cultural benefits to gaming?
Additionally, what do you think can be done online, to strengthen the relationship and feelings of unity between individuals of different nations when they are often pit to kill each other in modes that are not co-opt based?
Hey Jalon,
thank you for commenting. Online gaming is a special thing: different from single player games you don’t learn so much new things and concentrate on getting better at known territory.
I know what you mean – often the language is getting explicit. This is the same you would experience at a lower league soccer field, but the anonymity of the net supports swearing at each other. However last weak a anti-discrimination law passed the German parliament and is intended to forbid hate-speeches in the internet. It should allow to delete racist comments on social networks, but I could imagine it could also work somehow regarding online games. Many games already have algorythms to forbid swearing, but it is not sufficient and online insults are a major problem all around games and social networks.
What else I noticed is, that for example in “World of Tanks” there is some respect for German technology.
Playing together co-op in multinational teams in NATO enhanced the teambuilding, but when you stay online in your national/ ethnic group the chance of being dragged into prejudices might be higher.
So there might for example be an option to put players from different nations into clans/ leagues to get to know each other.
First of all you have to learn English if you want to compete and communicate – that is an educational benefit you could already use in earlier school classes, but there is a good reason, some games are only allowed above an age of 16/18.
Regards,
Christian
Hi there!
I’m reading through all of the articles that discuss technology & the transatlantic relationship at the moment and I really enjoyed yours. I’m thinking about these kinds of things for one of my jobs at the moment, and it’s truly mind-blowing what’s developing in the gaming world. So many people still think of the “transatlantic community” as a sort of invisible bond of culture, business, and history. But on some level, it actually materializes in the virtual world more than anything else, as some of the other articles talking about social media etc have pointed out. I recently talked to my mom about how well Assassin’s Creed (I think?) displayed old London, and how that got a number of my friends really eager to explore this city and visit the places in real life that they had only seen virtually. So there is tremendous potential for friendship and experiencing the other country. And AR and VR will lift that up to a completely different level. The nice thing is as well that games speak to an audience that isn’t usually reached by lectures, educational initiatives etc. – young men (and also women) of all class backgrounds, regardless of whether they can afford to travel or have parents that happen to know a lot about 20th century history. Keep up the good work!
Hi Sophie!
Thanks for the comment! Good to hear, that you enjoyed to read it, because I think, if you want to keep young people interested, you have to mix entertainment and education somehow.
I had the same experience with Assassins Creed II, which takes place in Renaissance Italy. It created curiosity to visit Florence, Rome and Venice in real world for visiting the places, buidlings and pieces of art in these cities- I spent there some holidays. London, the Carribean and many more scenarios are possible. Which is also interesting is, that the 1st title of this series takes place in Palestine, so they created for example a medieval version of Damascus and did a digital version of places, which now are destroyed, because of the civil war. So, creating virtual cities is not only useful for games, archeologist could also use it.
VR is definitely emerging, there is for example a game on PS4 pro, where you can fly as a bird through Paris, but the graphcs have still to improve.
Hi Christain,
I like your thoughts on taking advantage of internationally popular video and computer games to encourage cultural interaction. As you mention, these games provide a fun and appealing outlet for a wide cross-section of the younger generation to learn about and explore other countries and time periods. I agree with you that the entertainment element is in important strength of this strategy, serving as the hook that holds people’s attention and generates interest. I am also interested in your economic argument that Germany will benefit from technological cooperation with the United States as gamers enter the computer industry. You mention that many video games are produced in the US, and some may feature American soldiers. Do you know if these video games encourage negative perceptions of the United States within Germany, such as the idea of American militarism?
Hi James,
according to your last name you seem to have German ancestors.
I think, many German learn about America first through popular culture like movies, series and games. So when they play games which deal with American soldiers, they have already some images in their mind, which is shaped by anti-war-movies like ‘Apocalypse Now’ or ‘Jarhead’, which are quite sceptical.
I think, most of the games like ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Medal of Honor’ are not so sceptical and do not give the possibilite to die – in the end you will alway win.
I noticed some irony during “Call of duty – Modern Warfare”, when in an episode called “no fighting in the warroom” one had to assault a bunker, which was adapted from “Dr. Strangelove”, which however most of the players will not have noticed/ understood. What I want to say is, that there often is irony in the games, because you destroy a lot of stuff, but stay the ‘good guy’. I don’t think it will affect the player in his/ her way to think about American militarism.
In our seminar, it was said, that Medal of Honor may even try to glorify US soldiers, because showing war crimes is rather seldom in games and you most of the time have a just cause.
However there are some interesing trials to deal with CIA interventions like in the 1980s in Nicaragua, In some games you play CIA agents, who support very questionable factions like in “Far Cry 4” or “Just Cause”. In “Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3” the player asks, if not the International Court in The Hague should deal with a Georgian war criminal, but the commanders says, that the US do not care about this court and you are free to fire. When these games bring players to think about the wars/ scenarios they replay and do some research, it might help them develop their own ideas/ opinions and broaden their historical/ political horizon.
Hi Christian,
what a creative approach to transatlantic cooperation! I am not a gamer myself (although I tried but failed miserably :)), yet I know many people who already use gaming as a way to connect to people on the other side of the Atlantic, be it in general ‘chatrooms’ or playing together with a friend who happens to live across the big pond. As a tool to increase connecting people in an easy and fun environment, I believe gaming is a great solution. Do you see any way to strategically place Americans and Europeans together? E.g. implement a gaming function that only allows you to play together with a person from the other continent? (Again, I am not a gamer myself, so maybe these questions are silly).
A concern of mine, however, is the lack of racial diversity in videogames. Having taken a class on gaming, I noticed that the characters one can play are mostly white. http://newamericamedia.org/2011/09/gamer-to-game-makers-wheres-the-diversity.php, https://phys.org/news/2014-06-racial-gender-representation-video-games.html. I believe this hinders cultural exchange by limiting it to ‘white’ culture. Do you see this as a problem?
Hi James,
according to your last name you seem to have German ancestors.
I think, many German learn about America first through popular culture like movies, series and games. So when they play games which deal with American soldiers, they have already some images in their mind, which is shaped by anti-war-movies like ‘Apocalypse Now’ or ‘Jarhead’, which are quite sceptical.
I think, most of the games like ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Medal of Honor’ are not so sceptical and do not give the possibilite to die – in the end you will alway win.
I noticed some irony during “Call of duty – Modern Warfare”, when in an episode called “no fighting in the warroom” one had to assault a bunker, which was adapted from “Dr. Strangelove”, which however most of the players will not have noticed/ understood. What I want to say is, that there often is irony in the games, because you destroy a lot of stuff, but stay the ‘good guy’. I don’t think it will affect the player in his/ her way to think about American militarism.
In our seminar, it was said, that Medal of Honor may even try to glorify US soldiers, because showing war crimes is rather seldom in games and you most of the time have a just cause.
However there are some interesing trials to deal with CIA interventions like in the 1980s in Nicaragua, In some games you play CIA agents, who support very questionable factions like in “Far Cry 4” or “Just Cause”. In “Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3” the player asks, if not the International Court in The Hague should deal with a Georgian war criminal, but the commanders says, that the US do not care about this court and you are free to fire. When these games bring players to think about the wars/ scenarios they replay and do some research, it might help them develop their own ideas/ opinions and broaden their historical/ political horizon.
Hi Christian,
thank you for your comment! I also noticed, that an American collegue from US airforce in our bunker used games to stay connect to his friends at home, which was unfortunately only possible in quite night shifts, because of the different time zones. Most of the times, Europe and America are to far separated by sleeping hours. In addition, the latency of servers across the atlantic is too high at the moment, due to the long cables. When you log in an American server you might have latencies of 0,3 seconds, which is too much for a shooter for example, because you aim at a target, which has already moved further. Therefore, Europe, America and the other continents have their own servers. In roleplay games however it might be easier possible. Racial diversity might be an issue, but it is also in the movie industry, if you remember for example the “white oscars” last year.
In games the lack of racial diversity is often, because of the historic subjects. When you play a Greek ‘God of War’ for example, he is European. When you play ‘Batman’ he is like in the comics a white billionaire. When in ‘Battlefield 1’ black German soldiers were introduced, the players even asked, how this might even be historical correct.
However, when you play role-playing games, where you can create your own characters, there has been the possibility to choose your race since 20 years (like in Baldur’s gate, which might be one of the most popular RPGs from the late 1990s for example, or in Mass Effect, as it can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnh-UhlvQvE )
In most of the shooters dealing with the US army you have many ethnies fighting along your side.
However I think you might be right, that for example black protagonists play too much a role in ‘Grand Theft Auto’, where in “San Andreas” you even had only the option to play a black gangster and there are too few non-white “heros” in games.
There might be one good example from one of the few good German games: in Crysis you play a black special ops soldier, but on the cover of the game you won’t notice that, because you wear a nanosuit with helmet most of the time. It is perhaps also a good example, that the skin colour does not matter, if you wear a uniform.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crysis_2_cover.png)
Hey Christin, the first comment was for James’ reply before and in second I misspelled your name 😉
Sorry for that!