Contemporary Political Discourse in Digital Games: A Systematic Approach

This study reviews existing literature on how video games are being used to convey contemporary political discourse. Digital games, as meaningful cultural artifacts, have become a communication medium in their own right. They can serve as social mirrors, framing contemporary reality through metaphors that represent and recreate transcendent events or social facts through immersive experiences. Likewise, video games have played a significant role in shaping our current politics and culture. This article seeks to answer the research question: How has contemporary political discourse been explored through digital games in academic literature? To do so, we conducted a systematic literature review following the SALSA (search, appraisal, synthesis, and analysis) framework. We identified N = 25 journal articles written in English and Spanish, published between January 2013 and September 2023. We found that first-person shooter games were the most frequently discussed game genre in the academic literature, followed by newsgames. We propose a new method for categorizing political messages in digital games, which we have called the PRICE dimensions model (participation, representation, ideology, conflict, and education). The studied papers were classified into five main thematic groups: (a) video games as a tool for digital propaganda; (b) video games aiming to raise awareness of political issues; (c) games and gamification elements for radicalization; (d) game design that justifies, minimizes, or downplays violence; and (e) players’ role in conveying political messages.