How Videogames Express Ideas

What are the exact aspects of the videogame medium, the precise features or combinations of features that lend themselves to expressing ideas and meaning? To chart this out, I begin with an American legal case that serves as a foundation for the basic issues involved and then move on to show how this relates to some of the broader attitudes the world of videogame discourse. Based on this, I break down the expressive strategies of videogames into three aspects—non-playable sequences, rule-based systems, and the relationship between the two—which I then illustrate with examples proving that videogames can indeed be an expressive medium. Keywords Expression, First Amendment, Speech, Communication, Ideology, Meaning, Interactivity, Agency, Videogaming Community, Cut-Scene, Dialogue-Scene, Opinion Summary

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: DIGRA
• Authors: Matthew Weise
• Keywords: American Legal Case, DIGRA 2003, Videogame Medium, Videogames