Perception of war and peace among young Russian gamers in the context of the special military operation (SMO)

The socialization of contemporary youth is significantly influenced by entertainment content such as video games and social media. This paper analyzes reviews and comments by young gamers on the Steam platform on socio-political topics. The study aims to identify the characteristics of the discourse among Russian youth on the issue of «war and peace» and the topic of the SMO, as reflected in reviews of computer games. Utilizing the capabilities of a BERT model trained on more than 10,000 textual reviews, the authors conclude that there is a division within the youth gaming community in perception of the SMO and the use of force in conflict resolution, categorized into “militarists” and “anti-militarists”. The former group tends to be younger, with a belief in the necessity and legitimacy of military actions, demonstrating “virtual participation” in these actions, and employing rhetoric of patriotism and support for the SMO, as evidenced by the use of Z-symbols, anti-Western, and anti-Ukrainian slogans. “Anti-militarists”, on the other hand, belong to the older youth, emphasizing the costs of war and its negative impact on common people. Unlike “militarists”, they view video games as conduits for values of humanism and pacifism. The authors establish that in the process of cyber-socialization through computer games, the political identity of young people is shaped by several factors and is a multimodal phenomenon. An individual’s gaming preferences and their communication with the gaming community are filtered through their life experiences, forming certain echo chambers that consist of like-minded individuals with similar backgrounds. The constant clash of youth with the “agenda of the day” introduces new interpretations, ideas, and meanings into the realm of video games, which ultimately generates a certain synergy between the personal and the collective in the identity of young individuals.

1. Aysina R.M., Nesterova A.A. Cyber socialization of youth in the information and communication space of the modern world: effects and risks. Social psychology and society. 2019. Vol. 10, N 4, P. 42–57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2019100404 (In Russ.)

2. Astashova N.A., Bondyreva S.K., Popova O.S. Gamification resources in education: a theoretical approach. The Education and science journal. 2023, Vol. 25, N 1, P. 11– 45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17853/1994-5639-2023-1-15-49 (In Russ.)

3. Baltezarevic R., Baltezarevic B., Baltezarevic V., Kwiatek P., Baltezarevic I. Political marketing in digital games: game over for traditional political marketing methods. Acta Ludologica. 2019, Vol. 2, N 2, P. 28–47.

4. Baranovskiy N.S. Using video games in patriotic education. Izvestiya of Saratov University. Sociology. Politology. 2023, Vol. 23, N 4, P. 482–486. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18500/1818-9601-2023-23-4-482-486 (In Russ.)

5. Battista D. Play, participate, decide: the emergence of video games as tools for political participation. Journal of sociological research. 2023, Vol. 15, N 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5296/jsr.v15i1.21360

6. Belov S.I. Prospects for using video games with a historical plot as a memory policy instrument of the Russian Federation. Political science issues. 2021, Vol. 11, N 4 (68), P. 1089–1096. DOI: https://doi.org/10.35775/PSI.2021.68.4.013 (In Russ.)

7. Belov S.I. Reflection of the Caribbean crisis in video games. On the example of Call of Duty: Black Ops. RSUH / RGGU Bulletin Series “Political Science. History. International Relations”. 2023, N 2, P. 105–116. DOI: https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2023-2-105-116 (In Russ.)

8. Bevc T. Models of politics and society in video games. Design and implementation of educational games: theoretical and practical perspectives. In: Zemliansky P., Wilcox D. (eds). IGI Global. 2010, P. 47–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-781-7.ch004

9. Bogost I. Persuasive games. The expressive power of videogames. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2010, 464 p.

10. Bogost I. Unit operations. An approach to videogame criticism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006, 272 р.

11. Bourgonjon J., Rutten K., Soetaert R., Valcke M. From Counter-Strike to CounterStatement: using Burke’s pentad as a tool for analysing video games. Digital Creativity. 2011, Vol. 22, N 2, Р. 91–102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2011.578577

12. Bossetta M. Political campaigning games: digital campaigning with computer games in European National Elections. International journal of communication. 2019, Vol. 13, P. 3422–3443.

13. Breuer J. Violent video games and physical aggression: Evidence for a selection effect among adolescents. Psychology of popular media culture. 2015, Vol. 4, N 4, Р. 305– 328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000035

14. Britto L.F.S., Pacifico L.D.S. Evaluating video game acceptance in game reviews using sentiment analysis techniques. XIX SBGames, Brazil, November 7th. Proceedings of SBGames. 2020, P. 399–402.

15. Castronova E. Synthetic worlds: the business and culture of online games. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005, 332 p.

16. Cermak-Sassenrath D. On political activism in digital games. MedieKultur: Journal of media and communication research. 2018, Vol. 34, N 64, 29 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v34i64.96924

17. Consalvo M. There is no magic circle. Games and culture. 2009, Vol. 4, P. 408–417. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412009343575

18. Dalisay F., Kushin M., Kim J., Forbes A., David Cl., Somera L. Motivations for video game play and political decision-making: evidence from four countries. Game Studies - the international journal of computer game research, Vol. 21, N 3.

19. Devlin J., Chang M., Lee K., Toutanova K. Bert: Pre-training of deep bidirectional transformers for language understanding. North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics. 2019, arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.04805

20. Dishon G., Kafai Y.B. Connected civic gaming: rethinking the role of video games in civic education. Interactive learning environments. 2019, Vol. 30, N 6, P. 999–1010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2019.1704791

21. Fadhlurrahman J.A.M, Herawati N.A, Aulya H.R.W, Puspasari I., Utama, N.P. Sentiment analysis of game reviews on STEAM using BERT, BiLSTM, and CRF. 2023 International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics (ICEEI), 2023, P. 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/iceei59426.2023.10346219

22. Ferguson C.J. Do Angry Birds make for angry children? A meta-analysis of video game influences on children’s and adolescents’ aggression, mental health, prosocial behavior, and academic performance. Perspectives on psychological science. 2015, Vol. 10, N 5, P. 646–666. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615592234

23. Ferguson C.J. The good, the bad and the ugly: a meta-analytic review of positive and negative effects of violent video games. Psychiatr Q. 2007, Vol. 78, N 4, P. 309–316. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-007-9056-9

24. Ferguson C.J., Colwell J.A., Meaner M.C. Digital world for youth? The relationship between violent digital games, motivation, bullying, and civic behavior among children. Psychology of popular media culture. 2016, Vol. 7, N 3, P. 202–215. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000128

25. Flanagan M. Critical play. Radical game design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2009, 353 p.

26. Frasca G. Simulation versus narrative: introduction to ludology. In: Wolf M.J.P., Perron B. (eds). The video game theory reader (1st ed.). London, New York: Routledge,2004, P. 221–237. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203700457-17

27. Godfrey R. The politics of consuming war: video games, the military-entertainment complex and the spectacle of violence. Journal of marketing management. 2021, Vol. 38, N (7–8), P. 661–682. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2021.1995025

28. Green A.M. Storytelling in video games: the art of the digital narrative. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc, 2018, 235 p.

29. Hampton K.N., Shin I., Lu W. Social media and political discussion: when online presence silences offline conversation. Information, communication & Society. 2016, Vol. 20, N 7, P. 1090–1107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1218526

30. Hayden C. The procedural rhetorics of mass effect: video games as argumentation in international relations. International studies perspectives. 2017, Vol. 18, N 2, P. 175– 193. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/isp/ekw002

31. Höglund J. Electronic Empire: orientalism revisited in the military shooter. Game studies. 2008, Vol. 8, N 1.

32. James D.I., Sriram K. The effects of technological advancement and violent content in video games on players’ feelings of presence, involvement, physiological arousal,and aggression. Journal of communication. 2007, Vol. 57, N 3, P. 532–555. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00356

33. Jarvis L. Narrative as virtual reality 2: revisiting immersion and interactivity in literature and electronic media: by Marie-Laure Ryan, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 2015, 304 p. International journal of performance arts and digital media. 2019, Vol. 15, N 2, P. 239–241. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2019.1637100

34. Jenkins H., Game design as narrative architecture. In: Wardrip-Fruin N., Harrigan P. (eds). First person: new media as story, performance, and game. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006, P. 124–25.

35. Jesper J. The game, the player, the world: looking for a heart of gameness. In: Copier M., Raessens J. (eds). Level up: digital games research conference proceedings. Utrecht: Utrecht University, 2003, P. 30–45.

36. Jiang Y., Zheng L. Deep learning for video game genre classification. Multimed tools appl. 2023, Vol. 82, P. 21085–21099. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-14560-5

37. Kapell M.W. The play versus story divide in game studies: critical essays. Jefferson, NC, United States: McFarland, 2015, 208 p.

38. Mahnic N. Gamification of politics: Start a new game! Teorija in Praksa. 2014, Vol. 51, N 1, P. 143–161.

39. Maltseva D.A., Fedotov D.A., Kaminsky S.I. Video Games as a tool for forming a political image of a social state in the consciousness of youth: case of “TROPICO 6”. Konfliktologia. 2023, Vol. 18, N 4, P. 7–22 DOI: https://doi.org/10.31312/2310-6085-2023-18-4-7-22 (In Russ.)

40. Mascellis A., Grassia M., Stavolo A. Topic modeling and sentiment analysis: an analysis of tweets about the game Cyberpunk 2077. JADT 2022: 16th International Conference on Statistical Analysis of Textual Data, 2022, P. 282–289.

41. Metzger S.A., Paxton R.J. Gaming history: a framework for what video games teach about the past. Theory & Research in social education. 2016, Vol. 44, N 4, P. 532– 564. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2016.1208596

42. Molchanov S.V., Almazova O.V., Voiskounsky A.E., Poskrebisheva N.N. Role of personality features of adolescents in processing information via social network communication. National psychological journal. 2018, Vol. 4, P. 3–15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11621/npj.2018.0401 (In Russ.)

43. Molyneux L., Vasudevan K., Zúñiga H.G. Gaming social capital: exploring civic value in multiplayer video games. Journal of computer-mediated communication. 2015, Vol. 20, N 4, 2015, P. 381–399. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12123

44. Munson S., Resnick P. The prevalence of political discourse in non-political blogs. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. 2011, Vol. 5, N 1, P. 233–240.

45. Murray J.H. Hamlet on the Holodeck: the future of narrative in cyberspace. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997, 324 p.

46. Murray J. The last word on ludology v narratology in game studies, DIGRA 2005, Vancouver, 2005, P. 1–4.

47. Nakamura L. Don’t hate the player, hate the game: the racialization of labor in World of Warcraft. Critical studies in media communication. 2009, Vol. 2, N 2, P. 128–144. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15295030902860252

48. Newbery-Jones C.J. Answering the call of duty: the phenomenology of justice in twenty-first-century video games. Law and humanities. 2015, Vol. 9, N 1, P. 78–102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17521483.2015.1042218

49. Rajadesingan A., Budak C., Resnick P. Political discussion is abundant in non-political subreddits (and less toxic) Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. 2021, Vol. 15, P. 525–536. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v15i1.18081

50. McGonigal J. Reality is broken: why games make us better and how they can change the world. Moscow: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2018, 384 p. (In Russ.)

51. Reddy R., Naoman A.A., Charan G.V.S., Fazal S.N. Sentiment analysis of steam reviews using transformer models. In: Kumar A., Mozar S. (eds). Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Communications and Cyber Physical Engineering. ICCCE 2024. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering. Springer, Singapore, 2024, Vol. 1096, P. 719–727. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7137-4_70

52. Robertson E.G. Video games and politics: an exploratory analysis of how narrative frames in video games can influence political perception. Master’s degree dissertation. The University of Auckland, 2022, 112 p.

53. Polyakova A.V. Gamification in education: a review of issues and research. Human capital. 2024, N 5, P. 216–221. (In Russ.)

54. Prensky M. Digital natives, digital immigrants. Part 1. On the Horizon. 2001, Vol. 9, N 5, Р. 1–6.

55. Przybylski A.K., Weinstein N. Violent video game engagement is not associated with adolescents' aggressive behaviour: evidence from a registered report. Royal society open science. 2019, Vol. 6, N 2, P. 1–16. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171474

56. Schulzke M. Simulating terrorism and insurgency: video games in the war of ideas. Cambridge review of international affairs. 2014, Vol. 27, N 4, P. 627–643. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2014.960508

57. Schulzke M. Serving in the virtual army: military games and the civil-military divide. Journal of applied security research. 2013, Vol. 8, N 2, P. 246–261. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19361610.2013.765342

58. Schoppmeier S. Soraya Murray, on video games: the visual politics of race, gender and space (London: I. B. Tauris, 2018), 272 pp. Amerikastudien/American studies. 2020, Vol. 64, P. 480–484. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33675/amst/2019/3/18

59. Shaw I.G.R., Sharp J.P. Playing with the future: social irrealism and the politics of aesthetics. Social & Cultural geography. 2013, Vol. 14, N 3, P. 341–359. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2013.765027

60. Sobkin V.S., Fedotova A.V. Social media as a field of a modern teenager’s socialization. Counseling psychology and psychotherapy. 2019, Vol. 27, N 3, P. 119–137. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2019270308 (In Russ.)

61. Soldatova G.U. Digital socialization in the cultural-historical paradigm: a changing child in a changing world. Social psychology and society. 2018, Vol. 9, N 3, P. 71– 80. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2018090308 (In Russ.)

62. Sou G. Trivial pursuits? Serious (video) games and the media representation of refugees. Third world quarterly. 2017, Vol. 39, N 3, P. 510–526. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2017.1401923

63. Steinkuehler C., Duncan S. Scientific habits of mind in virtual worlds. J Sci Educ Technol. 2008, Vol. 17, P. 530–543. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-008-9120-8

64. Straat B., Verhagenand H. Using user created game reviews for sentiment analysis: a method for researching user attitudes. 1st Workshop on Games-Human Interaction, April 18th, 2017, Cagliari, Italy. 2017.

65. Svarny M., Sisler V. Towards an operational definition of procedural rhetoric. In: Liapis A., Yannakakis G., Gentile M., Ninaus M. (eds). Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Cham, 2019, Vol. 11899, P. 148–157. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34350-7_15

66. Taylor T.L. The assemblage of play. Games and culture. 2009, Vol. 4, N 4, P. 331–339. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412009343576

67. Taylor T.L. Does wow change everything? How a pvp server, multinational playerbase, and surveillance mod scene caused me pause. Games and culture. 2006 a, Vol. 1, N 4, P. 318–337. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412006292615

68. Taylor T.L. Play between worlds: exploring online game culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006 b, 197 p.

69. Torres-Toukoumidis A., Gutiérrez I.M., Becerra M.H., León-Alberca T., Curiel C.P. Let’s play democracy, exploratory analysis of political video games. Societies. 2023, Vol. 13, N 2, P. 28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13020028

70. Vetushinsky A.S. More than just a tool: a new approach to understanding gamification. Sociology of power. 2020, N 3, P. 14–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22394/2074-0492-2020-3-14-31 (In Russ.)

71. Wagner H.G. Engagement through play? The relationship between video games and political engagement. PhD thesis. Nottingham, 2019, 396 р.

72. Wang Y., Zhang J. Keyword extraction from online product reviews based on bi-directional LSTM recurrent neural network. IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM). 2017, P. 2241–2245. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2017.8290290

73. Werch T. Still fighting with echoes and ghosts: collective memory, national identity and the new frontier of popular American films and video games. Historical expertise. 2019, Vol. 21, N 4, P. 25–41. DOI: 10.31754/2409-6105-2019-4-25-41 (In Russ.)

74. Williams D., Ducheneaut N., Xiong L., Zhang Y., Yee N., Nickell E. From tree house to barracks: the social life of guilds in World of Warcraft. Games and culture. 2006, Vol. 1, N 4, Р. 338–361. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412006292616

75. Žižek S. Cyberspace, or the inexpressible seclusion of being. KinoArt. 1998, N 1, P. 119–128. (In Russ.)