War Games: Memory, Militarism, and the Subject of Play

该网络关注电子游戏、军国主义和战争、文化记忆和历史之间的关系。军事题材电子游戏与现实世界冲突之间的关系在政治学、国际关系学、游戏研究及相关领域正受到越来越多的关注。然而，电子游戏的方式--从主流的商业游戏到另类的“批判性”游戏--可以而且确实处理过去的战争，它们如何与当代军国主义联系起来，以及它们如何参与，赋予权力，该网络汇集了来自游戏研究、媒体与文化研究、心理学、社会学和国际关系的学者，以及具有游戏行业专业知识的学术从业者，专注于三个相对被忽视但至关重要的问题：1）电子游戏在过去战争的集体和文化记忆的形成和谈判中的作用;2）游戏如何定位玩家与历史，战争和军国主义的关系;以及3）批判性的反战/和平游戏在多大程度上为主流商业游戏及其文化和政治含义提供了替代或挑战。我们的意图是将视频游戏的分析与更广泛的政治话语和实践联系起来，扩大我们对战争游戏的理解，就像电影和其他媒体表现战争一样。除了学术界的观众，我们的工作还涉及视频游戏开发商，作家，设计师和游戏行业的其他人;以及关注战争和冲突的其他利益相关者，如非政府组织和新闻机构。

This network focuses on the relationships between videogames, militarism and war, cultural memory and history. It aims to develop new critical understandings of these relationships and the ways that game narratives address players.The relationship between military-themed videogames and real-world conflict is receiving increasing attention in the disciplines of politics and international relations as well as in games studies and related fields. Yet the ways in that videogames - from mainstream commercial titles to alternative 'critical' games - can and do deal with past wars, how they relate to contemporary militarism, and how they engage, empower (or disempower) players, remain poorly understood.The network brings together scholars from games studies, media & cultural studies, psychology, sociology and international relations, as well as academic-practitioners with games-industry expertise, to focus on three relatively neglected but crucial issues:1) the role of videogames in the formation and negotiation of collective and cultural memory of past wars;2) the ways that games position the player in relation to history, war and militarism; and3) the extent to which critical, anti-war/peace games offer an alternative or challenge to mainstream commercial titles and their cultural and political implications.Our intention is to contextualise the analysis of videogames in relation to wider political discourses and practices, enlarging our understanding of war games in a similar fashion to that developed in relation to film and other media through which war is represented. In addition to academic audiences, our work addresses videogame developers, writers, designers and others in the games industry; and other stakeholders concerned with war and conflict, such as NGOs and news organisations.