Far Cry 5,American Right-Wing Terrorism,and Doomsday Prepper Culture

Abstract

The article explores Far Cry 5’scommentary on the rise of the radical right, domestic terrorism, and extremism in America. The game's two primary modes for this narrative critique involve its use of Christian symbolism and its exploration of doomsday prepper culture. What emerges from this analysis is that Far Cry 5 provides a harrowing reckoning in the rise of extremist thought in this country and its ramifications, one that is a timely reflection of current American culture. In Far Cry 5, America becomes the next great empire poised to fall throughout the game and finally, in its tense final sequences, succumbs to nuclear annihilation.

Keywords

American domestic terrorism christian fundamentalism Far Cry 5 game studies prepper culture radical right video game studies

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

(1983). Imagined communities. London: Verso.

Batchelor

(2019). Ubisoft on politics in games: “We know we're not taking it far enough. GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved November 28 2021, from: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-08-15-ubisoft-on-politics-in-games-we-know-were-not-taking-it-far-enough.

Bio Shock infinite (2013). (PlayStation 4) [video game]. 2K Games.

Bosman

(2019). Introduction. In Bosman

(Ed.), The sacred and the digital: Critical depictions of religion in video games; Collection of reprinted articles from Religions (pp. 1–5). Basel: MDPI.

Boyan

Banks

(2018). Rules and mechanics: Parameters for interactivity. In Banks

Lang

(Eds.), Avatar, assembled: The social and technical anatomy of digital bodies (pp. 159–167). Lausanne: AG International Academic Publishers.

Call of duty: Black ops Cold War (2020). (PlayStation 4) Activision. [video game].

Cyberpunk 2077 (2020). (PlayStation 4). CD Projekt Red. [video game].

Durham

(2003). The American far right and 9/11. Terrorism and Political Violence, 15(2), 96–111. doi: 10.1080/09546550312331293057.

Fallout 76 (2018). (PlayStation 4) [video game] Bethesda Softworks.

10.

Far cry 5 (2018). (PlayStation 4) [video game]. Ubisoft.

11.

Finley

E. P.

(2011). Fields of combat: Understanding PTSD among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

12.

Garrett

(2020). Doomsday prepper and the architecture of dread. Geoforum, 127(401–411).

13.

Green

(2015). Bio Shock Infinite: The search for redemption and the repetition of atrocity. In Kapell

(Ed.), The play versus story divide in game studies: Critical essays (pp. 125–144). Jefferson: McFarland.

14.

Hansen

E. K.

Cooke-Jackson

A. F.

(2010). Hillbilly stereotypes and humor: Entertaining ourselves at the expense of the other. In Good

Gordon

S. L.

(Eds.), Ethics and entertainment: Essays on media culture and media morality (pp. 263–280). Jefferson: McFarland.

15.

Harsin

(2020). Toxic White Masculinity, Post-truth Politics and the COVID-19 infodemic. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(6), pp. 1060–1068).

16.

Kabel

Chmidling

(2014, Disaster prepper: Health, identity, and American survivalist culture. Human Organization, 73(3), pp. 258–266.

17.

Kingdon

(2020). Framing Far Cry 5: The gamification of White separatist propaganda. In Leidig

Verlag

(Eds.), Mainstreaming the global radical right (pp. 262–264). New York, NY: Ibidem Press.

18.

Kobek

(2019). Ubisoft CEO talks politics in gaming. The Gamer. Retrieved November 28, 2021 from https://www.thegamer.com/ubisoft-ceo-politics-gaming/.

19.

Labahn

(2014). The Book of Revelation” − An early Christian “search for meaning” in critical conversation with its Jewish heritage and Hellenistic-Roman society. die Skriflig, 48(1), 1–9.

20.

MacLeod

(2018). Far Cry 5’s faith seed embodies an evangelical double standard. April 1, 2021 from kotaku: Far Cry 5’s faith seed embodies an evangelical double standard. New York, NY: kotaku. https://kotaku.com/far-cry-5s-faith-seed-embodies-an-evangelical-double-st-1825716218

21.

Mills

M. F.

(2019a). Obamageddon: Fear, the far right, and the rise of “doomsday” prepping in Obama’s America. Journal of American Studies, 55(2), 1–30. doi: 10.1017/s0021875819000501.

22.

Mills

M. F.

(2019b). Preparing for the unknownunknowns: “Doomsday” prepping and disaster risk anxiety in the United States. Journal of Risk Research, 22(10), 1267–1279. doi: 10.1080/13669877.2018.1466825.

23.

Perliger

(2020). American zealots: Inside right-wing domestic terrorism. New York, NY: ColumbiaUP.

24.

The binding of Isaac . (2011) Edmund mcmillen and florian himsl. Wasteland 3, Fallout 76, Cyberpunk 2077 PC [video game].

25.

Walker

(2018). Talking cults and culture with the developers of Far Cry 5. New York, NY: VICE. Retrieved November 28, 2021 from: https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3wjyv/far-cry-5-interview-talking-cults-and-culture-with-the-developers.

26.

Wasteland 3 . (2020) (PlayStation 4) [video game]. Lakspur, CA: Deep silver.

27.

Weilenberg

E. J.

(2018). Divine command theory and psychopathy. Religious Studies, 56, 542–557.

28.

Wellman

J. K.

Jr. Corcoran

K. E.

Stockly-Meyerdirk

(2014). “God is like a drug…”: Explaining interaction ritual chains in American megachurches. Sociological Forum, 29(3), 650–672. doi: 10.1111/socf.12108.

29.

Wrenn

M. V.

(2019). Consecrating capitalism: The United States prosperity gospel and neoliberalism. Journal of Economic Issues, 53(2), 425–432. doi: 10.1080/00213624.2019.1594528.

30.

Wysocki

(2018). Critique with limits—the construction of American religion in BioShock:Infinite Religions. (9, pp. 1–14). doi: 10.3390/rel9050150.