Video games are a complex, compelling medium in which established art forms intersect with technology to create an interactive text. Visual arts, architectural design, music, narrative and rules of play all find a place within, and are constrained by, computer systems whose purpose is to create an immersive player experience.
In the relatively short life of video game studies, many authors have approached the question of how games function, some focusing on technical aspects of game design, others on rules of play. Taking a holistic view, this study explores how ludology, narratology, visual rhetoric, musical theory and player psychology work (or don't work) together to create a cohesive experience and to provide a unified framework for understanding video games.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Setting the Groundwork

The Lack of a Unified Framework¿9 delete¿ deleteWhat Is a Game

Anyway?¿13 delete¿ deleteRevisiting Play and Narrative¿24 delete¿ delete

Redefining Types of Players¿33 delete¿ deleteThe Role of the Player¿41

Chapter 2: Narrative at Play: Game Composition and Story

The Question of Ergodicity¿55 delete¿ deleteLinearity, the Story and

Narrative¿67 delete¿ deleteThe Chronotope and Sideshadowing¿73 delete¿ delete

Multiple Layers and ­Time-Looped Narrative¿84 delete¿ deletePlay and

Space as Narrative¿94

Chapter 3: The Rhetoric of Games

Design, Play, Remediation, Solvency and Space as a Rhetoric

of Games¿109 delete¿ deleteA Rhetoric of Procedure¿119 delete¿ deleteThe Visual

Rhetoric of Games¿131

Chapter 4: Audiovisual Ludonarrativity

A Harmony of Dissonance¿150 delete¿ deleteExpanding Ludonarrativity

Through Rhetoric¿160 delete¿ deleteThe Aural Dimension¿172

Chapter 5: Themes and Audiovisual Ludonarrativity

Alchemy at Dawn: Ayesha's Time Management Dilemmä184 delete¿ delete

Hax0r Is the 1337: Watch_D0gs and the Failed Surveillance State¿192

Conclusion: Game Over-Insert Coin to Continue

Works Cited

Index

Johansen Quijano has been studying games, gaming, and gamer culture for over a decade. Although his early work focused on gaming and language acquisition, he quickly turned his attention to game theory and the rhetoric of games. He has published in several anthologies and journals, participated in translation, adaptation, and creative videogame projects, and presented in local, national, and international conferences. He is currently an assistant professor of English at Tarrant County College where he lectures on writing, literature, and media. Series editor Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York.