The UK Government has been receiving a lot of backlash over the past week for its recent visual novel-style propaganda game targeting young Britons titled “Pathways: Navigating the Internet and Extremism.” 

The game is a taxpayer-funded, choice-based narrative story developed to dissuade and indoctrinate young people away from patriotic, nationalistic, or anti-migrant views. The protagonist, Charlie, who is referred to as “they,” navigates the start of university through six branching storylines that will determine the character’s path. In those storylines, Charlie has a “radicalization risk score” which will go up or down depending on player choice, specifically if they agree that “the government is betraying white British people,” “immigrants are coming to the U.K. and taking our jobs,” and this is causing “the erosion of British values.” 

Regardless of player input, the game will suggest that exposure to supposedly extremist views, such as national pride, concern about wage suppression by immigrants, and cultural erasure, calls for Charlie’s referral to anti-terrorism re-education experts on “how to engage positively with ideology and the difference between right and wrong in expressing political beliefs.” Researching information and having diverse opinions are seen as “bad decisions,” however, the game does not make an effort to say why certain things are bad choices; it just states it is bad and leaves it at that. 

The game ends by suggesting that Charlie was able to “rebuild their confidence, find their identity, and continue their college course successfully” after receiving counseling on his “harmful ideology.” Official documents by the British Government stated that they consider harmful or terrorist ideology to be “cultural nationalism,” or the belief that Western culture is “under threat from mass migration and a lack of integration by certain ethnic and cultural groups.”

“Pathways” was developed by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council and the woke media literacy outfit Shout Out UK. Additionally, the Hull City Council was working to make the game available in schools and other educational settings throughout the city to teach people “about the dangers of extremism and radicalization.” One of the listed objectives of the game was to “demonstrate the local threat picture of Extreme Right Wing activities specifically.” The Prevent Program, established two years after the 9/11 attacks and operated by the Home Office, also had a hand in creating the game. Despite all of these programs existing with the intent of being unbiased, they have gone out of their way to produce specifically left-leaning propaganda. 

However, despite the developers’ and government figureheads’ efforts, the game has had the opposite effect, turning into a viral meme online. The meme started when players were introduced to the goth, purple-haired character, Amelia, a classmate involved in right-wing movements and political activism. Amelia quickly became a fan favorite and a symbol of British pride by encouraging the player to question the government and mass migration. 

Despite being portrayed as a villain, many people have taken to the character and begun posting memes, fan art, animations, and other works to show their support, sparking much discussion. She has recently been featured in numerous posts where she warns against the Islamification of Britain, champions national pride, and criticizes leftist policies.

YouTubers posted a parody ending to the game where Charlie and Amelia marry and live a happy life together “despite the government’s attempts.” Others have been modding (modifying) the game to have Amelia fight against tyrannical regimes and start a revolution. Popular streamers like Asmondgold have played the game and remarked that world governments making games is not educational; it is just ideological. Even the indie horror game “Aftermath: Red Pine Lake” features Amelia. 

In addition, people online have stated that making a goth girl, who cares about her country, only made them like the character more, and that Amelia’s “extremist” views are merely that she just wants to defend English natives and their rights. Amelia’s so-called radicalism is expressed without fascism or violence, but simply by expressing an opinion and having personal views. 

Others have also commented on the hypocrisy of labeling Amelia as a villain for being concerned about English rights and thinking for herself, whereas the Muslim Brotherhood has openly stated that they want a global Islamic state, and MI5 has even stated that Islamist threats make up 75% of its counter terrorist workload.  

The people of the UK are becoming fed up with mass migration, expressing how they feel migrants are more likely to receive welfare for coming into the country and voting in a certain way. Crime rates have gone up, vandalism and littering have increased, rape and sexual assault cases have increased, and many other serious issues have occurred. Meanwhile, the UK has the most arrests for online posts than anywhere else in the world, even more than Russia and Germany. 

The backlash only confirmed how tone-deaf the messaging was in the eyes of the public, as the game treats anyone with patriotic sentiments like an extremist and suggests that anyone attending protests about immigration will automatically be sent Prevent referrals and mandatory re-education. The game’s approach has only alienated people with mainstream conservative views, highlighting the disconnect between government messaging and public sentiment.

After all the backlash, the government began censoring its own propaganda and took the game down to make changes and, theoretically, quell some of the fallout. 

However, the game’s removal only further confirmed the campaign’s failure online, and the UK government quickly realized they could not stop or prevent the Amelia fans, who found the whole situation both empowering and extremely comical. Currently, the memes and fanart have not slowed down, as Amelia has become something of a nationalist icon. 

When asked to comment on the situation, neither the Hull City Council nor the U.K. Home Office responded.

The UK government made the mistake of believing it could force people into certain ideologies through propaganda and scare tactics; however, it only caused the Streisand effect and made the general public reject that mindset even more. 

Nationalism today has become counterculture and far more interesting to young people than following a government that does not have the native people’s interests in mind, which is why Amelia took over the internet, gaining 10,000 followers to her social media account overnight. She stands for everything the British government is against.  

British people will be able to express how they feel through memes of Amelia without the fear of being fined, harassed, or arrested by their own government. They have taken a state-funded game that was intended to threaten students with punishment or arrest for questioning the current regime and have turned it on its head. Amelia has become “the face of the pushback” and shown that just because the government is pushing its ideals on its people, it does not mean its audience will agree with them.