Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

The Military-Entertainment Hero Complex: Playing the War Hero

This paper, by Caighlan Smith of Memorial University of Newfoundland, argues that the "war hero" archetype in war-based video games reinforces patriarchal and neoliberal capitalist ideologies rather than challenging them.

• The paper argues that the 'war hero' archetype in war-based video games reinforces patriarchal and neoliberal capitalist ideologies rather than challenging them, by framing player violence as necessary to avert greater catastrophe.
• The heroic framing obscures how patriarchy and capitalism generate and profit from modern warfare, positioning the hero as the best defence against societal collapse.
• The author contends that such games promote militarized masculinity and neoliberal crisis management, recasting players as compliant subjects of these systems.