Joystick Soldiers: The Politics of Play in Military Video Games

Joystick Soldiers is the first anthology to examine the reciprocal relationship between militarism and video games. War has been an integral theme of the games industry since the invention of the first video game, Spacewar! While war video games began as entertainment, military organizations soon saw their potential as combat simulation and recruitment tools. A profitable and popular relationship was established between the video game industry and the military, and continues today with the top-selling video game franchises America's Army , which was developed by the U.S. Army as a recruitment tool, and SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals , created in collaboration with the Naval Special Warfare Command.This collection features all new essays that explore how modern warfare has been represented in and influenced by video games. The contributors explore the history and political economy of the "Military-Entertainment Complex;" present textual analyses of military-themed video games such as Splinter Cell , Call of Duty , and Halo ; and offer reception studies of gamers, fandom, and political activism within online gaming.This volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between war and media, and it sheds surprising light on the connections between virtual battlefields and the international conflicts unfolding in Iraq and Afghanistan today.