The Mechanism of the Soft Power Implementation in the Political Discourse of Computer Games

The purpose of this article is to reveal a mechanism for the Soft Power implementation through digital video games understood as a discourse that possesses and realizes its own political dimension. The research methodology is based on a postmodern insight into politics as a discourse, in light of which computer video games are viewed not as a form of leisure, but as a digital experience laboratory. The game universe appears as an integral discourse, within which the political subjectivity of players is formed. Under such interpretation, computer video games serve as an important tool for the Soft Power reaching. The author relies on a three-part model, symbol – narrative – image, to conceptualize the mechanism, by which the Soft Power political potential embedded in computer video games put into effect. The Soft Power of digital video games is accomplished only when the game discourse proceeds from the symbols projected into images and narratives. It is the assimilation, adaptation, and interpretation of the game universe discourse symbolic content in the process of cross-cultural communication that lead to the Soft Power political potential employing.