Seyyed of Cyrus the Great

Iran’s Confused Nationalism in Games

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze Iranian video games with the purpose of asserting that the government has employed two distinct forms of nationalism as a means to validate its authority, and also has used its authority to suppress privately developed games that operate independently from the government’s established ecosystem. We’ve used landmark digital games as case studies, alongside ethnographic approaches by interviewing developers and people who had relevant life experiences, to get a clear picture of cultural narratives and responses that have shaped the state of digital games in Iran. Based on the research we’ve done, we have made a case for how the dichotomic nature of games in Iran has helped create a mismatched sense of nationalism, and how the government’s role in this mismatch has become more prominent by forcing the independent side to flee the country.