Video games are now the largest entertainment industry in the world, generating nearly double the revenue of film and music combined.

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Governments and anti-extremism organisations have understandably taken notice. They see the reach and influence of the medium and want to use it to curb extremism. The instinct is right. The execution is not.

Take Pathways, the UK government-funded interactive game backed by Prevent and designed for use in schools. The game asks teenagers to guide a character named Charlie through online discussions about migration and British identity.

Make the “wrong” choices – such as engaging with controversial posts or attending certain protests – and Charlie can be referred to Prevent or Channel, even given counselling for “ideological thoughts”.

An on-screen meter tracks how “extreme” the character becomes. Researching immigration statistics is portrayed negatively. Attending a protest about the “erosion of British values” leads to near arrest.

It does not try to make the player feel empathy. Instead, it effectively casts them as an extremist if they make the wrong decisions and funnels them into a Prevent programme. It almost feels like a parody.

That is where government video games – or ones made by non-storytellers – go wrong. Just because video games are popular does not mean everyone can make them. When a game feels like a cheap piece of propaganda, it will be received as one. This is clearly a failure of storytelling. You cannot begin by telling someone they are hateful. If you do, they will shut down. You have to let them realise something on their own.

Culturally, things have to change. The world must become less hateful. But fighting hate with more hate and outrage does not work – that is part of why things are getting worse. What does work is getting humans to empathise with other humans. Video games are one of the most powerful tools for that when used correctly.

That’s why I created The Light in the Darkness, the first narrative video game about the Holocaust. It follows a Jewish family in France from before the Holocaust to the moment they are deported and murdered in Auschwitz.

In 90 minutes, the player becomes attached to these characters. They discover their qualities but also their flaws – they are human, after all. It makes for a more relatable experience. Empathy is the main driver. The player is not being talked at. They are experiencing these lives and what is happening to them.

The game has now been completed by more than two million players worldwide, with one of its biggest audiences in Saudi Arabia. The reason it has succeeded is because it genuinely changes people. It is not something that simply says, “You’re a bad extremist, stop being bad.” That does not change anything. It was an emotional story most people could relate to.

In fact, I often tell people I want extremists or antisemites to play my game. I want them to see the Jewish characters as human beings – not the antisemitic caricatures they may believe in.

But I sometimes worry that some organisations and even governments do not understand why The Light in the Darkness worked. Video games can meaningfully shape how people think and feel about history, prejudice and extremism, but only if they are made as stories, not lectures.

When projects become interactive textbooks rather than human stories, like forgetting to show Jewish victims as people, they miss the point. Because it's our shared humanity that connects us, and that is how you change minds.

Luc Bernard is a French Jewish video game designer and creator of The Light in the Darkness, an educational game about the Holocaust.

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