Police representation in digital games

The fact that digital games have an important place in our lives with developing technology and that they appeal to all age groups of society shows the importance of digital game research. Policing, which is discussed in this research, is the most established structure among security institutions called law enforcement forces. Digital games are often similar to literary texts and interact with them in various ways. Researchers use different methods to examine games and game-related elements. Although game analysis is not widely preferred in all areas of communication research such as human-computer interaction; It deals with many topics, especially the narrative in military first-person shooter games, missions in role-playing games, and characters in games set in classical antiquity. Considering previous research, although there are a wide variety of studies on digital games, there are a limited number of studies in the literature on the representation of people, institutions and professions in digital games. Although the representation of the police profession has been examined in TV series and movies, it has been observed that this issue is not included enough in digital games. In the light of this information, the general aim of the research is to reveal how the police profession is represented in digital games. In the study, Grand Theft Auto V, Contraband Police and Police Simulator: Patrol Officers were identified among the video games with police representation; Therefore, only these games were examined within the scope of purposeful sampling limitation. The obtained data were examined using qualitative method descriptive analysis within the framework of the methodological toolkit process that regulates the stages to be carried out in line with the Digital Game Analysis Protocol (DiGAP); Thus, the categories of "good and bad police dilemma", "police as the representative of the law", "police militarization and violence", "authority and use of force", "humanization of police characters" and "society and police relationship" regarding police representation were introduced. As a result, it has been determined that the good and bad cop dilemma regarding the representation of the police in digital games is felt especially in the video games Grand Theft Auto V and Contraband Police. Legal practices are neglected in the games in the same category; In the militarization of the police and violence category, it was determined that scenes of militarization and violence were included in both plays. Additionally, an excessive use of authority and force has been observed in the video games Grand Theft Auto V and Contraband Police. In terms of humanization of police characters, it has been concluded that police characters are humanized in different ways in both plays and that police officers are frequently involved in various criminal incidents. In the community and police relations category, it was concluded that police officers in the video games Grand Theft Auto V and Contraband Police exhibited disproportionate and unfair behavior towards citizens. On the other hand, the police appearance in the video game Police Simulator: Patrol Officers; It has been determined that there are no good and bad cop dilemmas, the law is appropriately represented, police militarization and violence are felt less, authority and use of force are proportionate, police characters behave more humanely, and police officers' relationships with the society are based on trust. In contrast, in the video games Grand Theft Auto V and Contraband Police, this appearance was found to be inadequate, disproportionate, and unbalanced.