How Multiplayer Games Create New Media Politics

This paper by Lars Konzack and Thessa Lindof, presented at the DiGRA 2005 conference, argues that massive multiplayer online games create a "new media politics" that differs fundamentally from the manipulative, one-way character of mass media. The authors trace the shift from the printing press through radio, film, and television, observing that these older forms position audiences as passive recipients who can only react by switching channels or turning off. By contrast, online multiplayer games offer players meaningful choices within game structures, interaction with other players, and the ability to share knowledge and reshape the game's own meaning, positioning them as social actors rather than consumers.

A substantial portion of the paper is devoted to defining "serious games" in response to Gonzalo Frasca's view that seriousness requires irreversibility and death and that fantasy or simulation settings cannot be serious. The authors reject this position, arguing that seriousness lies in whether a game prompts players to reflect on underlying structures after encountering a breakdown, and that repetition and failure are central to learning. Drawing on Huizinga, Piaget, and Brecht's concept of the alienation effect, they contend that a serious game must first be engaging enough that players willingly persist through obstacles.

The authors illustrate these ideas through NationStates, a browser-based nation simulation in which players define governments and whose political classification shifts according to players' policy answers. Their own experience, in which banning dueling produced an unexpected change in their nation's classification, prompted them to reflect on what democracy means and how the game's assumptions reflect particular cultural contexts. The paper also notes that players used the game to explore ideologies such as far-right politics and fictional subcultures. The analysis is qualitative and based on the authors' observation and experience rather than systematic survey data, and the discussion is limited to a small set of examples, including America's Army and Ethnic Cleansing, which are mentioned briefly.