The Game Is the Message: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Digital Games as an Expressive Medium

Abstract

This article offers a short introduction to theoretical and methodological perspectives on digital games as an expressive medium. It focuses on a number of components that contribute to the expressive potential of the medium.

First, space is discussed, together with the related component of mode of display. The following section presents an overview of approaches to representation in games, the often contested role of narrative is discussed next.

The final section offers two ways of interpreting game mechanics: Bogost's procedural rhetorics and Rusch and Weise's metaphorical approach.

Keywords

• computer games
• semiotics
• literary scholarship
• film studies
• representation