ARMA 3 and Implications for Games and Persuasion

Benjamin Abraham. 2018. Video game visions of climate futures: ARMA 3 and implications for games and persuasion. Games and Culture 13, 1 (2018), 71-91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412015603844

Abstract:

This article discusses ARMA 3 (2013), a military simulation game from Bohemia Interactive. Through the prominent placement of visual representations of renewable power generation the game offers a compelling vision of the future in which current resistance to low-carbon and renewable economies have been overcome. I argue that the potential of this vision to challenge cultural futures and imaginaries is dependent on its presentation aesthetically and not, as is often suggested, on game mechanics operating in a “persuasive” mode. Instead, I argue that ARMA 3’s aesthetic vision can skirt around the ideological resistances players may have against accepting more didactic modes of engagement with the highly charged and ideologically contested reality of anthropogenic climate change.