Politics in Games -- An Overview and Classification

Abstract: The representation of politics in media influences societal perceptions and attitudes. Video games, as a pervasive form of media, contribute significantly to this phenomenon. In this work, we explore political themes within video games by analyzing politically-themed games on game distribution platforms including Steam. We conducted a statistical examination of games with political context to identify patterns and use this as a basis to introduce a first taxonomy to categorize and better understand the interplay between politics and video games. This taxonomy offers a first framework for analyzing political content in games and also sets a foundation for future research in this field.