The Rhetoric of Video Games
Contributing Organization(s): MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Initiative, The
Author(s)/Creator(s): Ian Bogost
Publishing Date: 2008-01-01
Issue Areas: Children and Youth; Media; Education and Literacy
Ownership/Rights Info: Copyright 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works Unported 3.0 license.
Available at: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/dmal.9780262693646.117
Part of the Volume on the Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning
Bogost's chapter offers an introduction to rhetoric in games. First he looks at the way games and their rules embody cultural values, following the work of Brian Sutton-Smith and looking in particular at a few examples from international sports. Then he discusses the relationship between games and ideology, showing how game play can unpack and expose deeply engrained social, cultural, and political assumptions. Finally he discusses the ways videogames make arguments. Drawing on the history of rhetoric, Bogost introduces a notion he calls "procedural rhetoric," the art of persuasion through rule-based representations and interactions.
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Available at: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/dmal.9780262693646.117
Type/Format: Whitepaper
Language code: English

