The Rhetoric of Persuasive Games

ISBN-13: 9783639074246 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 160 str.

Anders Sundnes Lvlie

Opis

Computer games are one of the most popularentertainment forms of our time. But these games canalso be used for overt military propaganda - as inthe case of the US Armys vastly popular recruitmentgame Americas Army. This book examines how computergames can serve as representations of ideas. Lookingat three fundamental aspects of computer games - thegameworlds, the rules and the player roles - threerhetorical strategies are identified: authenticity,legitimization and identification. These strategieshave one thing in common: an emphasis on disciplineand constraints on player behavior within the game.Together, they contribute to a subtly formed ethoswhich lends credibility and authority to the game -and by extension, to the US Army. This book suggestsa model for rhetorical analysis of persuasivecomputer games which focuses on the games balance offreedom and constraints in each of the fundamentalaspects of the game: In the gameworld (authenticityand autonomy), the player roles (identification andidentity play), and the game rules (legitimizationand opposition).

O autorze

Anders Sundnes Løvlie is a research fellow at the University of
Oslo, and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley. He holds a Master's
degree in Media Studies, and has worked as a journalist in
Norwegian national radio and newspapers. He is now working on a
PhD project in locative media, which can be viewed at textopia.org.