Playful Encounters: Games for Geopolitical Change

Bringing together literatures on play, (video) games, and alter(native) geopolitics this paper explores how digital games offer playful encounters that challenge popular understandings of geopolitics. While geographical scholarship has exposed the ways video promote geopolitical militaristic cultures, concentrates disruptive qualities play. More specifically, focuses This War Mine (2014), a game which fosters encourage player to reflect everyday consequences conflict in urban spaces their civilian populations. Drawing an analysis reviews game, demonstrates play shapes imaginaries context(s) stimulates players attitudes towards violence. In doing so, critically important cultural outlets encountering alternative