Towards a “gamification” of war? The White House takes inspiration from “Call of Duty” to tout its bombings in Iran

The American administration’s communication seems a little more erratic every day. The White House published on Wednesday a video on The post is accompanied by the patriotic expression, using the colors of the American flag: “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue”.

The opening scene of the video represents a special level of the game: when a player manages to eliminate 30 opponents in a row without dying, they can trigger an “ultimate attack” which allows them to annihilate the opposing team. This is followed by real images of American missiles which, when they hit their Iranian targets, display the words “+100 points”, like in “Call of Duty”.

This communication strategy is strongly criticized across the Atlantic, while victims have already numbered in the hundreds in Iran since the start of the war. “Treating this war like a video game just days after an American strike which probably killed more than 100 schoolgirls shows a particular insensitivity,” the correspondent of a British newspaper said on X. Neither the United States nor Israel has confirmed such an attack.

Points program in Ukraine

“W’s in the cat, boys!” » laughs Steven Cheung, White House communications director, in response to a message criticizing the video. This phrase refers to a popular expression on the Twitch network: when a streamer celebrates a victory, spectators write in the chat “W” (for wintranslation of victoire).

Was the White House even allowed to use these images? Activision, the game’s publisher, did not respond to TMZ’s comments on this point. Chance Glasco, one of the founders of the “Call of Duty” franchise, explained to X that in the past he had “experienced embarrassing pressure from them (the White House) so that the next Call of Duty deals with an Iranian attack on Israel. The idea was reportedly rejected by the game’s developers.

This is not the first time that the American administration has used pop culture references to promote its policies. Last September, the very popular Pokémon franchise dissociated itself from a video from the American government associating the famous slogan “Catch ’em all” with its campaign to deport illegal immigrants. The “Halo” video game series was also used for a recruitment campaign for ICE agents, the immigration police.

This association of video games with war is not new. The Ukrainian military launched a program last year that allows soldiers to earn “points,” then prizes, by eliminating Russian soldiers or military equipment. In a dedicated article, the BBC described a real “gamification” of the conflict. A new phenomenon that seems to be gaining popularity.