Post-'Modern Warfare': Are Peace-Based Video Games Possible?

by Antony Adolf · 2010-03-30 13:57:00 UTC
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The first video game ever made was, you guessed it, about war. Spacewar! to be precise, invented by an MIT student in 1961 to play on the institute's mainframe computer. Now, fast-forward half a century to the present.

Among the most popular video games ever made is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, in its second installment as part of the franchise by leading game maker Activision, which has galvanized the unending debate (not at issue here) about the ethics of video game violence.

There can be no doubt that Modern Warfare's graphics are stunning, its action enthralling, and narratives absorbing because, as its millions of players would confirm, its all about killing people. One, after another, after another. And then more. Even the trailer (yes, video games have trailers now) is breathtaking, if explosions and high-tech weaponry are your cup of tea.

Regardless, any conception of a peace-based video game must take into consideration Modern Warfare because its makers have no choice but to compete with it and its innumerable lookalikes. Which is why they should be called 'postmodern warfare,' or nothing at all. The term has also been used by a former professor of mine, Stanley Fish, in a very different context and sense.

Not only are peace-based video games possible, they have existed for quite some time. The game Civilization, which came out in its early forms in the 1990s, penalizes role-playing rulers for allowing riots and armed conflicts to take place within their realms, while making domestic security a top issue. Major points are earned for keeping societies peaceful and prosperous, the two being coterminous.

Likewise, despite the deviance it encourages, games like the Sims offer players opportunities for peacebuilding basics, from constructive inter-personal and inter-group relationships to the pacific and wealth-building management of cities. These games have also metamorphosed into the virtual era, in which Avatar is an actuality in all but physicality.

The major problem facing peace-based video games are the popular biases against peace itself, predominantly: it's boring and it's impossible. Unfortunately, given Modern Warfare, all these misunderstandings are understandable. But they are not insurmountable.

It remains up to this and future generations of video game makers to transform compelling peace history, peace futures and peace fiction into popular and profitable entertainment.

Photo credit: willvbcfc

Antony Adolf is the author of Peace: A World History, and a teacher, public speaker and independent scholar. He is the publisher of One World, Many Peaces: Current Events Creating the Future.
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