The Game /

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1150155 (Table of Contents)

Video games are multimedia products. A multimedia product primarily functions as a communication medium. To transmit preloaded messages to the users is a multimedia product's highest priority mission regardless of the content,. Entertainment aspect is more important in video games compared to other types of multimedia products and interactivity in video games is not simply navigating through the content. That is because video games have game dynamics. A person playing a video game attends more to the visual cover and the game dynamics than the messages implied in the content. Because of the interactive nature of the medium, a player may keep playing a video game even if it contains ideological messages that he wouldn't willingly agree on, keeping himself within the effect of the messages, willingly or not. A movie viewer on the other hand, may stop the viewing process because of reasons related to the content. Difference is between the interactive and passive nature of two media. Prime examples of this are the games that promote prejudiced views on real life war events and transmit militarist messages in their content in order to stir sympathy towards legalized violence and nationalist fanaticism. This project is an experiment to create an alternative visual language that challenges this situation detailed above by allowing people to feel discomfort through awareness of the militarist messages in such video games.