Past play as political mobilization: towards a typology of historical game configurations vulnerable to rightwing extremist recruitment

In recent years, right-wing extremists have increasingly targeted gaming communities and gaming-related social media platforms such as Discord, Twitch and Steam, to engage in recruitment. Research indicates that gaming spaces can be especially vulnerable to these efforts, because of a strong presence of exclusionary ‘us versus them’ discourses and because gaming activities lend themselves well to visceral forms of group alignment (i.e., identity fusion) which can be mobilized for anti-social behavior (Kowert, Martel & Swann, 2022).

Within the existing scholarship, scholars have also noted that right-wing extremists target historically-themed games and their communities specifically (Kingdon, 2024), which raises questions about the vulnerabilities of these games and their communities. Which representations and (gameplay) activities in historical gaming spaces lend themselves well for extremist mobilization, and why?

Through my fellowship at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Groningen, I want to develop a typology of historical game configurations (e.g., representations, gameplay- and community activities) that are especially vulnerable to extremist targeting. To develop this typology, I want to engage in discussions with scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds at the faculty. Being a historian by training myself, I am especially interested to further discuss the topic with the members of Research Centre for Historical Studies (CHS).

As the topic touches upon many historical topics, ranging from theoretical perspectives on history, to extremist appropriations of depictions of ancient, medieval and (early) modern history in games, to the history of internet cultures and how the latter provide a context for extremist mobilization, I would be very happy to discuss the matter widely, with colleagues working across the CHS.

Pieter Van den Heede (Erasmus School of History, Culture, and Communication & RUG)