Do not wait: start reading this stimulating book.
Jan H.G. Klabbers
Game Studies
Videogames lack the cultural stature of 'legitimate' art forms because they are widely perceived to be trivial and meaningless. But Ian Bogost makes a powerful argument that they are capable of informing and persuading as well as entertaining; in short, that they possess the power of rhetoric. Backed by numerous examples from the fields of politics, advertising, and education, Persuasive Games is an important addition to the debate over what games are, do, and can be.
Ernest W. Adams, game design consultant and educator
Bogost's book provides a new lens—procedural rhetoric—to use in the analysis of games and an excellent survey of the history of games of this ilk.
Steve Jacobs
American Journal of Play
Bogost creates and writes about serious games, seemingly simple diversions that deliver educational political and advertising content alongside entertainment. In Persuasive Games, he offers an academic but accessible introduction to their potential, and it is very meaty reading for anybody interested in where the interactive arts meet real-world topics.
Scott Colbourne
The Globe and The Mail
Analyzing the power of video games to mount arguments and influence players, Ian Bogost does again what he always does so very well: thoroughly rethink and shake up a traditional academic field—rhetoric—while lucidly building the foundations of a new one—game studies.
James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Arizona State University
Whether we call them 'serious games', 'persuasive games', or simply 'video games', it is clear that there is much of rhetorical significance to mine from the electronic representations and interactions that have captivated such a large portion of the world's population. Ian Bogost's book is an excellent step towards understanding and appreciating these materials from an intellectual, critical, and humanistic perspective.
Rudy McDaniel
Literary and Linguistic Computing
