Summer Reading: Persuasive Games

I just ordered Ian Bogost’s new book off of Amazon. It came out a few weeks ago and is entitled Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Video Games.

Ian describes his book this way:

The book is about how videogames make arguments. I offer a theory of rhetoric for games, then I discuss a great many examples from commercial and non-commercial games, focusing on the areas of politics, advertising and learning. The book should be of interest and use for academics, designers, policy makers, marketers, educators, and general readers interested in the culture of videogames.

The book is carrying 5 stars on Amazon at the moment, but those are coming from one reviewer. I’m expecting more of the same though and for the reason this reviewer offers:

Ian Bogost really practices what he preaches. The way he builds and reconfigures ideas and concepts, he effectively illustrates how procedural rhetoric can be done textually as well as through games. This book (along with his earlier _Unit Operations_) shows Bogost doing some of the most substantive thinking in the game studies field.

I tend to agree. The fact that Ian’s thinking is not just theoretical, but is being applied to games getting noticed and hosted by the New York Times is encouraging. I have a few weeks before classes start up again, so I hope to have this read and reviewed by then.