Persuasive Games: Introduction to Procedural Rhetoric

Speakers: Ian Bogost

Track: SGS: Learning & Instructional Theory

Format: Lecture

Experience Level: All

Description: Videogames are an expressive medium. They represent how real and imagined systems work. They invite players to interact with those systems and form judgments about them. As part of the ongoing process of understanding this medium and pushing it further as players, developers, and critics, we must strive to understand how to construct and critique the representations of our world in videogame form.

The serious games community has developed around the idea that videogames do more than entertain - they can educate children and adults, train businesspeople and soldiers, and even help clinicians treat patients. But this focus on the education, military, business, and healthcare markets risks blinding the serious games community to the serious expressive capabilities of videogames. This talk explains how videogames can be designed, played, and assessed to deliver persuasion rather than pedagogy.

Idea Takeaway: Attendees learn effective techniques for persuasion and expression in videogames of all types. Issues of design, critique, and assessment are covered, with a special emphasis on serious videogames as persuasive expression rather than just pedagogy.

Intended Audience: This session is intended for Serious game designers, instructional theorists, educators, current and potential serious games creators and customers.