КОНТРНАРАТИВИ ВІЙНИ: ПЕДАГОГІЧНЕ ВИКОРИСТАННЯ «ЦІЄЇ МОЄЇ ВІЙНИ» ДЛЯ ФОРМУВАННЯ КРИТИЧНОЇ ЕМПАТІЇ

In times of conflict, the struggle over narratives becomes as crucial as the struggle on the battlefield. Education plays a vital role in shaping how future generations understand war, morality, and responsibility. This paper explores how “This War of Mine”, a critically acclaimed video game portraying civilian survival during wartime, can serve as a pedagogical tool for educators universally seeking to foster critical empathy and challenge one-sided portrayals of war. Drawing on insights from cyberpsychology, narrative psychology, and game studies, the paper demonstrates how interactive storytelling enables players to emotionally and ethically engage with the realities of war beyond political rhetoric. By analysing classroom applications and narrative mechanics, the text highlights how educators can use digital games not to glorify or trivialise conflict, but to humanise it, transforming students from passive recipients of information into active interpreters of moral complexity. The paper further underscores the importance of critical media literacy in the face of propaganda-driven titles such as Squad 22: ZOV, which promote militaristic, one-dimensional depictions of war and contribute to dehumanising narrative framing. Ultimately, it argues that video games can become powerful instruments for building nuanced, humane understandings of atrocity and survival.