The Rhetoric of Persusasive Games

Anders Sundnes Løvlie The rhetoric of persuasive games Freedom and discipline in America’s Army Master’s thesis in media studies, Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo March 5 th , 2007 Anders Sundnes Løvlie The rhetoric of persuasive games 2/136 Anders Sundnes Løvlie The rhetoric of persuasive games Summary Computer games are one of the most popular entertainment forms of our time. But these games can also be used for overt military propaganda – as in the case of the US Army’s vastly popular recruitment game America’s Army. This thesis uses computer game theory (often known as ludology) to try to understand how computer games can serve as representations of ideas. Looking at three fundamental aspects of computer games – the gameworlds, the rules and the player roles – I find three rhetorical strategies connected with these aspects: authenticity , legitimization and identification , respectively. All of these strategies are connected with an emphasis on discipline and constraints on player behavior within the game, and contribute to a subtly formed ethos which lends credibility and authority to the game – and by extension, to the US Army. Based on an argument about the nature of freedom and discipline in computer games, I suggest a model for rhetorical analysis of persuasive computer games which focuses on the game’s balance of freedom and constraints in each of the fundamental aspects of the game; in which the gameworld is seen on a spectrum between authenticity and autonomy, the player role on a spectrum between identification and identity play, and the game rules on a spectrum between legitimization and opposition. Sammendrag Dataspill er en av nåtidens mest populære underholdningsformer. Men disse spillene kan også brukes til utilslørt militær propaganda; noe den amerikanske hærens svært populære rekrutteringsspill America’s Army er et eksempel på. Denne masteroppgaven bruker dataspillteori (ofte omtalt som ludologi) for å forsøke å forstå hvordan dataspill kan tjene som representasjoner av ideer. Jeg ser på noen grunnleggende sider ved spillformen – spillverdenen, reglene og spillernes roller – og finner tre retoriske strategier forbundet med disse sidene: Henholdsvis autentisitet, legitimering og identifikasjon . Alle disse strategiene er forbundet med et fokus på disiplin og begrensninger på spillerens frihet i spillet, og bidrar til en subtilt formet ethos som gir troverdighet og autoritet til spillet – og dermed også til USAs hær. Ut fra en diskusjon om frihet og disiplin i dataspill foreslår jeg en modell for retorisk analyse av overtalende dataspill som fokuserer på spillets balanse mellom frihet og begrensninger i de ulike sidene ved spillet. I denne modellen sees spillverdenen som et spektrum mellom autentisitet og autonomi, spillernes roller som et spektrum mellom identifikasjon og spill med identiteter, og spillreglene som et spektrum mellom legitimering og opposisjon. 3/136 Anders Sundnes Løvlie The rhetoric of persuasive games 4/136 Anders Sundnes Løvlie The rhetoric of persuasive games Contents Summary..............................................................................................................................................3 Sammendrag.........................................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................................7 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................8 2. Persuasive games and rhetoric .......................................................................................................12 2.1 Persuasive games .....................................................................................................................12 2.2 Rhetoric....................................................................................................................................15 2.2.1 The rhetoric of political speeches .....................................................................................16 2.2.2 The rhetoric of the image..................................................................................................19 2.3.3 The rhetoric of moving images .........................................................................................20 2.2.4 The rhetoric of ergodic works...........................................................................................22 2.3 Game theories ..........................................................................................................................23 2.3.1 Janet Murray: Hamlet on the Holodeck ............................................................................24 2.3.2 Espen Aarseth: Cybertext..................................................................................................25 2.3.3 Ludology...........................................................................................................................26 2.3.4 Jesper Juul’s game model: Half-Real................................................................................26 2.3.5 Criticism of the half-real model........................................................................................27 2.3.6 Games and representation .................................................................................................30 2.3.7 Player roles........................................................................................................................40 2.4 The rhetoric of computer games ..............................................................................................45 3. America's Army : A game-rhetorical analysis.................................................................................51 3.1 Background ..............................................................................................................................51 3.1.1 Other works about America’s Army.................................................................................52 3.2 Genre: Multiplayer tactical shooter..........................................................................................53 3.2.1 Counter-Strike: Source......................................................................................................55 3.2.2 Battlefield 2.......................................................................................................................56 3.3 America’s Army ........................................................................................................................59 3.4 Gameworld measurements.......................................................................................................68 3.4.1 Speed measurements.........................................................................................................68 3.4.2 Size of maps......................................................................................................................69 3.4.3 Gameworld realism...........................................................................................................72 3.5 Rhetorical strategies.................................................................................................................76 5/136 Anders Sundnes Løvlie The rhetoric of persuasive games 3.5.1 Player roles: The strategy of identification.......................................................................77 3.5.2 A “realistic” gameworld – the strategy of authenticity.....................................................84 3.5.3 Rules of Engagement – the strategy of legitimization......................................................88 4 Freedom and Discipline ..................................................................................................................92 4.1 Kill the instructor .....................................................................................................................92 4.2 Hamlet revisited: Freedom and discipline on the Holodeck....................................................95 4.3 Gonzalo Frasca’s serious games: Radical discipline, radical freedom ....................................97 4.3.1 Ephemeral games: Seriousness by discipline....................................................................97 4.3.2 Videogames of the Oppressed: Seriousness by radical freedom ......................................99 4.4 Reduction and transgression ..................................................................................................100 4.5 The rhetoric of persuasive games...........................................................................................102 5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................108 References........................................................................................................................................111 Games...........................................................................................................................................111 Audiovisual sources .....................................................................................................................114 Literature......................................................................................................................................115 Appendix

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