Auswärtsspiel
In light of the current political world events, foreign policy issues and developments are of the highest relevance. Nevertheless, public debates often give the impression that the general public knows little about the actual foundations of German foreign policy.
At the same time, many games challenge their players to deal with the meaning of self and foreign interests, different value systems and partnerships within their virtual game worlds: Players solve conflicts, enter alliances and act strategically and politically – always within the respective game logics, of course. Can the involving mechanics of digital games, then, also serve to provide a deeper understanding of the workings and mechanisms of foreign policy practice and issues beyond fictional game worlds? And at the same time, how might one reach a (critical) sensitization towards political narratives and images within games?
It is precisely these questions to which the project ‘Auswärtsspiel’ of the Foundation for Digital Games Culture, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, is dedicated. It aims to explore the role of digital games as media for conveying narratives and topics of foreign policy. Furthermore, ‘Auswärtsspiel’ seeks to develop an initial approach to the use of games in public diplomacy. At the same time, the interdisciplinary formats of the project allow it to anchor the initiated theoretical impulses regarding digital games and foreign policy more firmly within the public discourse, leading to an interdisciplinary questionnaire as a practical result of the project. The latter seeks to enable all those interested in digital games to become more reflectively aware of games content related to foreign policy and to engage with it in a critical and learning manner.
To this purpose, a panel of interdisciplinary experts will first develop a catalogue of guiding questions which will then enter a broader discourse, being discussed with representatives from the gaming industry, academia, civil society as well as foreign policy institutions. To initiate a practical application of the experts’ results, ‘Auswärtsspiel’ also includes a barcamp with a modding competition. These events will serve as praxis-oriented formats where the topic of foreign policy and games can be approached through the impulses and creative works from the participants themselves (e.g. in form of developed MODs). The project will conclude with a final publication that will provide the final transfer of the topic into a societal discourse in order to make the project results accessible to as broad a public as possible.
Panel of experts
Michaela Bartelt (Senior Director WW Localization Electronic Arts)
Prof. Thomas Bremer (Professor at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin; Co-Founder DE-HIVE Institute)
Daniel Budiman (Co-Founder & Host Rocket Beans TV)
Riad Djemili (CEO, Developer & Founder Maschinen Mensch Studio)
Prof. Lena Falkenhagen (Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Europe, Federal Chairwoman of the Verband deutscher Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller)
Prof. Clemens Hochreiter (Professor at Fresenius Hochschule München; Co-Founder Reality Twist)
Stefanie Kastner (Head of the Libraries Department, Goethe-Institut)
Karsten Lehmann (Director Public Affairs Ubisoft Germany)
Hendrik Lesser (CEO & Founder Remote Control Productions)
Nora Müller (Head of International Politics, Körber Foundation)
Ata Sergey Nowak (Managing Director & Co-Founder Torpor Games)
Prof. Mareike Ottrand (Professor at the Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaft Hamburg; Founder Studio Fizbin)
Dr. Eugen Pfister (Hochschule der Künste Bern, Co-Founder Arbeitskreis Geschichtswissenschaft und Digitale Spiele)
Mick Prinz (Project Manager Good Gaming – Well Played Democracy, Amadeu Antonio Foundation)
Marcus Richter (Freelance Journalist & Moderator)
Prof. Dr. Thomas Risse (Professor at the Otto Suhr Institute, Freie Universität Berlin)
Zora Roso / Maximilian Bock (Level Infinite / Tencent)
Dr. Joachim Rother (Project Manager German-Israeli Young Leaders Exchange, Bertelsmann Foundation)
Dr. Matthias Schulze (Deputy Head of Research Group Security Policy, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik)
Manouchehr Shamsrizi (Co-Founder game.lab, Arbeitskreis Geschichtswissenschaft und Digitale Spiele; Founder RetroBrain R&D)
Lisa Marie Ullrich (Program Director & Member of the Board of Directors, Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz)
Jan Wagner (Head of Digital, Ulisses Spiele)
Sarah Widmaier (Scientific Coordinator Research Program Culture and Foreign Policy, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)
Gabriele Woidelko (Head of History and Politics, Körber Stiftung)
Franziska Zeiner (Co-CEO & Co-Founder, Fein Games)
Felix Zimmermann (Consultant for Games Culture, Political Education and Extremism, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung)
Catalogue of guiding questions
This catalogue of guiding questions is dedicated to the interface between digital games and foreign policy. It invites all interested parties from development, education, and research as well as (gaming) practice to use it as an impulse for reflection and exchange about the topic of digital games and foreign policy. The guiding questions are structured according to the focal points “Underlying Understanding of Foreign Policy”, “Narratives & Representation”, “Rule Systems & Values” as well as “Mediative Function”. Furthermore, each guiding question has been complemented with exemplary discussion questions.
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