Ian Bogost, "Frame and Metaphor in Political Games"

(In Worlds in Play)

- Political success comes from representation of issues
- Metaphor/cultural construction as an "active conceptual framework that is central to how we understand the world." (Lakoff and Johnson)
- Framing (in Luntz's terms, "context") of the world is central to political discourse
- Words that reflect ideas
- 2004 - first endorsed political games
- Analyze political rhetoric, metaphor and frame as procedural
- Three kinds of ideological frame: reinforcement, contestation and exposition
- Reinforcement: explicitly draw attention to the frame (verbally, outside the game), demonstrate how to think about an issue (Tax Invaders)
- Contestation: rule systems also create frames, challenge apparent ideological frame (Vigilance 1.0) -> satire
- Exposition: expose underlying ideological frame created by the interaction between rules and content (socio-economic disadvantage in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is ignored -> crime as decadence/depravity)
- Exposition is the work of the critic, not the designer
- GTA: SA less stylized than previous GTA games, engaging directly with a cultural-historical moment? I disagree - where GTA: Vice City invokes Scarface and Miami Vice, GTA: SA invokes Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society, and the now-iconic, highly mediated television news coverage of 1990s race riots, etc. As with other games in the series, the game is engaging with popular culture, not "real" history