Customer Reviews

Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames

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Bogost's central insight is that games can encode playable representations of situations and even ideas, which supports a unique form of rhetoric, "procedural rhetoric". He argues that this can be (and has been, on occasion) used to make games into a expressive medium that goes far beyond entertainment, and in some ways even beyond other forms of expressive media.

Like other forms of rhetoric, procedural rhetoric is based on representations, but while visual or textual rhetoric merely shows the viewer or reader the representation, procedural rhetoric lets *you* engage with the representation, poking at it and interrogating it, and works its power through that interaction. Bogost covers a number of historical examples of games that make good use of procedural rhetoric to engage with issues ranging from tax avoidance to cold-war brinksmanship, as well as discussing where he thinks fruitful further development lies. On the latter point, he puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak, since he also owns a company that makes persuasive games, on issues ranging from presidential elections to food poisoning.

There are two basic audiences for this book. For those interested in how videogames can move beyond entertainment to other areas, Bogost presents a compelling vision of games as an expressive medium, and points to a wide range of things that can be done by thinking of games as playable representations. For media-studies scholars and rhetoricians, Bogost presents a strong case that procedural rhetoric is indeed rhetoric, but a new kind of rhetoric that existing discussion of film or written rhetoric doesn't quite account for.

Although Ian Bogost clearly has a vested interest, as a game designer and critic, in the ability of games to communicate powerful, evocative messages, Persuasive Games seriously challenges some pervasive assumptions behind games, reception and interactivity-- taking a run at how games communicate all the wonderful (or terrible) things they are assumed to communicate. Bogost makes several rather clever moves in this book, including linking the development of a 'procedural rhetoric' to the theorization of visual rhetoric-- of course games use both, but such nitpicking isn't the point of this book. Persuasive Games isn't an instruction manual for making compelling games, but it will start to the kinds of discussions we need to make more compelling games possible.

At the heart this book is how phenomena can be expressed, with a bias, though the simulation of said phenomena. Designed processes contain an idea about how their real life counterparts work. These assumptions (conscious or not) carry an implicit point of view analogous to traditional rhetoric. Bogost successfully situates this procedural rhetoric in a historical context that elucidates the nuances with with games and other media make arguments about the way world works. The content is invaluable if you're interested in critically assessing or deconstructing games and other designed interactions.

Most of his examples were enlightening, particularly the ones concerning his game Dean for Iowa, which unintentionally painted political action as a process of human-wealth accumulation removed from any form of actual ideology. Less helpful was his characterization of the infamous escape game as a game that "operationalizes the sensations its services seek to countermand" and how it proceduralizes the "anxiety of office work". I'm far from convinced that any procedural argument here has anything more to do with mountain biking than it does with Klondike bars. This argument struck me as so odd that I'm convinced I misunderstood something.

Personally I found Bogost most interesting when proving details that contextualize his arguments; historical perspectives on rhetoric, educational philosophy, advertising, and even references to old school non-traditional physical input devices that I had never heard of (Joyboard anyone?). On the other hand, I feel like I'm still struggling to get a complete grasp on his concept of a "unit operation", based on the "count as one" concept of Alain Badiou (who I'm less than acquainted with). I'll likely have to pull Unit Operations (also by Bogost) off my shelf for some better grounding.

It can be a little dense in places, but not without cause. (I agree with a previous review that Bogost crafted his points very carefully to make specific statements and avoid ambiguity, however they may require multiple reads to parse). This book contains wealth of condensed and relevant knowledge along with carefully made insights.

As a University lecturer, I found this book very useful in showing the applications of Bogost's theories (from "Unit Operations" onwards). Some of the examples are better than others, but reading Bogost's work you have the sense that he really "gets it," as in he understands the game-changing (forgive the pun) new ideas behind the culture, audience, and especially the software that makes video games tick, and exactly why they are different from established media like cinema. This book is directly applicable to all sorts of modern media, and although the title has "Games" in it I would recommend this to any person with an interest in modern media theory.

I do agree with the other review that this book can be very thick at times, but my impression is that you are expected to re-read sentences more than once. The words seem to be carefully chosen and parsed for meaning, something I appreciate, even if it doesn't make the book a speedy reader.

I had to purchase this book for an English class where we discuss how we can use videogames to produce fiction, and also how to produce a videogame that is fiction, as well as how the two relate. From what we have covered so far it has really sparked my interest to pursue other literature in this category. Ian Bogost does a great job putting his thoughts out there, and it's been a great read so far.

Ian Bogost is both an progressive thinker and eloquent writer, and he applies them both to videogames in a way that is both academic and page-turning. The book is divided into discrete sections to which the procedural logics of videogames can be applied. He gives illustrative examples of what he means - examples that will just as often expand your mind about what future games can be as expand your conception of some older classics.

The title of the book comes from the ability of this procedural logic to make implicit and explicit arguments to the player. Most people have a sense that it's the interactivity of videogames that makes them special, but Bogost takes it one step further by discussing "procedural rhetoric," a systemic form of persuasion. As you play such a game, the way its system responds to your input builds cause-effect relationships in your mind. These cause-effect relationships can easily make "claims" about how similar real-world systems work.

Overall - excellent book. Very thought provoking and inspiring to the would-be game maker.

This book rules. If you've ever thought to yourself (or screamed on the internet) about how videogames are as important or should be respected as much as other forms of art (painting, literature, film, etc.), then you should read this book. By describing and analyzing many examples of what he calls "persuasive games", Bogost clearly describes how games have already been used for expressive purposes by a variety of people.

To me, one of the most interesting parts of this book is its implicit call for, or at least emphasis on, a cognitive or rational approach toward expressive game design (and possibly art making in general). Bogost describes games as procedural representations of how the world, or some part of it, works (which, of course, are in themselves processes). Because videogames run on computers and the very nature of computation requires explicit and exact specification, when representing with systems it can be said that one is creating a complete "theory" of what is being represented. The canonical example of a game representing an ideological position through its processes is SimCity. SimCity presents a world that takes for granted that various forms of governmental planning produce very specific results (which are literally hardcoded into the system). Players are placed in a role where zoning, etc. is unavoidable and naturalized. To be successful at the game, players must understand and then enact the rules of the system. Depending on the player's criticality, or how successful the game's procedural rhetoric is (a very important term explored in depth in this book), he or she may accept the solutions to the problems into his or her worldview.

Bogost practically goes right out and admits that this approach to game design, whether taken intentionally or not, is propagandist. Though, a significant portion of the book is dedicated to describing a strategic mode of engagement for players to avoid blindly falling prey to procedural rhetoric. Part of this involves developing "procedurally literacy". This more or less means to be able to interpret systems or processes (a skill that no doubt has relevance in life in and outside of games). Next, he describes the "simulation gap" as the difference between one's existing ideas about something and the ideas that one believes the system to be representing. It is through awareness of what happens in this gap, or the dissonance created between the mental models (this shares many similarities with theories of dialectic/montage), that one avoids being blindly persuaded and instead learns/grows from a persuasive game. For example, because I am procedurally literate, my outrage at the "truths" presented in SimCity only strengthen my case against the state because it teaches me new things to be outraged about as I recognize where I disagree with what is presented or what passes for political reasoning (and for that I love and am indebted to SimCity!). A large portion of Persuasive Games is spent on how videogames, like SimCity, can be used as a way for citizens to express opinions, persuade and communicate about complicated processes.

The product description really sums it up: "Videogames are both an expressive medium and a persuasive medium; they represent how real and imagined systems work, and they invite players to interact with those systems and form judgments about them." How can that not sound profound, or at least enticing? Humans live in systems. This is meaning of life kind of stuff! Though it may be dense to some non-academic readers, Persuasive Games is one of the best books out there that describes how videogames can uniquely express ideas that are central to the human experience and I fully recommend it.

Ian Bogost really practices what he preaches. The way he builds and reconfigures ideas and concepts, he effectively illustrates how procedural rhetoric can be done textually as well as through games. This book (along with his earlier _Unit Operations_) shows Bogost doing some of the most substantive thinking in the game studies field.

This is important work but god all mighty is it hard to get through. He's not the most gifted writer but he makes important points about the legitimacy of video games as an expressive and persuasive medium. It's worth a read if you can handle that it's written like a research paper.

The book is purely academic. It fits well if you are preparing a thesis, a dissertation, or a research, but never for practical real life learning of games.
The book is full of historical facts, theories, and counter theories that make it real had to follow up the reading.