After reading the chapter on militarism in How to Play Video Games by Mirrlees, I was intrigued by some the comments within the chapter. Growing up with video games as a part of my daily routine, I have played my fair share of first-person shooter video games. With that being said, it connects with a couple of different points within this chapter on militarism. For instance, how The Global War on Terror has made its way into our hearts and minds. I couldn’t tell you why military-like games retain and hold my attention better than most games, but they just do. However, I feel as if video games are more direct when “pushing” the militaristic ideas onto their audiences. To explain, films such as Full Metal Jacket, and television shows like Band of Brothers allow for enough room for interpretation from the audience’s point of view. Movie goers can form unique thoughts and opinions towards a movie, where as a game does not. In Full Metal Jacket’s case, even though the director wanted to convey the transformation from men to killers, the viewers can make up a completely different view-point.

“Militarism permeates popular culture, encouraging American citizens to perceive martial violence as a righteous and a noble solution to geopolitical problems that vex the United States” (Mirrlees, 242). I believe that this statement relates to how militarism is pushed heavily through video games due to their lack of freedom or choices to do what the player wants to do within a video game. Most video games that are militant often have the player follow a strict campaign that allows for most actions to not be decided by the player, but is rather predetermined with underlying ideals and attitudes by the developers and writers. Since most of the motives and underlying themes of a video game are pre-determined in a sense, it is a lot easier to push the militant ideology onto younger, more immature minds through popular video games.

Thinking about it now, I never really understood the mass appeal towards video games where the main objective is to kill someone else. Why/How do these games do so well in sales? Coming from my point of view, I have never had an interest in war or power; So why am I addicted to playing games where war and power is the main premise. Has militarism been pushed onto the public for so long, that it eventually became normal to simulate previous wars that already happened? Have militant video games always been this popular even before 9/11?