About openly right-wing extremist accounts among gamers and how they communicate with each other. A look at the surface of right-wing extremist gaming.
After the attack in Halle on October 9, 2019, Horst Seehofer said that he wanted to monitor the “gaming scene” more closely. On the one hand, this caused a lot of malice, as the term “gamer” initially seems quite undifferentiated.
At what point are you considered a gamer here? Who would expect an observation? Is the woman in her forties who likes to play Tetris because she remembers the game from her youth a gamer who is under suspicion? Hardly likely. Are you a potential assassin because you have Call of Duty installed? No.
Therefore, it is not enough to simply use the term “gaming scene”, but you have to consider the communication channels accordingly. This is about networking.
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It's clear: networking doesn't just take place via gaming channels. Messengers, video portals and classic social media platforms also serve to network right-wing extremists, but certain channels and accounts within gaming platforms still offer frightening insights.
It's not about 34 million people.
What is very important at this point is that this is not about 34 million Germans who play more or less regularly. Most of them are unlikely to communicate or network with other players on a regular basis. This is exactly where the criticism of Seehofer's statement lies when he speaks of the “gaming scene”.
The term “gamer”, which is often used homogeneously and may seem homogeneous, describes anything but a homogeneous group. And precisely because this group is so huge, it also includes right-wing extremist people who network virtually via gaming platforms and communicate accordingly.
Therefore, terms like “gaming scene” are very difficult because they generalize and, what is even more important, have a generalizing effect. In this article we will therefore neither talk about the “gaming scene” nor the “network community”, but rather focus on exactly where we need to look: on right-wing extremist groups within social media, boards and also gaming platforms.
Steam: right-wing extremist teams and groups.
The Steam platform has been increasingly brought to the fore in recent days. Steam is primarily an Internet distribution platform for computer games and software. You log in there, create an account and buy or register games that have already been purchased on the platform.
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The Steam Community has been around since 2007, essentially a kind of social media community in which you can view the performance of individual accounts and their games, but groups can also be formed in which players organize and exchange ideas. Steam itself as a platform is necessary for many games, so many people have an account on Steam but have no contact with right-wing extremist content on the platform. This is probably the majority of all account holders who have little or no contact with right-wing extremist gamers.
Politically motivated groups can primarily be found publicly. There are a very large number of all kinds of groups on Steam, so you shouldn't assume that every account holder will directly come across right-wing extremist content.
For example, there is a group that calls itself “AfD eSports”. Even though the party's logo and political content can be found there, among other things, it is not an official AfD communication platform. One can certainly assume that it is a “fan project” that includes over 2,000 gamers.
The appearance of the so-called Identitarian Movement on Steam seems much more organized at this point. In addition to a kind of mother community, there are individual groups for the respective languages and countries.

Basically, the individual groups (all groups on Steam) also have a chat function in addition to the public board. This is not publicly visible, but you can see how many players are currently in the chat.
But we are only on the surface at this point. These are just two of many groups in the Steam Community, and with certain search terms and also through the lists of individual accounts you can find a large number of groups that use right-wing extremist symbolism and the glorification of the Wehrmacht. Whether “ Sturmlokal ” or “ Elite Command of the Wehrmacht ”, the group names carry a certain significance.
And these groups are not a new phenomenon; some are many years old. Here players organize themselves into clans (player teams) in which they move together onto the virtual battlefields of the games.
But it's not just Steam that has right-wing extremist gamers. There are also Discord servers or platforms like 4chan, 8chan, Kohlchan and similar. On these platforms, right-wing extremist accounts communicate openly with each other, exchange content or even glorify attacks. Here is an example of how the Christchurch attack was celebrated on the board 8chan.
The attacker announced the attack on the 8chan board at the time and was cheered accordingly during the live stream. It was very similar with the alleged announcement of the crime and the livestream of the Halle attacker.
Basically, the tone in such an environment is rough. It doesn't matter whether you're on a board, a Discord server or a gaming chat. The rejection of Jews, Muslims, people with dark skin, but also women cannot be denied within these groups.
Right-wing extremist account holders
It's not just German players who are in this niche. These are international profiles, some of them trolls, who call themselves “ Hitler ” or “ Rommel ”. At first glance, it is therefore difficult to distinguish what intention lies behind the names of these accounts.
In the case of German accounts from the right-wing milieu, there are more inconspicuous names and symbols that are no less powerful. The Wehrmacht aesthetic and the Iron Cross are popular. There is also the special expression “Wehraboo” for this.
A typical Wehraboo is to some extent fascinated by the history of the Wehrmacht in the 3rd Reich. The fascination goes so far that alternative realities from this time are also of great interest to him. The German Wehrmacht is glorified, and the player's account contains heroic images of soldiers and military equipment. Wehraboos don't necessarily have to be right-wing extremists, but they are interested in the history of the German Empire and the Wehrmacht.
It is interesting to take a look at the real profile of the people in this right-wing extremist milieu. In an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau, Roland Sieber, an expert on right-wing terrorism, classified the people within this group as young men between 14 and 35 years old. Anders Breivik, for example, was 32 years old when he carried out his attack.
We are dealing with a subculture of predominantly young men between the ages of 14 and just over 30, whose political attitudes are shaped by chats and forums on gamer platforms and image boards.
Users specifically give themselves names that are based on right-wing extremist abbreviations or that glorify terror and amok. Terms or parts of words such as “Judenjäger”, “Hitler” or “SS” can therefore regularly be found as user names via the internal search engine on Steam ( compare ).

These are accounts that are specifically active in groups or clans in which other right-wing extremist accounts can also be found.
In addition to meaningful profile names, these accounts also contain clear profile pictures and militaristic quotes in the profiles. These player accounts are not stingy with information in their profile that they are politically right-wing. Quotes from Hitler or Bismarck are certainly part of the self-disclosure in the account.
It is also completely unproblematic within the accounts if SS runes suddenly appear. Iron crosses are basically the more harmless and generally more common symbolism. The accounts in this milieu also make no secret of the fact that they want to network with each other.
This networking almost has a familial character. Brothers in battle. They stand side by side on the virtual battlefield. Win together, die together. But only virtually.
But right-wing extremist accounts are by no means only found in war games and the like. There are some YouTube videos where, for example, users proudly show off their replica concentration camps in the harmless Minecraft.

And if you also look at the networking offers, some of them even have a recruiting character. From publicly accessible platforms such as Steam it then goes to the closed servers on Discord or Teamspeak.
The appeal of the games
This is exactly where the appeal of computer games comes into play, which makes the networking between right-wing extremists so different here than on other social media platforms.
Theaters of war and battles from the Second World War can be replayed, entire war events can be redesigned (and to a certain extent historical revisionist) and a myth can thus come to life on the screen.
Furthermore, a certain soldier's romance arises through battles that the clans fight virtually. Real defeats from the past become virtual victories of the present. People fight together online and shared ideas are exchanged on chat servers.
“Gamification” of terror
In recent weeks we have also read more and more often about the gamification of terror. This term came into focus particularly after the attack in Halle. Gamification means that typical game elements take place in real life.
The attack in Halle made this clear: the perpetrator wore a body camera on his helmet, which allowed viewers to participate during his live broadcast, just like in the first-person shooter. The muzzle of the weapon is always in view.
Various weapons that the perpetrator carried with him, as well as the ammunition in each case, are also reminiscent of the typical weapon changes that we know from shooters. And last but not least, the cruel goals that they have set for themselves.
But let’s not neglect the communication structures that accompany video games at this point . Because it is precisely these channels that are used to publish manifestos, live streams and subsequent glorification. Using the game itself as a reason for (right-wing extremist) attacks is therefore likely to be too short-sighted and represents a simple explanation for a much more complex phenomenon.
Not the majority!
It must be made clear: This right-wing extremist milieu among gamers is not the majority of all gamers . Many of the “everyday gamers” don’t even come into contact with corresponding accounts.
No, just because you play Mario Kart or Formula 1 on the console doesn't make you a speedster. Just because someone is playing a FPS doesn't make that person a potential assassin. Making these connections sounds deceptively simple, but it falls far short.
Of course, certain game content is likely to trigger players with right-wing extremist ideas. Clearly. Parties or party-like organizations may also have recognized this and are consciously extending the tentacles of radicalization into this niche.
In this respect, you can definitely pay more attention to accounts that belong to the right-wing extremist milieu. But not just on Steam, Discord servers, Twitch or certain boards, but in general networking on social media platforms.
Final note
Mimikama was created through a game because the founder of the club played “Farmville” on Facebook and came across a trap there. All Mimikama editors play games regularly. In this sense, they are gamers and have been for over 20 years. It's not the games that radicalize.
It is right-wing extremism that specifically looks for its niches and uses forms of communication. Older users who are outside of video games spread extreme content on other platforms. Platforms like VK also offer frightening insights. Private Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups contain no less dangerous content, depending on the participants.

Problems such as right-wing extremism must therefore be mentioned; of course, this right-wing extremism also takes place online. Wherever right-wing extremists network. This is not a problem that simply relates to a certain milieu among gamers, but rather moves in their niches on many platforms (more or less publicly).
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

