Abstract
The cultural and ideological tools that enable the West to maintain the imperial and colonial rule over the East have been varied. With the help of Western-based digital technologies and communication tools, it is possible to produce, publish, and distribute all kinds of information easily and quickly. The western and Western perspective is also reflected in the media content, and all kinds of popular media texts such as films, music, newspapers, magazines, toys are the bearers of the political social, cultural, and ideological structure of the West. Media texts produce discourses, especially about the ‘East' and position the East as one other. In this context, digital games should not be considered independent of the political, social, cultural, and economic structure in which they exist. The aim of this study is to assess research studies focusing on the orientalist perspective in digital games. While examining the relationship between orientalism and digital games within the framework of the literature, especially the Muslim and Arab representations in the plays were examined.
TopOrientalism: A Conceptual Introduction
Orientalism means “science of the Eastern world”, with the old word Orientalism (Derin, 2006). As for the word orientalist, it generally means Eastern languages and Eastern Sciences expert, and is used to mean a scientist who studies the history, religion, language, literature, culture, and some other points of Eastern communities. Orientalism, which emerged as a research method and discipline because of non-professional studies, has paved the way for studies in various fields over time. The term Orientalist originally had a rather different meaning than its present meaning. In 1683, the term orientalist means “a member of the Eastern or Greek Church”(Bulut, 2010).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Islamophobia: It means hatred, discrimination, hostility, and hatred towards Muslims.
Orientalism: Orientalism is the name given to all the Western-based research areas in which Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies, cultures, languages, and peoples are examined.
Representation: The fact of including different types of people, for example in films, politics, or media, so that all different groups are represented.
Game Studies: Game studies, or ludology, is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them.
Hate Speech: Public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
Digital Games: A digital game is an interactive program for one or more players, meant to provide entertainment at the least, and quite possibly more.
Othering: To make a person or group of people seem different, or to consider them to be different.