Episode 2

Available for over a year

Aleks Krotoski examines how gaming is affecting our culture – by creating genuine works of art, as a way of transmitting ideas, and by simple virtue of being the cultural medium many people spend most time attached to. Computer or videogames have been around for 40 years, but the wider cultural implications have tended to be glossed over in favour of discussion of the size of the gaming economy and concerns about games' social impact. Now, though, games are becoming a battleground for ideas and a way of sharing experience – from philosophy and culture to autobiography. Aleks examines how cultural difference is reflected in games, and hears how people increasingly want to reflect their cultural experiences in them. And as a generation grows up whose major cultural reference point for war is their experience via a computer game, and not a book, TV or movie, what do those games say about war? You can discuss the programme on Twitter using #cultureofgames. (Image: The classic video game Space Invaders. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)