Frame and Metaphor in Political Games

Authors

  • Ian Bogost

Keywords:

political videogames, cognitive linguistics, grand theft auto

Abstract

This paper offers an approach to analyzing political rhetoric in videogames intended to carry ideological bias, based on cognitive linguist George Lakoff’s notion of metaphor and frame as the principle organizers or political discourse. I then argue for three ways games function in relation to ideological frames: reinforcement, contestation, and exposition through examples of political games (Tax Invaders), art games (Vigilance 1.0), and commercial games (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas). Secondarily, I offer thoughts on issues likely to arise from the hypothetical adoption of political frame and metaphor as design principles.

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Published

2005-01-01

Bibtex

@Conference{digra153, title ="Frame and Metaphor in Political Games", year = "2005", author = "Bogost, Ian", publisher = "DiGRA", address = "Tampere", howpublished = "\url{https://dl.digra.org/index.php/dl/article/view/153}", booktitle = "Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play"}

Proceedings

2005: Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Section

Papers

License

© Authors & Digital Games Research Association DiGRA. Personal and educational classroom use of this paper is
allowed, commercial use requires specific permission from the author.