Mundos que argumentam sobre nosso mundo: uma abordagem semiótica sobre a persuasão nos videogames uma abordagem semiótica sobre a persuasão nos videogames

Abstract

This thesis aims to understand how a videogame can use its own world to debate about ours, assuming Peirce semiotics as main analysis tool and the procedural rhetoric (Bogost, 2007) as the core persuasive theory. Next, we expand the approach by adding new rhetoric theories considering, therefore, the procedures as the main communication element, developed over a game’s aesthetic (art direction), story, mechanics and technology. In chapter one, we discuss the concept and nature of Play since the Greek philosophers. We also define the games with no other main objective beyond entertainment as the core of our study. Then, we present the broad concept of language and how it applies to videogames under the lens of Schell’s elementary tetrad (2011). In chapter two, we cover the concept of persuasion. Starting from procedural rhetoric, we also consider how the same philosophers discussed rhetoric, being relevant to contemporary studies, which is examined in general terms next. In chapter three, we highlight Peirce’s theories. Phenomenology is the first subject, in which we advance to the way the signs gain meaning to someone, the main theme in semeiotics study. In chapter four, all previous theories and concepts will be applied to a study case, the game The Witcher 3. We expose our methods, in which procedural rhetoric, visual rhetoric and verbal rhetoric are applied, aiming an expanded understanding. Next, we talk about how the game creates an argument about its own world, then how that argument can be metaphorically related to themes of our world