Gamers are still fighting the Soviets, according to a study on first-person shooters:
North Korea and China, nation-states that might be considered more pressing and relevant rivals to the West, only show up as enemies in games once each. On the other hand, Russia shows up as the enemy 11 times. Either as a future Russian Federation or Ultra Russian nationalists, the most prevalent outcome for an enemy is the Russian context. Terrorists likewise might be considered the most promising enemy in digital games, yet they still are not as prevalent as one might think appearing seven times, mostly in various Tom Clancy series. Tom Clancy series also tend to use Latin American terrorists rather than Middle Eastern. Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Serbia do not appear as enemies at all, but Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan do sometimes appear as locations in campaign modes of some games. …
There are various reasons for these results, but I am interested in hearing what the public might think of these outcomes. The “Russia” result is likely because they are ongoing rivals with the US, it is hard to shake Cold War images, and the fact that China represents a large market for video games and other entertainment forms that is best not annoyed (see my book on Tibet and China for similar themes). The reason we see few games covering terrorism is likely because these fights might hit too close to home and lose the element of fun important in games. Medal of Honor Warfighter was a huge failure for this reason, killing the entire franchise.
The Dish 