For my thesis, I have undertaken the creation of a persuasive game to advance a particular argument of the way that work is performed in the field of technical communication. Designed using procedural rhetoric, with an attention to aesthetics, fun, and the qualities that make games viable pedagogical tools, my game has been programmed using HTML5 and JavaScript, and made freely available online at RhetoricalGamer.com. This written document is meant to serve as a supplement to the game, providing a rationale for the use of games in education and in technical communication; a definition of procedural rhetoric and the necessary qualities of game design to ensure that the rhetoric operates correctly; and a detailed breakdown of the final elements and mechanics in place within my game. It is my hope that this work will serve as an exemplar for others interested in pursuing the creation of persuasive games, as a case study for the application of procedural rhetoric to education, and as a means of advancing technical communication's study of games and their relationship with such emerging technologies.

This thesis shines a light on tools that can be used in order to create persuasive and meaningful video games. This research was designed as an exploration of the game Behind Every Great One, with the purpose to determine if and how the game could attain a persuasive and meaningful representation of a benevolent sexist situation. To achieve this, the research took on three different approaches: an interview with the developer, a textual analysis of the game, and a qualitative survey analysing players' reactions to, and perceptions of, the game. The findings suggest that displaying characters' emotions in ways that transmit them to the players, paired with a realistic, complex representation of the social situation portrayed, are imperative for making the game have a persuasive and meaningful impact on the players. The researcher also suggests the term persuasive meaningful play as an applicable way to refer to games that contain similar characteristics as Behind Every Great One.

Mobile games present a great opportunity for organizations with sustainability agendas to spread their message and generate revenue towards its cause, as they are the best money generating apps. This can be done through designing so-called persuasive games. A major challenge when designing such a game is that the sustainability agenda might compromise the gaming experience, rendering an uninteresting game. The present research explores what could trigger both an interesting game that also compromises a do-good agenda by designing and play testing two versions of a persuasive game called Aqua Escape. Results indicated that users felt more excited about the game once they knew about the social agenda. They also wanted more information on the social agenda integrated into the app than was already there. / Mobilspel generar störst intäkter av mobilapplikationer och skapar därför en möjlighet för företag med hållbarhetsagendor att sprida deras budskap och generera intäkter till deras ändamål. Detta kan göras genom att designa så kallade övertygande spel (eng. persuasive games). En stor utmaning i designandet av ett sådant spel är att hållbarhetsagendan riskerar att äventyra spelupplevelsen och rendera ett ointressant spel. Denna studie utforskar hur ett intressant spel med en hållbarhetsagenda kan designas genom att designa och speltesta två versioner av ett övertygande spel kallat Aqua Escape. Resultatet indikerar att spelarna fick en förstärkt positiv känsla av spelet när de förstod att spelet hade en hållbarhetsagenda. Spelarna ville även att hållbarhetsagendan skulle integreras mer i spelet.

How do games express meaning and participate in societal development? A significant contribution to the scholarly efforts that seek to answer such questions takes the rule-based properties of games as its starting point. Termed Procedural Rhetoric, the theory is tightly interwoven with major research questions in Game Studies, yet is under-researched and lacks clarity in several respects. This paper conducts an exploratory, qualitative literature review of the theory to address the lack of information about accumulated knowledge. It discovers new perspectives that may help chart a future for the theory and for Game Studies more broadly. Three possible paths forward are also outlined. A New Agenda is suggested in which game rules and procedures are (re)instated at the core of the analysis but new perspectives are embraced concerning the role of players and of developers, the societal context, and the contributions of the researchers and the educators who study them.

Seit Menschen miteinander kommunizieren gibt es Persuasion, also das Bestreben, den Kommunikationspartner zu beeinflussen. Bereits in der Antike wurde dieses Handwerk in Form der klassischen Rhetorik systematisiert und gezielt eingesetzt. In den vergangenen Jahren gab es Versuche, diese etablierten Konzepte auf interaktive Medien zu übertragen, was aber nur ansatzweise gelang. Um den Besonderheiten interaktiver Medien gerecht zu werden, sollten ihre prozesshafte Natur und ihre Wechselwirkungen mit den Aktionen des Nutzers im Mittelpunkt stehen. Genau das ist beim Konzept der prozeduralen Rhetorik von Ian Bogost der Fall, weshalb dieser Ansatz als Grundlage der hier vorgenommenen Untersuchungen zu persuasiven Computerspielen dient. Im Rahmen der Arbeit werden zudem die unterschiedlichen Formen der Rhetorik vorgestellt und die Notwendigkeit der Berücksichtigung prozeduraler Rhetorik dargelegt. Anhand der Beispiele The McDonald's Videogame und America's Army verdeutlichen die Autoren den Einsatz verschiedener persuasiver Techniken aus klassischer und prozeduraler Rhetorik.

Studien diskuterar hur spelifierad reklam, ett så kallat advergame som kombinerar spel ochreklam, kan påverka användarnas engagemang på en plattform såsom Youtube. En prototypskapades med målet att illustrera hur spelifierad reklam på en videoplattform kan se ut. Studiensavsikt är att få en förståelse för hur användarnas attityd till reklam påverkar och influerar derasengagemang till att interagera med ett advergame på en videoplattform. Vidare är studiens syfteatt utvärdera vilka spelelement som påverkar användares engagemang i ett advergame. Studienanvände sig av kvalitativa metoder samt prototyputveckling. Prototypen utvecklades under tvåiterationer och det genomfördes även fyra användbarhetstester för att förbättra prototypen.Därefter testades prototypen i en fokusgrupp och i tre par-intervjuer. Intervjuerna genomfördespå plats i två städer i sydvästra Skåne. Resultatet bidrog med insikter om hur personerinteragerar med digital reklam och deras tankar kring ett advergame. Responsen frånintervjuerna indikerade att det inte är lämpligt att använda advergames på en videoplattform pågrund av att det stör användarens intention till varför de är på Youtube. Vidare dras slutsatsenatt spelelement som ledartavla, poäng och medaljer främjar engagemang och uppmuntraranvändaren till att interagera med ett advergame. För att få ett tydligare resultat hade det krävtsytterligare prototyputveckling samt tester och intervjuer. / The study discusses how gamified ads, a so-called advergame that combines game andadvertising, can affect user engagement on a platform like Youtube. A prototype was createdwith the aim of illustrating how gamified advertising on a video platform can be portrayed. Thepurpose of the study is to gain a better understanding regarding users' attitude towardsadvertising and how it influences their engagement to interact with an advergame on a videoplatform. Further, the intention of the study is to evaluate which game elements affect users’engagement on an advergame. The study consisted of qualitative methods and prototypedevelopment. The prototype was developed over two iterations and four usability tests were alsoconducted to improve the prototype. The prototype was then tested in a focus group and in threeinterviews made up of pairs. The interviews were held on site in two cities in southwest Skåne.The result contributed insights into how people interact with digital advertising and theirthoughts about an advergame. The response from the interviews indicated that it is notappropriate to use advergames on a video platform because it interferes with the user's intentionas to why they are on Youtube. Furthermore, it is concluded that game elements such asleaderboards, points and medals promote engagement and encourage the users to interact withan advergame. To get a clearer result, further prototype development as well as tests andinterviews are required.

This essay is about the principles and rules that control persuasive computer games. The term persuasive games mean computer games, video games and other similar artifacts that are produced to shape opinion. The rhetorical scholar Ian Bogost at Georgia Tech claims that this kind of games mainly get their persuasive power by using procedural rhetoric and that games as a medium gives special conditions for procedurality.  By procedural rhetoric Bogost means an argumentation that is based on rules and choices, as opposed to texts, movies and images. (Bogost 2007). Bogost describes these procedures as quite specific for games and claims that they differ qualitatively from “ordinary” rhetorical arguments even if they just as other arguments work by establishing enthymems. However when I in my preliminary study tried this hypothesis, I seemed to distinguish several similarities with argumentation strategies used in political or juridical debate, such as Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca´s associative argumentation techniques. In this essay I examine if and how Perelman and Olbrechs-Tytecas associative argumentation techniques can be used to describe (and understand?) rulebased rhetorical procedures in persuasive games. This analysis is carried out on two recent Swedish persuasive games and proves the hypothesis fruitful. This result also points to the possibility to view rules as something that control all forms of argumentation. Despite this result, the investigation doesn´t contradict the presumption that computer games in many ways, have specific possibilities, beyond procedural rhetoric, such as the opportunity for interaction, receiver adaptation, and the capacity to process big amounts of data.

Seit Menschen miteinander kommunizieren gibt es Persuasion, also das Bestreben, den Kommunikationspartner zu beeinflussen. Bereits in der Antike wurde dieses Handwerk in Form der klassischen Rhetorik systematisiert und gezielt eingesetzt. In den vergangenen Jahren gab es Versuche, diese etablierten Konzepte auf interaktive Medien zu übertragen, was aber nur ansatzweise gelang. Um den Besonderheiten interaktiver Medien gerecht zu werden, sollten ihre prozesshafte Natur und ihre Wechselwirkungen mit den Aktionen des Nutzers im Mittelpunkt stehen. Genau das ist beim Konzept der prozeduralen Rhetorik von Ian Bogost der Fall, weshalb dieser Ansatz als Grundlage der hier vorgenommenen Untersuchungen zu persuasiven Computerspielen dient. Im Rahmen der Arbeit werden zudem die unterschiedlichen Formen der Rhetorik vorgestellt und die Notwendigkeit der Berücksichtigung prozeduraler Rhetorik dargelegt. Anhand der Beispiele The McDonald's Videogame und America's Army verdeutlichen die Autoren den Einsatz verschiedener persuasiver Techniken aus klassischer und prozeduraler Rhetorik.