Mechanics, Messages, Meta-Media: How Persuasive Games Persuade, and What They Persuade Us of

Presentation at the Persuasive Gaming in Context Conference in Amsterdam, October 17, 2018.

Transcript

1. mechanics, messages, meta-media How Persuasive Games Persuade, and What They Persuade Us of Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets) Digital Creativity Labs, University of York October 15, 2017
2. <1> introduction
4. “Procedural rhetoric is the practice of using processes persuasively …. Each unit operation in a procedural representation is a claim about how part of the system it represents does, should, or could function.” ian bogost, persuasive games, 2007, 28, 36
5. “Rules control the meaning of the game, and players, by following rules, create the meaning that is already predetermined by the designer(s). For the proceduralists, a game means what the rules mean” miguel sicart, against procedurality, 2011
6. “The disparity between the simulation and the player’s understanding of the source system it models creates a crisis in the player. I named this crisis simulation fever, a madness through which an interrogation of the rules that drive both systems begins.” ian bogost, persuasive games, 2007, 332
7. “Rather than producing assent, ... the game [Howard Dean for Iowa] produces deliberation, which implies neither immediate assent nor dissent. Like literature, poetry, and art, videogames cannot necessarily know their effects on individual players.” ian bogost, persuasive games, 2007, 329, 339
8. jfk reloaded, traffic games, 2004
9. How and why do different players come to different understandings of the same persuasive game? question
10. <2> case study
11. Blindly focusing on outcomes and following rules (as in gameplay) leads you to dehumanise and ignore the people your actions affect. the (meta-)mechanical message
12. game no. 1: train, brenda brathwaite, 2009
13. game no. 1: train, brenda brathwaite, 2009
14. audience responses
15. media responses
16. game no. 2: playing history 2: slave trade, serious games interactive, 2013
17. game no. 2: playing history 2: slave trade, serious games interactive, 2013
18. game no. 2: playing history 2: slave trade, serious games interactive, 2013
19. audience responses
20. audience responses
21. WHY? same rhetoric, opposite reaction
22. <3> genres, framings, and travelling meta-media
23. What is accepted and expected in … education for children artworks for adults genre framing shapes understanding entertainment games
24. critiques by audience
25. controversial topics and subject position: challenging but not unknown … in art
26. train: carefully framed as art for adults • Single physical copy • Presented at art galleries, universities • Always accompanied by author guiding follow-up debate
27. carefully considered & controlled visual framing
28. how train is visually framed
29. how train travelled through the media
30. ph2: edugame for 8-14 year olds in school • Digital copies • Distributed through Danish schools • Accompanied by educational material for teachers
31. how ph2 is visually framed
32. released & announced on steam/twitter outside educational context
33. educational framing didn’t appear there
34. how ph2 travelled through twitter & the media
35. <4> provocation
36. games work culturally as travelling meta-media
37. games travel culturally as meta-media
38. media as iconic tokens for ideas
39. demos
40. design fictions
41. big urban game, 2003
42. selling ideas.
43. selling themselves as a vehicle.
44. selling their creators and commissioners.
45. player game message creators
46. media public game message creators
47. summary 1. Genre and visual framing shape how audiences perceive intended authorial and reader stance toward a game. 2. Games circulate through culture as easily de- and re-framed meta-media, making this framing crucial. 3. Persuasive games may be more impactful as meta-media generating attention and credibility (for their message, their makers, themselves) than as individual player-game encounters.
48. sebastian@codingconduct.cc @dingstweets codingconduct.cc thank you.