Composition of Video Games

Johansen Quijano has been studying games, gaming, and gamer culture for over a decade. Although his early work focused on gaming and language acquisition, he quickly turned his attention to game theory and the rhetoric of games. He has published in several anthologies and journals, participated in translation, adaptation, and creative videogame projects, and presented in local, national, and international conferences. He is currently an assistant professor of English at Tarrant County College where he lectures on writing, literature, and media. Series editor Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Setting the GroundworkThe Lack of a Unified Framework 9 delete• deleteWhat Is a Game Anyway? 13 delete• deleteRevisiting Play and Narrative 24 delete• deleteRedefining Types of Players 33 delete• deleteThe Role of the Player 41Chapter 2: Narrative at Play: Game Composition and StoryThe Question of Ergodicity 55 delete• deleteLinearity, the Story and Narrative 67 delete• deleteThe Chronotope and Sideshadowing 73 delete• deleteMultiple Layers and ­Time-Looped Narrative 84 delete• deletePlay and Space as Narrative 94Chapter 3: The Rhetoric of GamesDesign, Play, Remediation, Solvency and Space as a Rhetoric of Games 109 delete• deleteA Rhetoric of Procedure 119 delete• deleteThe Visual Rhetoric of Games 131Chapter 4: Audiovisual LudonarrativityA Harmony of Dissonance 150 delete• deleteExpanding Ludonarrativity Through Rhetoric 160 delete• deleteThe Aural Dimension 172Chapter 5: Themes and Audiovisual LudonarrativityAlchemy at Dawn: Ayesha’s Time Management Dilemma 184 delete• deleteHax0r Is the 1337: Watch_D0gs and the Failed Surveillance State 192Conclusion: Game Over—Insert Coin to ContinueWorks CitedIndex