For this Thursday’s 5a7 Joachim Despland and Carolyn Jong will be hosting an introduction to procedural rhetoric. The Critical Hit team will be sponsoring the event and will also be present to answer questions and offer advice if you’re still working on your applications.
Procedural rhetoric is a term coined by Ian Bogost to describe the ways in which videogames and other procedural media make arguments: that is, through rule-based operations and representations. Because videogames model systems and allow players to interact with those systems, they can also make persuasive arguments about how different systems (either real or imagined) work.
Some of the examples we’ll be discussing are:
Civilization
The SimCity series
The Sims
Braid
Baldur’s Gate
Cart Life
+Anything else you can think of
For more info on procedural rhetoric check out: Ian Bogost’s article The Rhetoric of Video Games
Miguel Sicart’s article Against Procedurality
An Extra Credits video on Narrative Mechanics
What: Introduction to procedural rhetoric, plus discussion.
When: Thursday, April 11, 5-7pm
Where: Hexagram Game Lab, EV 11.425, 1515 St. Catherine W.
Who: Anyone is welcome!