Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article explores how the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea is represented in video games developed and played during the height of the War on Terror. Drawing on Šisler’s article, ‘Digital Arabs: Representation in video games’ (2008) and Robinson’s articles ‘Videogames, persuasion and the War on Terror: Escaping or embedding the military-entertainment complex? (2012) and ‘Have you won the war on terror? Military videogames and the state of American exceptionalism’ (2015), this article explores two case studies Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005) and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2 (2004) using Bogost’s (2008, 2010) concept of ‘procedural rhetoric’ to unpack and detail the visual signifiers and gameplay mechanics of these titles in comparison with other work on games set in ‘Axis of Evil’ countries. The article concludes by situating the games within the military-entertainment complex more broadly (here focusing on film), arguing that North Korea is ultimately framed paradoxically in video games, a country that is viewed on the one hand as a threat to world peace and on the other as an absurdist dictatorship.

Keywords

ideology military-entertainment complex North Korea popular culture procedural rhetoric video games

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allen

(2011) The unreal enemy of America’s army. Games and Culture 6(1): 38–60.

Baudrillard

(1994) Simulacra and simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Bogost

(2008) The rhetoric of video games. In: Salen K (ed.) The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 117–140.

Bogost

(2010) Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Video Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bolton

(2002) Beyond the Axis of Evil: Additional Threats from Weapons of Mass Destruction. Heritage Foundation Lectures. Available at: http://www.futurodecuba.org/Bolton%20lecture.pdf (accessed 19 October 2018).

Butts

(2004) E3 2004: Ghost Recon 2. IGN UK. Available at: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2004/05/12/e3-2004-ghost-recon-2 (accessed 24 November 2017).

Choi

(2015) The perils of strategic patience with North Korea. Washington Quarterly 38(4): 57–72.

Cowlishaw

(2005) Playing war: The emerging trend of real virtual combat. Current Video Games: American Popular Culture. Available at: http://americanpopularculture.com/archive/emerging/real_virtual_combat.htm. (accessed 20 November 2017).

Crandall

(2005) Envisioning the Home Front: Militarization, Tracking and Security Culture, Journal of Visual Culture 4(1): 17–38.

10.

Debrix

(2008) Tabloid Terror: War, Culture, and Geopolitics. London: Routledge

11.

Der Derian

(2009) Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment-Network. London: Routledge.

12.

DICE Los Angeles (2013) Battlefield 4. Los Angeles, CA: Electronic Arts.

13.

Dreamworks (1998) Saving Private Ryan. Dreamworks Studios.

14.

Eon Productions (1962) Dr. No. Albert R Broccoli’s Eon Productions.

15.

Eon Productions (1964) Goldfinger. Albert R Broccoli’s Eon Productions.

16.

Eon Productions (2002) Die Another Day. Albert R Broccoli’s Eon Productions.

17.

Esch

(2010) Legitimizing the ‘War on Terror’: Political myth in official-level rhetoric. Political Psychology 31(3): 357–391.

18.

Eugen Systems (2014) Wargame: Red Dragon. Paris: Focus Home Interactive.

19.

Gagnon

(2010) ‘Invading your hearts and minds’: Call of Duty® and the (re)writing of militarism in US digital games and popular culture. European Journal of American Studies 5(3). Available at: https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/8831 (accessed 12 October 2018).

20.

Gamespot Staff (2005) Ubisoft sees record fourth quarter. Gamespot. Available at: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-sees-record-fourth-quarter/1100-6123173/ (accessed 24 November 2017).

21.

Goldman

(2011) The psychology of dictatorship: Kim Jong-Il. Scientific American. Available at: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/the-psychology-of-dictatorship-kim-jong-il/. (accessed 22 November 2017).

22.

Gow

(2006) Team America–World Police: Down-home theories of power and peace. Millennium 34(2): 563–568.

23.

Grayson

Davies

Philpott

(2009) Pop goes IR? Researching the popular culture–world politics continuum. Politics 29(3): 155–163.

24.

Groll

(2015) A Story of Paranoia and Gore: Why North Korea Uses Such Brutal Execution Methods. Foreign Policy. Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/13/a-story-of-paranoia-and-gore-why-north-korea-uses-such-brutal-execution-methods/ (accessed 22 November 2017).

25.

Hall

(2000) Practising militarism: The cultural function of first person shooter arcade video games. Paper presented to Popular Culture Association in the South, Nashville, TN, 5–7 October.

26.

Kasavin

(2005) Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos theory review. Gamespot. Available at: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/tom-clancys-splinter-cell-chaos-theory-review/1900-6121159/. (accessed 21 November 2017).

27.

Kim

(2015) From Cold Wars to the war on terror: North Korea, racial morphing, and gendered parodies in Die Another Day and Team America: World Police. Journal of Popular Culture 48(1): 124–138.

28.

Lenoir

(2000) All but war is simulation: The military-entertainment complex. Configurations 8(3): 289–335.

29.

Lenoir

Lowood

(2005) Theaters of war: The military-entertainment complex. In: Schramm H et al. (eds) Collection, Laboratory, Theater: Scenes of Knowledge in the 17th Century. Berlin: De Gruyter.

30.

Matheson

(2015) Procedural rhetoric beyond persuasion: First strike and the compulsion to repeat. Games and Culture 10(5): 463–480.

31.

McAllister

(2004) Game Work: Language, Power, and Computer Game Culture. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press

32.

McCrisken

(2003) American Exceptionalism and the Legacy of Vietnam: US Foreign Policy since 1974. London: Springer.

33.

McCurry

(2017) We will sink Japan and turn US to ‘ashes and darkness’, says North Korea. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/14/north-korea-threat-sink-japan-us-ashes-darkness. (accessed 24 November 2017).

34.

Metz

(2004) Breaking the cycle: Die Another Day, post-colonialism, and the James Bond film series. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 52(1): 63–77.

35.

Microprose (1998) Falcon 4. Hunt Valley, MD: Cybergun Group.

36.

Nakamura

Gellman

(2017) Trump calls Kim Jong Un a ‘madman with nuclear weapons’, according to transcript of Duterte call. The Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-calls-kim-jong-un-a-madman-with-nuclear-weapons-according-to-transcript-of-duterte-call/2017/05/23/211d1474-3fe8-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?utm_term=.361e1b105bef (accessed 22 November 2017).

37.

Nichols

(2017) U.N. Security Council unanimously steps up sanctions on North Korea. Reuters. Available at: http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-missiles/u-n-security-council-unanimously-steps-up-sanctions-on-north-korea-idUKKCN1BL12U?utm_source=34553&utm_medium=partner (accessed 24 November 2017).

38.

Ottosen

(2009) The military-industrial complex revisited: Computer games as war propaganda. Television & New Media 10(1): 122–125.

39.

Paramount Pictures (2004) Team America: World Police. Paramount Pictures.

40.

Parker

Gearan

(2017) President Trump says he would be ‘honored’ to meet with North Korean dictator. The Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/01/trump-says-hed-be-honored-to-meet-with-north-korean-dictator/?utm_term=.f52d913c3889 (accessed 20 November 2017).

41.

Patman

(2006) Globalisation, the new US exceptionalism and the War on Terror. Third World Quarterly 27(6): 963–986.

42.

Payne

(2014) War bytes: The critique of militainment in Spec Ops: The Line. Critical Studies in Media Communication 31(4): 265–282.

43.

Payne

(2016) Playing War: Military Video Games after 9/11. New York: NYU Press.

44.

Poole

(2004) Trigger Happy: The Inner Life of Videogames, revised edition, Afterword. London: Fourth Estate.

45.

Power

(2007) Digitized virtuosity: Video war games and post-9/11 cyber deterrence. Security Dialogue 38: ;271–288.

46.

Rebellion Developments & Zombie Studios (2009) Rogue Warrior. Rockville, MD: Bethesda Softworks.

47.

Red Storm Entertainment (2004) Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2. Cary, NC: Ubisoft Entertainment.

48.

Reisner

(2013) ‘The reality behind it all is very true’: Call of Duty black ops and the remembrance of the Cold War. In: Kapell

Elliott

(eds) Playing with the Past: Digital Games and the Simulation of History. New York: Bloomsbury.

49.

Restad

(2014) American Exceptionalism: An Idea that Made a Nation and Remade the World. London: Routledge.

50.

Riddell

(1997) Doom goes to war. Wired Magazine. Available at: https://www.wired.com/1997/04/ff-doom/ (accessed 24 November 2017).

51.

Robinson

(2012) Videogames, persuasion and the War on Terror: Escaping or embedding the military-entertainment complex? Political Studies 60(3): 504–522.

52.

Robinson

(2015) Have you won the war on terror? Military videogames and the state of American exceptionalism. Millennium 43(2): 450–470.

53.

Robinson

Schulzke

(2016) Visualizing war? Towards a visual analysis of videogames and social media. Perspectives on Politics 14(4): 995–1010.

54.

Rojecki

(2008) Rhetorical alchemy: American exceptionalism and the war on terror. Political Communication 25(1): 67–88.

55.

Saber

Webber

(2017) ‘This is our Call of Duty’: Hegemony, history and resistant videogames in the Middle East. Media, Culture & Society 39(1): 77–93.

56.

Schulzke

(2017) Military videogames and the future of ideological warfare. British Journal of Politics and International Relations 19(3): 609–626.

57.

Seiffert

Nothhaft

(2015) The missing media: The procedural rhetoric of computer games. Public Relations Review 41(2): 254–263.

58.

Shaw

(2010) Playing war. Social & Cultural Geography 11(8): 789–803.

59.

Shepherd

(2008) Visualising violence: legitimacy and authority in the ‘war on terror’. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 1(2): 213–226.

60.

Simons

(2007) Narrative, games, and theory. Game Studies 7(1).

61.

Šisler

(2008) Digital Arabs: Representation in video games. European Journal of Cultural Studies 11(2): 203–220.

62.

Spokes

(2017) ‘War … war never changes’: Exploring explicit and implicit encounters with death in a post-apocalyptic gameworld. Mortality 23(2): 135–150.

63.

Spoorenberg

Schwekendiek

(2012) Demographic changes in North Korea: 1993–2008. Population and Development Review 38(1): 133–158.

64.

Stahl

(2006) Have You Played the War on Terror?, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 23(2): 112–30.

65.

Sulic

(2004) Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2. IGN UK. Available at: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2004/12/02/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-2-2 (accessed 20 November 2017).

66.

Taylor

(2018) Why North Korea called John Bolton human scum and a bloodsucker in 2003. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/23/why-north-korea-called-john-bolton-human-scum-and-a-bloodsucker-in-2003/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.06a6d610a3eb (accessed 15 October 2018).

67.

THQ (2011) Homefront. New York City, NY: Kaos Studios.

68.

Ubisoft Montreal (2005) Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Montreal, Quebec: Ubisoft Entertainment.

69.

Walther

(2003) Playing and gaming. Game Studies 3(1).

70.

Warner Brothers (1940) Knute Rockne, All America. Warner Brothers Studios.

71.

Woodward

(2005) From military geography to militarism’s geographies: Disciplinary engagements with the geographies of militarism and military activities. Progress in Human Geography 29(6): 1–23.

72.

Zombie Studios (1999) Spec Ops II: Green Berets. Santa Clara, CA: Ripcord Games.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,Procedural Rhetoric and the Military-Entertainment Complex: Two Case Studies from the War on Terror

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References