Abstract: Various kinds of cultural watchdogs—parents’ groups, nonprofit organizations, religious and political leaders, and others—often decry the violence of video games, but these reactions frequently rest on severing so-called violent games from their wider cultural context. By contextualizing Night Trap—historically, politically, and culturally—Carly A. Kocurek shows the ways in which the response to this game treats it as an anomaly rather than a reflection of widespread trends.