Diss.--Freie Universität Berlin. / Bibliography: p. 208-234.

This thesis examines the topic of representation of totalitarianism in videogames. It aims to show how the totalitarianism is depicted in selected games and whether the videogame as a medium has some influence on this depiction. Theoretical part introduces and examines all sorts of different approaches, based on which one can study videogame as a medium. An argument about the videogames as a medium of control is presented further on and is also discussed in relation with totalitarianism. Second half of theoretical chapter focuses on definition of totalitarianism which is used in the case studies later on. Empirical part analyzes four games - Half-life 2, Papers, please, Wolfenstein: the New Order and BioShock with focus on representation of totality or dystopia. The games are analyzed both with regards to their rules and fiction. The conclusion shows that totalitarianism was represented mostly by its outer activities rather than ideology which were usually represented rather marginally. However, in all cases there could be found some examples of how was the representation of totalitarianism used to merge with system of control in games.

The aim of this is thesis is to study and understand the development within the gaming community in the latter half of 2014, where a harassment campaign against the female developer Zoe Quinn led to an industry-spanning controversy that divided large sections of the gaming community, and how this fed into a far-right radicalization of certain groups of young male gamers. This thesis focuses on the idea that the controversy in question helped mobilize these games into an online social movement that aimed to “take back our games” from the perceived outside threats of feminism and political correctness, and how they through that process became an easy target for assimilation within large far-right and white supremacist movements. To prove this, data have been collected from two points: from the comment section on YouTube of the pre-controversy 2013 trailer of the video game Wolfenstein: The New Order, and from the YouTube comment section of the post-controversy 2017 trailer of the sequel, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. These points have been chosen to interpret the difference in reaction between the two games, and whether or not the controversy had a mobilization and radicalizing influence. To study social movements, Sidney G. Tarrow’s definition of what a social movement is and contentious collective action will be the main theoretical thread of the thesis, but it will be supplemented with theories from W. Lance Bennet and Alexandra Segerberg’s study of online collective action, Cass R. Sunstein’s work on in-group radicalization, along with further theories.