The Construction of Central Europe in Online Gaming Communities: The Case of Kingdom Come: Deliverance

The aim of this thesis was to examine how online gaming communities construct an image of Central Europe through discussions about the videogame series Kingdom Come: Deliverance, within the context of Western cultural norms and notions of authenticity. The study draws on the theoretical framework of critical geopolitics and the concept of culture wars, which enable an analysis of how discourses shape conceptions of the past and the identity of a given region. The analysis focuses on two main discourses, the discourse of historicism and the discourse of progressivism. The empirical section is based on a discursive analysis conducted through qualitative content analysis of comments published on the Reddit platform between January 2018 and March 2026. The analysis focuses on three key thematic areas, the representation of ethnic minorities, women, and queer individuals. The results show that the discourse of historicism constructs Central Europe as a closed, ethnically and sexually homogeneous space with rigid gender hierarchies and rejects modern forms of representation. In contrast, the discourse of progressivism challenges these notions and highlights the complexity of historical reality and the interconnectedness of the medieval world, emphasizing the importance of more inclusive representation as a more accurate reflection of the past. The study further demonstrates that debates within gaming communities function as part of contemporary culture wars that extend beyond the political sphere and permeate popular culture and the online environment. Gaming communities thus act as actors who contribute to the construction of geopolitical imaginations of Central Europe. This study contributes to international relations research by expanding the field to include the perspective of gaming communities as a relevant space for shaping imaginations of regions and their values.