VIDEO GAMES AS A RESOURCE TO COUNTER THE REHABILITATION OF NAZISM, NATIONAL-CHAUVINISM AND MILITARISM: UNREVEALED POTENTIAL

Abstract

Aim. Development of game algorithms, the use of which would discredit in the eyes of the target audience (i.e. gamers) the ideology and practice of Nazism, national chauvinism and militarism in a historical video game gameplay (in the RPG genre).
Methodology. As part of the study, comparative and structural analysis as well as elements of political modeling are used. The author studies original and innovative video game mechanics designed to have a large-scale impact on the gamers’ perception model and the state of their psycho-emotional sphere, including the aim of integrating or desacralizing certain values and the models of thinking, behavior and identity determined by them. The empirical basis of the study is a combination of cyber narrative and historical facts about the events of the Great Patriotic War.
Results. Within the framework of the present study, the author reveals the question of the untapped potential of the video games use as a means of counteracting the rehabilitation of Nazism, national chauvinism and militarism. An original model of the process of rehabilitation of Nazism, national chauvinism and militarism has been developed as part of the formation of cultural memory. The author has developed a within-the-gameplay approach to the deconstruction of narratives used in popular culture for the rehabilitation of Nazism, national chauvinism and militarism.
Research implications. A conceptual model of the process of rehabilitation of Nazism, national chauvinism and militarism in modern mass culture works has been developed. Practical recommendations for the deconstruction of the relevant RPG games narratives are formulated.