Nostalgic Ludopopulism and Neoreactionary Movements in Game Development

Abstract

This paper examines the spread of neo-reactionary rhetoric and codebases among online game development and programming communities through live streams, forums, and code repositories. This rhetoric, which I characterize as "nostalgic ludopoulism," appeals to nostalgia for "a greater past" in game development and lionizes a form of game development practice that centers the highly skilled, craftsman developer over the seemingly unskilled developers using off-the-shelf game engines and programming environments. These discourses and technologies shape both designer identity and the development of new programming practices and software intended to support neo-reactionary political movements. Further, ludopoulism's "thin ideology" (Mudde 2004) allows for the ideological capture and undermining of labor organization, consumer rights and right-to-repair advocacy, and other solidarity movements which stand against the consolidation of capital.