#persuasivegames

[alexstudyingindustrialdesign]

#Project: Start of Persuasive Games

To learn more about programming and also because I didn't think the offer op projects was really great this semesterI chose to sign up for the Persuasive Games project. This semester I will work on an individual project, which will be a true challenge for my self directed learning skills. I will have to make sure that I meet up with other students and regularly ask for feedback and help. 

The design challenges (from project description): In this project, you will design a game or playful activity that lures a person in (how do you design something that evokes curiosity and persuade people tostart playing?), engages them fully (how do you motivate people to persist inan activity and become fully engrossed by it?) and through play changes theirattitude. How to design for attitude change is also still very much an openquestion. Should the message be overt or covert, explicit or allegorical, emerging from playful mechanics, etc.

At the introduction lecture of the project we were shown some cool persuasive games which give you a quite sophisticated and empathic insight in different ways of thinking, around the world. Some of these example games were: 

Cutthroat Capitalism: The Game (archive.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/cutthroatCapitalismTheGame) 

The Best Amendment: (www.molleindustria.org/the-best-amendment/)

This War Of Mine: (www.11bitstudios.com/games/16/this-war-of-mine)

Personally I think that miscommunication and misunderstanding of others is one of the bigger causes of trouble in the world. Making a persuasive game that helps people understand different perspectives in complicated situations is a way for designers to actually make the world a better place. This is why I am so excited to start this project!

[cgl2012-blog]

Persuaive Games/Purposes of Persuasion: Bogost demands a recognization of the persuasive and expressive power of procedurality, as its processes do influence us and seed changes in our attitudes, who can result in cultural change over time and therewith change our world.

[cgl2012-blog]

Persuaive Games/Exercise: Bogost works himself through the history of exergames, starting from DDR to Yourself! Fitness, concluding that families, who are encouraged by "the American Dream", are caught in a downward spiral between more work and less movement.

[cgl2012-blog]

Persuasive Games/Values and Aspirations: Bogost points out, that for him there is a great difference between being schooled and educated, whereas educated means to become an expert of human improvement, how to think independently and how to express oneself.

[cgl2012-blog]

Persuasive Games/Procedural Literacy: In Procedural Literacy Bogost explains, that video games teach biased perspectives through procedural rhetorics, which can be read through direct engagement.