Video Games and Soft Power
In politics, many countries use what’s called soft power as an ability to impact the world. Theoretically in the studies of International Relations, this is a strength used by institutions or States to influence the behavior of others in order to get the outcome they want without using any coercive force.
Traditionally, this involved cultural and economic values that have the ability to influence and to impact globally such as neoliberalism, democracy, human rights, tourism, music or films. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge the increasing power that video games are having in almost every corner of the world.
Last century, video games were seen as the place were excluded people could go to avoid interaction and to get lost in a virtual world were they would be able to fit in. However, in the past years video games have become a part of the mainstream and an entertainment phenomenon that has led to the acceptance of virtual and fantasy worlds not as a possibility to escape, but as a way to connect with others.
The impact has become so great that in 2019, there were already 2.6 billion gamers worldwide. This amount of people even surpasses the number of Christians in the world (2.3 billion). It is an industry that has spread more and faster than the biggest religion on earth. It is also an industry where the average user age in the United States is 34 years old, making it an industry for adults, not for kids. E-Sports has even had audiences up to 456 millions. And it is estimated that by 2025, the value of the global gaming industry will reach $256.97 billion dollars and surely after COVID19 these estimates will increase much more.
In a more palpable way, recently we have seen that games such as Pokemon Go or Fortnite, have majorly impacted pop culture. We constantly have seen kids, actors and football players making the “Fortnite dance” and in 2016, Pokemon Go influenced us by creating an augmented reality game that became the most popular game of 2016 and in countries like Japan, it was the most downloaded app of the year. Gaming is not just a pastime, gaming has become part of our culture and part of our way of interacting with each other.
Gaming has impacted other types of media like TV series such as Pokemon or The Legend of Zelda, or films like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It has even impacted in the music industry like in February 2019 were DJ Marshmello had a virtual concert inside Fortnite which brought 10 million gamers as concert attendees. Ten million people with different nationalities, religions and beliefs were able to interact at the same time in a virtual world. Gaming, and specially Massively Multiplayer Online (MMOs) video games, keep on proving to be a space that gives millions a chance to be a part of a community, part of a culture.
With this highly impactful form of entertainment, countries such as the US, Japan and China, have been able to spread either values, culture, music or ways of being through video games.
After inventing the personal computing, the US became the first creator of the video and computer games market shaper of the fast-growing market. Here, they were able to transmit their music, their language, their fashion and their mythological western creatures with games like Warcraft or the Defense of the Ancients. Within games, people all over the world had a possibility to experience the “American Way” of living. To be in an American virtual world.
Now, China is applying it too. They are heavily investing in this industry with games such as King of Glory were people all over the world can learn about its culture, music, traditions and history while playing. Its pursuit of leadership in this arena expands even to the educational field by having at least 40 universities with E-Sports courses as well as in the business world with an E-Sports hotel and an E-Sports experience.
Today, the world’s largest video game company is a Chinese monster called Tencent, which owns Riot Games (League of Legends)and has a 40% shares of Epic Games (Fortnite).
China is willing to extend its soft power globally. The US and the West has done it before with the spreading of western values through cultural and artistic movements. It is very possible that this video game movement will end up in the hands of the Dragon.
Nowadays that games like Fortnite or League of Legends are important pinnacles of the global culture and shapers of a new virtual and physical reality, whoever creates and innovates the most, will have one of the biggest and most powerful tools to spread its culture globally, video games.
Sources
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/pokemon-go-app-named-most-9375173
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/spais/documents/Working%20Paper%2003_16_CR_JW.pdf
https://techjury.net/blog/gaming-industry-worth/#gref
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/24/how-free-games-and-streaming-services-sparked-a-video-game-boom.html
https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/10-4-the-impact-of-video-games-on-culture/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzrcRcEBrmA
https://medium.com/ipg-media-lab/gaming-as-a-cultural-force-dc456f8a41ab
https://medium.com/@yamzu/alternative-costume-videogames-esports-and-soft-power-dcbc26c2b1a3
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-how-shanghai-is-beating-the-world-at-video-games/
