TY - GEN
T1 - Proceduralist readings
T2 - 6th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2011
AU - Treanor, Mike
AU - Schweizer, Bobby
AU - Bogost, Ian
AU - Mateas, Michael
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Newsgames and artgames, two genres in which designers wish to communicate messages to players, often deploy procedural representation. Understanding these proceduralist games requires special attention to a game's processes as well as how these interact with its theme and aesthetics. In this paper we present a method for proceduralist readings of arcade-like 2D games so that players can determine their range of intended and unintended meanings, critics can assess the strengths and weaknesses of the presented arguments, and designers can identify ways to refine their rhetorical strategies. Through identifying the components of games that can be interpreted and emphasizing where cultural considerations influence interpretations, we present a framework for meaning derivations that strive to take the entirety of a game into consideration. As demonstrated by several examples, this framework requires much more explicit and formal arguments for why a game carries a meaning and precisely where each component of one's argument came from.
AB - Newsgames and artgames, two genres in which designers wish to communicate messages to players, often deploy procedural representation. Understanding these proceduralist games requires special attention to a game's processes as well as how these interact with its theme and aesthetics. In this paper we present a method for proceduralist readings of arcade-like 2D games so that players can determine their range of intended and unintended meanings, critics can assess the strengths and weaknesses of the presented arguments, and designers can identify ways to refine their rhetorical strategies. Through identifying the components of games that can be interpreted and emphasizing where cultural considerations influence interpretations, we present a framework for meaning derivations that strive to take the entirety of a game into consideration. As demonstrated by several examples, this framework requires much more explicit and formal arguments for why a game carries a meaning and precisely where each component of one's argument came from.
KW - Game design
KW - Game interpretation
KW - Procedural rhetoric
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84858984680&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2159365.2159381
DO - 10.1145/2159365.2159381
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84858984680
SN - 9781450308045
T3 - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2011
SP - 115
EP - 122
BT - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2011
Y2 - 29 June 2011 through 1 July 2011
ER -