On gaming platforms as arenas of propaganda and protest - today I look at how if the medium is the message, the new messages are to be found in the "metaverse" - or more, specifically, in the new battle grounds for global soft power that are borderless, and poorly patrolled, mega games.
If Hollywood dominated soft power the mainstream media era, who will be the global cultural superpowers to export aesthetics and values in the age of the metaverse? Unlike with social media 2.0 platforms, gaming universes do have a common (centralised!) theme, narrative and flavour, making them much more amenable to hosting and growing mass movements and common values. Indications are, based on current global gaming market share, China, South Korea, and Israel could have outsize influence.
But it's not just governments shipping ideas and values to the world - citizens are also using global gaming platforms as places of protest to push back against governments that don't permit free speech or grand stands in the streets...
Anyway, games are about far more than entertainment (or are is entertainment about far more than mere entertainment?) - and the age of immersive (and nicely personalised) global propaganda is here.
Have you thought about gaming worlds in a political sense? Not only are these platforms a new and growing form of more multi dimensional social media (as we have spoken about for years), they are also a battle ground for shaping the hearts, minds and values of the next generations - shaped by international rather than local censors, often hidden from or poorly understood by parents and local authorities.
Is the future of mass movements (and the manipulation thereof) in the metaverse?
Does soft power trump hard power in a softened, sedentary world?
Let us know.
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Mario Bro diplomacy