Is This the Middle East? began as a research project, examining video games claiming to be set in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Quickly, it also became a means of investigating the portrayal of the region in a variety of games. Using photogrammetry to reconstruct 3D models from these games, Is This the Middle East? serves as an archive of repetitive landscapes and artifacts found throughout them. By extracting the environments from these games, the project challenges the stereotypes and clichés  found in them. What is the Middle East and the Arab world according to these games? What are the implications of seeing an abundance of often over-simplified images of the Middle East, especially in a world where video games are becoming not only a global phenomenon, but also a means of encountering other cultures?

The project can be showcased in various ways – a website allows users to navigate through the archive of the gathered models and provides a way to observe these environments without being immersed in the game itself.