Reading games and playing books: playing video games as a textual-discursive activity

Abstract

This work seeks to show how meanings and values are constructed in the activity of playing videogames, consolidating it as textual-discursive, not defined only by its content or interaction. From a discussion of the object game (JUUL, 2005; STENROS, 2017) and the activity play (HUNICKE; LEBLANC; ZUBEK, 2004; JUEL LARSEN; WALTHER, 2020), and the distinction between them, we elaborated that playing is configured as such when players engage with the game in its rhizomatic structure, in order to build meanings from it (MUKHERJEE, 2015). Also, the game can convey meanings through procedural rhetoric (BOGOST, 2007). We bring two examples of how the videogame and its playing make meanings out of real estate exploitation and the use of lethal force, respectively. We argue that, by understanding games as vehicles for argumentation carried out visually and interactively, we can foster more critical players capable of acting in the world.