# Ethnic Cleansing (video game)
*Ethnic Cleansing* is a 2002 first-person shooter video game produced by [Resistance Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/resistance-records), the publishing arm of the American white supremacist organization [National Alliance](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-alliance-united-states), in which the player kills Black, Latino, and Jewish characters as an act of racist propaganda.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/feb/21/games.internetnews) • [2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) It was released on January 21, 2002, the United States holiday honoring [Martin Luther King Jr.](https://www.edgepedia.org/martin-luther-king-jr), and was promoted by its makers as the "most politically incorrect video game ever made."[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/feb/21/games.internetnews) The game is widely cited in research and reporting as the best-known example of games produced by extremist groups.[3](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/171631/3/Robinson%20%26%20Whittaker_Playing%20for%20Hate%20%5BFINAL%5D.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | January 21, 2002 (Martin Luther King Day), on Windows, CD-ROM[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) • [4](https://www.mobygames.com/game/41936/ethnic-cleansing-the-game/) |
| Developer / publisher | Resistance Records, Hillsboro, West Virginia, the media arm of the National Alliance[5](https://search.worldcat.org/title/Ethnic-cleansing-%3A-the-game/oclc/82376737) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/feb/21/games.internetnews) |
| Engine | Genesis 3D, an open-source game engine[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) • [6](https://elpais.com/diario/2002/02/28/ciberpais/1014865344_850215.html) |
| Player character | A skinhead or a klansman; the choice makes no difference to gameplay[7](https://wiki-origin.giantbomb.com/wiki/Games/Ethnic_Cleansing) |
| Price | $14.88 (£10.50)[1](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/feb/21/games.internetnews) |
| Sales | National Alliance chairman William Pierce reported "a couple thousand" copies sold, about 90 percent to white teenage boys[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) |
| Response | Condemned by the Anti-Defamation League, which asked distributors to cease publication[8](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/when-two-tribes-go-to-war-a-history-of-video-game-controversy/1100-6090892/) |
## Gameplay and content
The player chooses between two playable characters, a skinhead or a klansman, described by the [Giant Bomb](https://www.edgepedia.org/giant-bomb) wiki as a choice that makes no difference to gameplay, on a mission framed as stopping Jews from taking over the world.[7](https://wiki-origin.giantbomb.com/wiki/Games/Ethnic_Cleansing) The game takes place in an urban setting: the protagonist kills Black and Latino characters on city streets before descending into a subway station "where the Jews have hidden," and the game culminates in the killing of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) • [9](https://www.gamersky.com/zl/202212/1551414.shtml)
The audio and visual design carries the ideological message directly. When a dark-skinned character is shot, a monkey sound plays; Jewish characters shout "oy vey." The soundtrack is racist rock music with hate-filled lyrics, and National Alliance posters carrying the group's URL appear on the virtual walls. Pierce himself appears in a video clip in the game speaking about the "upcoming white revolution."[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) Academic analysis of the far-right game corpus notes that such games make no effort to persuade the player that the racism is correct; it is assumed and embedded into the gameplay itself.[3](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/171631/3/Robinson%20%26%20Whittaker_Playing%20for%20Hate%20%5BFINAL%5D.pdf)
## Production and context
The game was built on the Genesis 3D open-source engine, a choice that reflects the broader conditions of the early 2000s, when open-source engines and more accessible home internet made it easier for extremist groups to produce and distribute their own games.[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) • [10](https://6068438.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6068438/extremist-movement-video-game.pdf) Resistance Records was better known as a record label for "white power" bands, and also ran the racist magazine *Resistance* and the internet stream Resistance Radio; the game fit the National Alliance's self-described multimedia strategy. Pierce, the group's chairman and author of the white supremacist novel *The Turner Diaries*, said computer games were simply another advertising vehicle for the group, and the Alliance reportedly planned a further game based on *The Turner Diaries*.[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/feb/21/games.internetnews)
*Ethnic Cleansing* appeared alongside other "white power games" surveyed in a February 2002 [Anti-Defamation League](https://www.edgepedia.org/anti-defamation-league) report, including *Shoot the Blacks* and *Concentration Camp Rat Hunt*, some created from scratch and others made by modifying commercial games.[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/feb/21/games.internetnews) The ADL's Internet researcher Brian Marcus called it the first game he had seen using such sophisticated technology geared specifically toward spreading a message of hate.[2](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/) A later NSA-authored analysis described the game as patterned after the mainstream shooters *[Quake](https://www.edgepedia.org/quake-video-game)* and *Doom*, turning racially motivated violence into a form of "entertainment."[11](https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/2013.12.09_nsa_video_games_paper.pdf)
## Reception and response
The Anti-Defamation League condemned the game and, in a public letter in February 2002, asked its distributors to cease publication.[8](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/when-two-tribes-go-to-war-a-history-of-video-game-controversy/1100-6090892/) According to the Giant Bomb wiki, the ADL also lobbied the developers of the Genesis3D engine to keep their engine and others away from racist groups.[7](https://wiki-origin.giantbomb.com/wiki/Games/Ethnic_Cleansing) Jon Dovey, a professor who studies gaming at the University of the West of England, said at the time that such games were a small part of the online community and that online direct action against the sites hosting them was possible.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/feb/21/games.internetnews)
Scholarship and extremism monitoring have kept the game as a reference point. Robinson and Whittaker, researchers of extremism and videogames, call it the best-known game of the far-right corpus and note that extremist organizations use games and surrounding popular culture to reach uninitiated gamers who might become future members.[3](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/171631/3/Robinson%20%26%20Whittaker_Playing%20for%20Hate%20%5BFINAL%5D.pdf) The NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and the Take This organization both cite it as a canonical example of a game created outright by a white supremacist organization rather than a modification of a commercial title.[12](https://bhr.stern.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/NYUCBHRGaming_ONLINEUPDATEDMay16.pdf) • [13](https://www.takethis.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ExtremismInGames_APrimer_FINAL-1.pdf) Production of videogames by extremist and terrorist groups has markedly declined since a high point in the 2000s, though gaming-based iconography and mods continue to appear in extremist media.[3](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/171631/3/Robinson%20%26%20Whittaker_Playing%20for%20Hate%20%5BFINAL%5D.pdf)
## References
1. [White supremacists create racist computer games, The Guardian (21 February 2002)](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/feb/21/games.internetnews)
2. [Games Elevate Hate to Next Level, WIRED (20 February 2002)](https://www.wired.com/2002/02/games-elevate-hate-to-next-level/)
3. [N. Robinson & J. Whittaker, Playing for Hate? Extremism, Terrorism, and Videogames, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/171631/3/Robinson%20%26%20Whittaker_Playing%20for%20Hate%20%5BFINAL%5D.pdf)
4. [Ethnic Cleansing: The Game (2002), MobyGames](https://www.mobygames.com/game/41936/ethnic-cleansing-the-game/)
5. [Ethnic cleansing : the game, WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/title/Ethnic-cleansing-%3A-the-game/oclc/82376737)
6. [La Liga Antidifamación de EE UU alerta sobre los videojuegos racistas, EL PAÍS (28 February 2002)](https://elpais.com/diario/2002/02/28/ciberpais/1014865344_850215.html)
7. [Ethnic Cleansing (Game), Giant Bomb Video Game Wiki](https://wiki-origin.giantbomb.com/wiki/Games/Ethnic_Cleansing)
8. [When Two Tribes Go to War: A History of Video Game Controversy, GameSpot](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/when-two-tribes-go-to-war-a-history-of-video-game-controversy/1100-6090892/)
9. [游戏角色"越来越黑"的背后，是厂商与种族主义四十年的战争史, Gamersky](https://www.gamersky.com/zl/202212/1551414.shtml)
10. [Research: Gamifying Extremism, Nisos](https://6068438.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6068438/extremist-movement-video-game.pdf)
11. [Games: A Look at Emerging Trends, Uses, Threats and Opportunities in Influence Activities](https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/2013.12.09_nsa_video_games_paper.pdf)
12. [How Extremists Exploit Gaming Spaces, NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights](https://bhr.stern.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/NYUCBHRGaming_ONLINEUPDATEDMay16.pdf)
13. [Gaming: Reading, Writing and Radicalization?, Take This](https://www.takethis.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ExtremismInGames_APrimer_FINAL-1.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Video games and digital play › Digital play culture and society › Gaming and society › Race, ethnicity, and video gaming*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license