Games and society, at the heart of playful rhetoric – RHETOLUD

The aim of this PRCE research-creation project is to develop an artistic approach to games (video games and board games) from a visual arts perspective, focusing on the representations and ways of 'making society' present in games. Using a multi-scale corpus of 12 games that are representative of contemporary commercial and critical successes, and a study of video game and board game databases, the objective is to assess the diversity of representations and discourses transcribed in contemporary games. Games, which are often used for their pedagogical virtues, disseminate a range of rarely studied socio-ideological models in the actions and interactions they offer players. Taking procedural rhetoric (Ian Bogost) and the expressive dimension of games (Sébastien Genvo) as a starting point, diversity of game discourses will be questionned, right in their medium, by promoting awareness and education in games, giving game designers a sense of responsibility. Put into practice through design workshops, the distribution of an open-access magazine, the organisation of seminars and a symposium, and the production of a white paper on good practice in games creation, this research project is working to develop, enhance and question the diversity of social models in the development of contemporary games in order to reconnect with the social dimension of traditional games. Rooted in the Cultural and Creative Industries, this research also responds to practical issues, both in terms of responsibility for the content and representations offered in games, and in terms of creativity, in that it invites us to explore new functionalities and new imaginations behind the game mechanics.