Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism
Citations
45 citations
45 citations
43 citations
Cites background from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...…to a lively debate over the ‘disciplinary home’ for videogame studies, with some calling for continued disciplinary plurality (e.g.Wolf and Perron, 2003), while others have called for game studies to develop as a specific discipline (e.g. Aarseth, 2001; see Bogost, 2006b, pp. 49–54 for a critique)....
[...]
...Bogost’s notion of procedural rhetoric would here necessitate not the implantation of real-world rhetorics of protest – the virtual march, for example – but rather an engagement with the architecture and gameplay of the game itself. Dmitri Williams et al.’s (2006) exploration of the nature of virtual activism within the West’s leading massive multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft (WoW), which sought to explain the relatively limited activism by ‘conventional players’ using the game world for political protest, supports this argument: VIDEOGAMES, PERSUASION AND WAR 513...
[...]
...The game thus affirms that a militarised response to the war on terror is ultimately counterproductive (Bogost, 2006b, p. 119, pp. 131–3)....
[...]
...Such games offer an alternative view, and open up new possibility spaces, in Bogost’s terms; the publisher of the game Under Ash, discussed below, has said that ‘The main purpose of the game was to [offer alternatives in an area] previously filled with foreign games distorting the facts and history, and planting the motto of “Sovereignty is for power and violence according to the American style” ’ (cited in Halter, 2006, p. 3). The final part of this article explores the potential of such games to develop a sustained political critique. Under Ash (2002) places the player in the role of a young Palestinian who becomes involved in the Intifada, undertaking a variety of tasks such as reaching the Al-Aqsa mosque (an important Islamic site in Jerusalem), helping injured Palestinians, finding weapons and attacking Israeli soldiers (Gee, 2007, p....
[...]
...Such games include mainstream commercial releases, ‘indie games’ and games developed in the Middle East, all of which are designed to offer a critique of the dominant social position (for a number of examples see Bogost, 2006a; 2007)....
[...]
42 citations
40 citations
Cites background from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...Beowulf fighting different monsters – can be understood as a good example of how non-digital environments can embody procedural aspects [31]....
[...]
References
37,560 citations
26,318 citations
[...]
16,708 citations
10,978 citations
10,912 citations