Power Play: Video Games, Politics and the Battle for Global Influence

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‘Essential reading for anyone trying to understand where the next influence operation is being built’ELIOT HIGGINS, founder of Bellingcat’Revelatory . . . will fundamentally change how you understand modern power’KELLY CLANCY, author of Playing with Reality ‘Frequently surprising and utterly absorbing whether you’re a gamer or not.”JONN ELLEDGE, author of A History of the World in 47 Borders__________________________________In Power Play, leading game industry expert George E. Osborn reveals how video games – the world’s largest entertainment medium – are being used by autocrats, populists and violent extremists to influence the real world around us. Video games are the world’s largest entertainment medium. They are played by billions of people of all ages every year, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. But they are more than an entertainment product. They connect people across the globe, creating digital third places where people talk, share ideas and build identities, fostering diverse communities capable of dominating the digital discourse now shaping our reality. While democracies continue to underestimate the potential for influence in this space, others have seized the opportunity to control, co-opt or collaborate with video game communities to wield the power of these vast information ecosystems. Saudi Arabia is spending tens of billions of dollars acquiring video games businesses to wash its reputation. Russia has funded video game development to help spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine. Steve Bannon utilised tactics deployed by online video game communities to propel Donald Trump into the White House, and Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin even carved video game references into his bullets. Supported by the insights of politicians, academics and industry experts, Power Play is the vital guide for understanding this new political frontier, highlighting what democracies must do to protect and harness the immense power of play before the essential battle for digital influence is lost for good.