US accused of ‘Gamification of War’ With Video Games-Themed Iran War Videos

Critics and religious leaders condemn the White House for its ‘Gamification of War,’ using high-octane, video-game-style propaganda and pop-culture tropes to celebrate military strikes against Iran.

The reporting of the present War between the Israel-US combine and Iran has taken a sharp departure from the traditional communication models like press briefings and military updates. Instead, the US Government has sought to expand its social media presence and sensationalize the conflict by trivializing War videos as a Call of Duty (CoD) type video game spectacle. A recent video that promotes the bombing campaign against Iran depicts a CoD intro transitioning into visuals of fighter jets taking off from aircraft carriers. By adding imagery of missiles flying through the sky and cinematic explosions in slow motion, the video has a narrator announce ‘We are winning this war’ in the backdrop of energetic music.

Furthermore, Operation Epic Fury is being portrayed in a positive light by other videos that weave clips from “Top Gun”, “Iron Man”, and “Braveheart”, interspersed with images of Iranian targets being destroyed. It declares “Flawless Victory” in the “Mortal Kombat” audio. Yet another video opened with a Grand Theft Auto meme before showing live strike footage from Iran. Meanwhile, the White House reaffirms its choice of leveraging social media to galvanize popular support. According to its spokesperson, Anna Kelly, “The legacy media wants us to apologize for highlighting the United States Military's incredible success, but the White House will continue showcasing the many examples of Iran's ballistic missiles, production facilities, and dreams of owning a nuclear weapon being destroyed in real time.”

At the same time, the videos have polarized opinions. While one group describes them as a successful strategy that projected strength by generating shock value, others, such as Chicago Cardinal Cupich, have condemned them by describing ‘Gamification of war’ as a “profound moral failure” that “strips away the humanity of real people”. Critics also point to the videos mocking US soldiers and contributing to a trend of a country treating War as content for consumption. Thus, CIO Bulletin is of the view that for millions of Americans, these videos can potentially form their impression about war being a strategic necessity.