Tese de Gonzalo Frasca

Gonzalo Frasca criador do termo "ludologia", domínio que estuda a ciência dos jogos, publica agora online a sua tese de doutoramento, Play the Message: Play, Game and Videogame Rhetoric (2007), realizada no Game ITU da Dinamarca, sob a supervisão de Espen Aarseth.

Frasca ficou conhecido com a criação do seu blog, Ludology.org no início dos anos 2000 e durante cerca de 6 anos investiu bastante na atividade académica. Pelo meio ainda teve tempo para criar jogos com impacto como o September 12th (2001) e Madrid (2004), ambos referentes aos ataques terroristas da Al Qaeda.

Em 2007 voltou ao Uruguai onde criou uma empresa de videojogos, a Powerful Robot, e desde então tem-se dedicado por completo à industria.
Deste modo a publicação da sua tese reveste-se de interesse para todos os que estejam neste momento a realizar pesquisa no campo.

Play the Message: Play, Game and Videogame Rhetoric (2007)

Abstract: This dissertation proposes a framework for the rhetorical analysis of games, videogames, toys and play activities. Even though play predates culture and games have long been pervasive in our civilization, the advent of videogames has pushed even further the role of games as communicational and cultural products. This situation demands a set of rhetori- cal tools that take into account the particularities of games and how they are played.
The main objective of this dissertation is to provide a foundation upon which building play rhetoric, one that is complete enough to take into account the core elements that contrib- ute to the playerʼs construction of meaning while engaged in play. In order to achieve this, it is first needed to question our current ontologies of play and game and propose an alter- native one that shifts the current systemic bias towards an approach that also takes into account player performance.
Since ultimately the goal of this dissertation is to contribute to the nascent field of play rhetoric, it complements its theoretical tools with multiple examples of rhetorical analysis of games, videogames, toys and play activities.