Power Play - by George E Osborn (Hardcover)

About the Book

In Power Play, games industry expert George E. Osborn explores the burgeoning foreign and domestic movements to spread influence through video games, showing that our failure to date to take games seriously has led to a culture of complacency around their true impact and importance on the geopolitical stage.

Book Synopsis

The evolution of video games from a niche pursuit to the world's largest entertainment medium, with billions of players and billions of dollars at stake, has made it a perfect place for states and non-state actors to advance their goals online. In Power Play, leading games industry expert George E. Osborn explores the burgeoning foreign and domestic movements to spread influence through video games, showing that our failure to date to take games seriously has led to a culture of complacency around their true impact and importance on the geopolitical stage.

More than a simple form of entertainment, video games are an ecosystem that connects billions of people across the globe. Video games create spaces where people talk, share ideas, and build identities that bleed into our reality. And whilst democracies have underestimated the potential for influence in this space, others have seized the opportunity.

This is why Russia has been funding the development of video games designed to promote their world view. It's why Saudi Arabia has acquired one of gaming's biggest publishers, EA, to help wash its reputation. It's why Steve Bannon utilized tactics learned from online game communities to propel Donald Trump to the White House. And it's why Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin carved video game references into his bullets.

Supported by the insights of dozens of politicians, academics, and industry experts, Power Play is the vital guide to understanding this new frontier for political influence, and what democracies must do to protect play and harness its immense power before this essential battle for digital influence is lost for good.

Review Quotes

"In Power Play, George Osborn lays out exactly how we got here: how technology developed for entertainment became a way for political campaigns and regimes to influence millions. He exposes how the Saudi Arabian, Chinese, and Russian states and extremists across the world have leveraged the power of games, and how far behind democracies are in understanding or countering this. Anyone who still thinks that video games are trivial will learn from this book exactly why they are not."--Keza MacDonald, Video Games Editor, The Guardian

"An eye-opening read detailing the malicious and nefarious ways external forces attempt (and sometimes succeed) to twist the joys of gaming into vehicles for political influence."--Lucy James, Host & Senior Video Producer, GameSpot

"Gaming environments have been a frontier for geopolitical influence and state control for longer than most of us would have thought, yet our collective awareness remains dangerously low. Osborn's book masterfully shines a much needed light on these issues, providing vital wake-up call for anyone concerned with the intersection of technology, power, and global security."--Dominik Swiecicki, Senior Analyst at the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency, currently Senior National Expert at the European Commission

"George Osborn is perhaps the first to see with real clarity what almost everyone else has missed: that video games are the coffee houses of our age, a vast third-space society connecting billions of people, many of them disenchanted with the world as it is. He shows how this immense network became politically consequential, and how the right has been far quicker than the left to grasp and exploit its potential."--Thomas Small, Co-Host of Conflicted

"Osborn has captured one of the most important, and under-examined, dynamics driving international politics today: the way video games and the culture surrounding them are being used to influence our expectations of free speech and civil rights. Drawing on a deep familiarity with gaming as an industry, Osborn links historical developments in technology, marketing, and culture to show how governments are building on and shaping the way young people experience and interpret the world."--Joshua Foust, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Relations, Syracuse University

"With the passion of a player and the smarts of a political operator, Osborn shows us how the stratospherically successful video games industry is being co-opted by autocrats the world over. Power Play should be required reading for those worried about the future of their hobby -- and the democratic leaders who could help change the game." --Matt Honeycombe-Foster, Deputy Editor, POLITICO U.K.

"At their best, video games are a wellspring of joy, ideas, and connection worldwide. But as George E. Osborn makes unnervingly clear in this important book, reactionary movements have increasingly exploited this misunderstood medium. Perfectly accessible for readers who know nothing about video games and frequently surprising even for those who know a lot, Power Play uncovers a hidden history of the contemporary world, showing the essential but often overlooked role of video games in shaping everything from the invention of the iPhone to the election of Donald Trump. Osborn warns that bad actors have a big head start in grasping and harnessing the political power of games. This book is the best way for the rest of the world to catch up."--Rollo Romig, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist I Am on the Hit List and writer for the New York Times Magazine

"A remarkable account of how and why video games became the most important entertainment space of the 21st century. Osborn writes with authority and passion. Anyone who cares about the intersection of politics and play - and everyone should - needs to read this book." --Professor Pete Etchells, Bath Spa University and author of Lost in a Good Game

"In his revelatory Power Play, Osborn masterfully exposes how extremists and state actors have transformed gaming platforms into global gathering places where radical ideas are beta-tested before bleeding into reality. This is an urgent, fascinating read that will fundamentally change how you understand modern power."--Kelly Clancy, author of Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World

"Video games have become one of the most consequential arenas of political influence in the world. Power Play reveals how the world's most powerful entertainment medium became its most contested geopolitical battleground and is essential reading for anyone trying to understand where culture, technology, and power collide."--Rachel Kowert, PhD, Founder of Psychgeist and Visiting Researcher at the University of Cambridge

"George E. Osborn has done what too few researchers and journalists bother to do: taken video games seriously as an information environment. The same ecosystems I've watched be exploited for disinformation, the Discord servers, the Twitch streams, the in-game communities, are mapped here with forensic clarity. Power Play is essential reading for anyone trying to understand where the next influence operation is being built." --Eliot Higgins, Founder, Bellingcat

About the Author

George E. Osborn is a video games industry expert with over a decade and a half of experience explaining games to the wider world. Osborn was previously Head of Campaigns and Communications at the UK video games industry trade association, Ukie, where he drew upon his expertise in media, politics and the video games sector to tell the games industry's story to media, business, and politicians across the UK and beyond between 2019-2023.

Since leaving Ukie, Osborn founded Half-Space Consulting - a business dedicated to bridging the divide between the games sector and the wider world with clients including regulators such as The Games Rating Authority, NGOs such as the United Nations, and not-for-profits such as The Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

He is also the creator of Video Games Industry Memo (VGIM), a weekly newsletter covering the games industry for professionals, major regulators, policy officials, business leaders, and journalists around the world. A recognized voice within the media, Osborn and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Politico, Sky News, The Guardian, BBC World Service, Bloomberg and Times Radio, among many others, discussing the intersection of economic, regulatory, technological and cultural topics in regards to video games. He lives in London.