My talk at the Persuasive Gaming in Context Conference in Amsterdam, October 17, 2017.

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. how train travelled through the media

31. how train travelled through the media

32. how train travelled through the media

33. ph2: edugame for 8-14 year olds in school
• Digital copies
• Distributed through
Danish schools
• Accompanied by
educational material for
teachers

34. how ph2 is visually framed

35. released & announced on steam/twitter outside educational context

36. educational framing didn’t appear there

37. in-game framing didn’t appear in screenshot

38. how ph2 travelled through twitter & the media

39. how ph2 travelled through twitter & the media

40. how ph2 travelled through twitter & the media

41. how ph2 travelled through twitter & the media

42. how ph2 travelled through twitter & the media

43. how ph2 travelled through twitter & the media

44. <4>
provocation

45. games work culturally as travelling meta-media

46. games travel culturally as meta-media

47. media as iconic tokens for ideas

48. demos

49. design fictions

50. big urban game, 2003

51. selling ideas.

52. selling themselves as a vehicle.

53. selling their creators and commissioners.

54. player
game
messagecreators

55. media
public
game
messagecreators

56. 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.

57. sebastian@codingconduct.cc
@dingstweets
codingconduct.cc
thank you.