Towards a Politics of Video Games: Conceptualizing the Study of Video Games in Political Science

The study of video games in political science remains fragmented and underdeveloped. Political science has examined other cultural mediums, from television to cinema, yet left video games, which offer deeper immersion and now dwarf both in scale, a niche area of study. This is a grave blind spot: video games transmit political meaning to global audiences, and are political objects shaped by the same regulatory, industrial, and geopolitical forces political science studies elsewhere. This article proposes two subfields: games as sites of political meaning, and games as political objects, examining how games are regulated and operate within global governance. Within each, I put forward foundational concepts: virtual agency and representational politics for the former, gaming spheres of influence, governance, and political economy for the latter. Four case studies, Silent Hill f, Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 4, and Black Myth: Wukong, demonstrate these concepts, establishing the first research agenda for this field.