How Video Games Normalize War Against Iran
WANA (Jun 30) – In the flashy world of video games, Iran is repeatedly cast as the enemy—its streets turn into battlegrounds, its people are portrayed as a global threat. But is this just a game? Or is it a deliberate narrative shaping global minds to accept hostility toward a real nation? Is it mere entertainment—or a psychological weapon?
When Fiction Shapes Reality
In the realm of video games, everything begins with a gun and a few buttons. But the end result may be the shaping of an entire generation’s mindset. These days, Iran features prominently in many best-selling Western games—not only as the “enemy,” but also as the target of military invasions, bombings, and covert operations. The question arises: Is this really just entertainment, or part of a broader psychological engineering?
Games That Target Iran
In the popular game Battlefield 3, the player enters the streets of Tehran as an American soldier, with the capital’s skyline trembling under missile and bullet fire. The mission? Neutralize Iran’s nuclear threat.
In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, characters with Iranian names and Persian accents play roles in terrorist and anti-Western scenarios. Even in the hyper-realistic Arma 3, a military force resembling Iran, with similar insignias and equipment, is introduced as NATO’s main enemy.
Collectively, the message is clear and consistent: Iran equals threat. There are also other games, such as Attack on Iran, 1979: Black Friday, and more, which follow similar patterns.
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Entertainment or Mind-Shaping?
These repeated portrayals—whether intentional or not—fill the minds of millions of teenagers and young adults across the world with a very specific image: Iran is violent, dangerous, nuclear-capable, and deserves to be attacked.
With the repetition of such scenarios, “attacking Iran” no longer seems strange. While sitting behind their consoles, Western players engage in fictional wars against a country they may know nothing about—except what the games show them: darkness, rockets, screams, and hostility.
How Games Shape Perception
Video games are no longer just games. They build narratives. When Iran is repeatedly portrayed as the enemy, this idea gradually becomes normalized. Even someone who doesn’t know where Iran’s capital is can easily imagine it as a hostile, anti-Western state that must be contained.
Media psychology research shows that games can be as influential as films or news—sometimes even more—because the player actively participates in the story, makes decisions, pulls the trigger, and steps into the shoes of the “savior of the West.”
For many of us, a video game might seem like nothing more than a form of entertainment. But these same games are quietly constructing the image of an “enemy” in the global consciousness. An enemy with a green, white, and red flag—and a Persian tongue.
