More than half of American adults — yes, adults — play video games. Many of those “gamers” are playing Mahjong, Sudoku, or crossword puzzles on their phones; so it’s fair to say the statistics are often exaggerated (like calling golf or darts a sport). But since PC and dedicated console gaming picked up in the 1980s and have flourished into an industry rivaling Hollywood revenues and productions (indeed, Hollywood actors now commonly perform in video games), entire generations have grown up with the medium.

Games are just another option beside TV and novels as a way for responsible parents to wind down at night or share entertainment with the kids. And I don’t mean Pac-Man.

Of course, even someone who grew up with video games might prefer other media or interests. But it is increasingly important that conservatives recognize this industry as another influential front in efforts to define the aspirations, expectations, and boundaries of our culture. As with cinema, deliberate decisions are being made to integrate leftwing ideology and political correctness into games.

This industry is as uniform as Hollywood in its assumptions, its goals, and its willingness to defy a majority of consumers in “representation” of leftist fashions and exclusion of contrary ideas. California is the heart of game development, with satellites typically based in leftwing cities like Austin or Paris. Game journalism is similarly monolithic in regard to the major corporations like IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, and Game Informer; though there is some dissent among smaller blogs and video channels.

As in TV shows, there has long been a push in games toward more gay romance subplots and more female protagonists. “Pride” flags are offered to players as free cosmetic additions within many games even when nearly all other cosmetics must be purchased.

This month, Black Lives Matter banners have been included on many in-game greeting pages. Microsoft has a reward points system with options to donate the cash value to one of a handful of left-wing charities. Black Lives Matter was added among those groups for donations and advertised on the Xbox home screen to millions of gamers. Seemingly every gaming news organization invited token blacks (even if some guests proved astute and enjoyable) to join their podcasts and other content. Sony and Microsoft delayed their biggest marketing events of the year to give BLM the spotlight.

Reactions to political fads and offense culture sometimes take the form of sudden changes to game content. The developer Infinity Ward, owned by publishing giant Activision, recently altered a Border Patrol optional outfit in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare from the description “Show them the error of their ways and make them pay with D-Day’s Border War operator skin” to “Play along with the deer and the antelope with the Home on the Range D-Day operator skin.” Journalists roundly agreed that Border Patrol agents are not respectable and that the former description applauded violence against immigrants rather than cartels.

Years ago, Marcus “Notch” Persson, the legendary developer of Minecraft — a game every kid today knows, which was purchased by Microsoft for $2.5 billion — was scrubbed from the credits of his own creation after publicly questioning radical feminism, gay politics, and anti-white bigotry. That was before “cancel culture” entered common terminology. Do Hollywood studios alter movie credits to erase writers or directors?

Watch Dogs: Legion is among the more anticipated blockbuster (or “triple A”) games due later this year. The gameplay is impressive in many regards, not least in its photorealistic layout of London and an innovative “Play As Anyone” system that lets the player choose almost any person roaming the city to be among one’s team of protagonists.

But then there’s the setting. I honestly wouldn’t mind if developers and journalists alike didn’t consistently remark on how “familiar” the game’s vision of a post-Brexit dystopian London seems. Here is the cinematic trailer.

Socialist and revolutionary themes are popping up in several games this year. Cyberpunk 2077, arguably the most anticipated game of the year (and rightly so) is set in another near-future sci-fi dystopia that imagines corporations as the primary villains. I’ve lost count of how many times I have heard game journalists working for corporations comment on the evil of corporations.

Character customization in Cyberpunk 2077 will extend to choice of genitals. When the crossdressing fad rose to prominence, Polish developer CD Projekt Red leapt to assure gamers that transvestites would be included as a character option, complete with mix-and-match body options.

Hopefully, that gives the non-gamers among you some idea of the cultural winds permeating every branch of art and entertainment.