On February 25, 2025, CRV Publishing (Curitiba, Brazil), in partnership with the publishing house of CEP/FDC [in Portuguese: Center for Personnel Studies and Forte Duque de Caxias], released the book Media and Education in the Armed Forces, part of the Human Dimension collection. The volume consists of 15 chapters, organized into three sections:
- The history of education and educational policy in the Armed Forces.
- Active teaching methodologies and media education/educommunication.
- Media representations of the Armed Forces and strategic communication.
In chapter eight, titled Simulating Combat in Counter-Strike: A Training Session in Competitive Mode, Ricardo Moutinho and I explore the interaction between Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) players. Our analysis focuses on a specific situation: an experienced player teaches her eight-year-old brother how to play CS:GO in Competitive Mode.
Our goal is to discuss how a praxeological approach — centered on the actions of members, in this case, the players — can be useful for investigating the preparation of new FPS (first-person shooter) players and how this process unfolds in practice. This perspective allows us to examine the concept of “instructed actions” (actions performed in response to instructions) and the omnipresent temporal aspects of strategy games. Analyzing these elements contributes to a broader understanding of related concepts, such as logical grammar and the ethnomethodological notion of membership, both of which are fundamental to instructional studies.
Furthermore, investigating how players communicate during instructional activities helps us understand the formation of new gaming cultures. This discussion also encourages reflection on how specific elements of these games may relate to military training practices, which increasingly use digital media to simulate battles in networked environments.
In addition to the editors’ excellent reception of our work, it is important to highlight the role of CEP/FDC — an institution of higher education within the Brazilian Army — in fostering discussions on the various uses of digital media, particularly video games, and their broader societal implications.
We would like to thank the CEP/FDC Publishing House for the initiative, Railson Moura and CRV Publishing for bringing the book to life, as well as the organizers Suzana Marly da Costa Magalhães, Marcio Vieira Xavier, Raquel Timponi Pereira Rodrigues, Karenine Miracelly Rocha da Cunha, and Drielle Cristina da Cruz Souza Afonso. Finally, a special thanks also to Edison Luis Gastaldo for the invitation.
You can buy a hard cover copy of the book or download it for free following the link below.