After reading “Persuasive Games” I had developed many different theories and feelings towards video games. I knew that the book was going to be an interesting read from the beginning because I could relate to a lot of examples that he talked about. The first example was about procedures, policies, and technology. When playing video games you can see that there are specific rules and pre-programmed procedures because of how each level requires another skill.
Bogost introduced the concept of “Political Processes” and this is something that I would have never noted in a video game. The example of BioChemFX is important to consider because of how important rules in today’s society are. The beginning of Chapter two was a great read for me because of how it related to the course specifically. The games that were noted were “September 12th” and “Madrid” and let me understand how both games represent a form of rhetoric failure.
I remember that before playing a video game there is always a reference to some type of advertising. This may be before the game starts or during the game such as a logo on a car. After learning about demonstrative, illustrative, and associative advertising I was able to apply them to the games that I played in class. Take “Fatworld” for instance and how the game uses exercise and obesity as a learning tool and how illustrative it can be.
The chapter called, “Procedural Literacy” was particularly important to me because I always like being able to refer literacy to another concept. I compared “Fatworld” to “Sim City” and learned how educational both games are. A last comment about this book is how Bogost refers to values in society and notes Laurel’s ideas. This was important because I compared there ideas amongst each other and noticed how rhetoric had a factor.
The entire time that I was reading this book I felt like I could refer to something in the class. For example, I related Roger Ebert’s issue about artistic expression to Bogost’s chapter about “Values and Aspirations.” After playing many of the video games mentioned in this book I felt that I was able to relate to the topic better than if I had not played the game. Bogost’s last line states, “And the logics that drive our games make claims about who we are, how our world functions, and what we want it to become” (Bogost 340) shows how video games are important in today’s society.
After finishing "Persuasive Games" by Bogost do you feel that video games play an imporant role in today's modern world?