The 2000s were a period marked by fierce competition among major console companies such as Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sega, with mega-hit titles like Grand Theft Auto 3, The Sims, World of Warcraft, and the Call of Duty series dominating the market. In the same era, we saw rapid advancements in 3D graphics, the spread of the internet, and the emergence of motion control devices, which fueled a transformative phase in the gaming industry. Since the emergence of the videogames, undoubtedly, the 2000s were the most significant era of the development of games, both industry-wise and technology-wise. Development flourished across diverse devices like consoles, PCs, and mobile platforms.

With this backdrop, different questions surrounding video games were sparked: Can games become art? Can games be used to discuss other contexts, like more 'heavy' or 'serious' subjects? Within these discussions emerged the genre of Serious Games. Designed for purposes beyond entertainment—such as politics, health, education, science, and artistic exploration—Notable examples of Serious Games include The Passage by Jason Rohrer and Marriage by Rod Humble, both of which demonstrate the ability of games to explore profound topics that extend beyond mere entertainment. Serious Games opened new pathways for gaming to engage with real-world issues. Among these, Newsgames, a subgenre of Serious Games, emerged.

September 12th

Gonzalo Frasca’s September 12th: A Toy World, released in 2003, is considered the first significant attempt to apply journalistic principles to gameplay. Using a simple mechanic of clicking to launch missiles at a village, the game asks players to explore how terrorism penetrates lives and perpetuates further violence in the extreme context of war.

The gameplay is straightforward. Players target a spot in a village populated by both civilians and armed terrorists to launch missiles. However, the players quickly realize that aiming at terrorists inevitably results in civilian casualties. As civilians die, other citizens gather to mourn, and some eventually become terrorists themselves. In its opening instructions, the game briefly states, “The rules are deadly simple. You can choose to shoot or not.” Observing the village dominated by growing numbers of terrorists, players soon come to understand that the only way to avoid creating more terrorists is to refrain from firing missiles altogether—paradoxically, doing nothing becomes the ultimate solution, illuminating the game’s core message.

Following September 12th, games such as Darfur is Dying, Budget Hero, Papers, Please, and the satirical McDonald’s Game by Molleindustria expanded the boundaries of Newsgames. These games allowed players to embody roles such as soldiers witnessing the vicious cycle of war, refugees navigating dangers to secure water, policymakers grappling with budget constraints, border inspectors caught between personal ethics and government regulations, and CEOs balancing profit and ethics. Through these roles, players explored the intricate social, political, and economic structures underpinning these issues, gaining experiential insights into their complexities.

Many texts on game design highlight the importance of incorporating familiar social and cultural elements from our daily lives into game systems, making them easily accessible and engaging. While Newsgames follow this principle, they diverge in their approach. Unlike most games that transform familiar systems into entertainment, Newsgames focus on serious societal issues, positioning players at the intersection of familiarity and unfamiliarity. Most players are aware of the situations presented in these games because they have heard or watched related news in real life. Take September 12th, for example, most of us know that war and the birth of terrorists are happening somewhere in the world. However, we do not live in the situation, nor we do we understand the process and chain of events in the situation. As a result, players may recognize certain phenomena through societal discourse yet remain unaware of the underlying factors. Newsgames leverage this duality, designing experiences that enable players to directly engage with the procedures and dilemmas inherent in these scenarios.

Ian Bogost’s concept of procedural rhetoric elaborates on this process in games and emphasizes the unique persuasive power of games. From his argument, procedural rhetoric is: "I suggest the name procedural rhetoric for the new type of persuasive and expressive practice at work in artifacts like Tenure. Procedurality refers to a way of creating, explaining, or understanding processes. ...Rhetoric refers to effective and persuasive expression. Procedural rhetoric, then, is a practice of using processes persuasively.” (Bogost, 2007, p.2) He argues that games are effective tools for understanding the world because they allow players to experience not only the outcomes of phenomena but also the processes leading to those outcomes. He also argues for the broader possibility of games by utilizing procedural rhetoric in games. "...But videogames are capable of much more. In addition to becoming instrumental tools for institutional goals, videogames can also disrupt and change fundamental attitudes and beliefs about the world, leading to potentially significant long-term social change.” (Bogost, 2007, p.8) Newsgames adopt this procedural rhetoric as a core principle, enabling players to engage with the dilemmas and structural issues of societal phenomena in ways that text and visuals alone cannot achieve.

However, for Newsgames to have meaning, the genre inherently requires the processing and digestion of information by human beings. Newsgames are defined as a "body of work produced at the intersection of video games and journalism." (Bogost, Ferrari, & Schweizer, 2010, p. 6) Journalism is the process of gathering, writing, and sharing news stories and articles through various media outlets. Which means it needs consumers and processors. This brings us to the concept of player agency. Naturally, these games reinforce player agency, embracing this element as a core aspect alongside their mechanics.

Player Agency

Agency is an abstract and debatable concept. While some argue that player agency in games is merely an illusion, others, such as C. Thi Nguyen, assert that the art of games lies in player agency. (Nguyen, 2020) This difference in perspective stems from varying interpretations of video game design and the definition of player agency. The former viewpoint suggests that the game system operates as a sequence of inputs and reactions, meaning there is no genuine interaction. According to this argument, players do not truly exercise their agency; instead, they simply follow the predetermined sequences set by the game. However, the latter viewpoint advocates consider player agency to be a co-creator of video games.

Furthermore, I argue that videogames are fundamentally a medium designed with player agency in mind. Many game designers focus on anticipating players' behavior and guiding their actions. One might argue that such agency is merely part of a scripted system, a manipulated experience where players are bound by the constraints of the system. However, the relationship between players and games is not one-sided. While we may submit ourselves to the temporary structure of a game, we can also choose to stop playing if the game becomes boring, if we dislike a particular system, or if we want to engage in other 'productive' activities in real life. Unplayed games remain simply static icons on our device screen, waiting for their chance to be brought to life.

Some may argue that this phenomenon is not unique to games. According to their logic, films or literature also depend on an audience or reader to derive meaning. However, they inherently unfold their stories without direct engagement with audiences or readers. Pressing the play button on a movie initiates its narrative, which progresses independently of whether an audience is present. Similarly, a written work exists as a complete narrative in itself. On the contrary, videogames rely entirely on player agency—without it, the game’s message, story, and purpose remain inactive and unexpressed.

This distinction becomes clear in how we recall our experiences with different media. When I recall films I watched in the past, I often remember their storyline, visuals, or direction. This is a passive recollection of the film itself. However, when I think of games I played in the past, I don't just remember the narrative. I remember 'myself' playing the game, my actions, and my 'play'. The experience the game offers became inseparable from my participation. 

Even more, player agency is critical in newsgames, as these games are often designed to highlight a specific situation or advocate for change. Unlike other genres, where open-world exploration and freedom within the game world are celebrated as virtues (Again, even though it is scripted input, players choose to experience), newsgames rely on focused player agency to deliver their intended message. Even though freedom is given to players, if players fail to engage critically with the game’s systems and goals, the journalistic purpose of the newsgames risks being undermined.

This concept aligns with the definition of videogame agency by Janet Murray, where she stated that videogame agency is "the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices”. (Murray, 1997, p. 126)  According to this definition, through gameplay, we strive to make better results and changes in the world. In the context of Newsgames, however, the agency goes beyond achieving better results; it becomes a tool for fostering critical engagement with the systems and narratives the game presents, enabling players to question and reflect on real-world issues. But are we truly conscious of this player agency as we play?

For most players, the answer is no. When we play games, we rarely think about making changes in the world—whether within the game system or beyond. This is because the experience typically starts with a straightforward goal: something clear, achievable, and immediate, such as completing a mission or defeating an enemy. Over time, however, this goal often dissolves, becoming secondary or even irrelevant. For instance, in September 12th: A Toy World, the initial objective seems simple—target terrorists with missiles. Yet players quickly realize that their actions perpetuate violence, creating more terrorists and civilian casualties. The futility of the goal becomes apparent, and the focus shifts to questioning the system itself. Exploration, reflection, and critical engagement emerge as the new objectives.

Paradoxically, it is through a full commitment to the game—immersing oneself deeply into its systems—that players begin to raise questions about those very systems. This process encourages players to critically evaluate the premise of the game’s objectives, transforming them into critical players who challenge, rather than simply accept, the game’s structure and message.

As Mary Flanagan explores in her book Critical Play, "Criticality in play can be fostered in order to question an aspect of a game’s 'content,' or an aspect of a play scenario’s function that might otherwise be considered a given or necessary." (Flanagan, 2009, p. 6) Newsgames exemplify this principle by deliberately designing systems that provoke players to question the underlying premises of the game’s mission or mechanics. They challenge players not only to question how to perform an action but also to confront the futility of the given goal within the game. In Newsgames, the mission often appears secondary, and its importance is intentionally diminished to shift the focus toward deeper systemic issues. However, as I stated above, to ask these questions, we must first immerse ourselves in the games and their given structure.

For instance, in Darfur is Dying, players play as a refugee kid running to fetch water while hiding from patrolling trucks. As the child gets caught, the game continues, and players get to play as another child character. This repetition forces the player to ask, What happened to the other child? What kind of change can I bring to this situation? Certainly not by simply fetching water. Just like it happened with the September 12th: A Toy World, when shooting missiles to kill terrorists seems like a solution at first, but reveals itself as futile. These games compel players to confront the inherent futility of the given goals and reflect on the deeper systemic issues they represent.

Till now, I've examined the procedural rhetorical methods used by game designers to convey meaning in games, the concept of player agency as co-authorship, and how, especially in Newsgames, this manifests to shed light on deeper systemic structures and social systems.

Furthermore, I aim to expand this discourse to explore how game systems and player agency resemble societal structures such as legal systems and citizenship, which occasionally manifest as protests in real life. The "satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices” (Murray, 1997, p.126), as described by Janet Murray, is also persistent in activist movements.

In both cases, systems—whether in games or in society—are designed with embedded rules and frameworks that guide or constrain actions. These structures, often invisible or taken for granted, dictate the flow of decision-making and behavior. However, just as players in games can critically engage with and challenge the given premises of a game’s mission, individuals in society can question and resist systemic structures, highlighting their agency within these systems.

References

- Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.

- Bogost, Ian, Simon Ferrari, and Bobby Schweizer. Newsgames: Journalism at Play. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Archived from the original on June 4, 2012. Accessed June 21, 2012. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/newsgames.

- Stang, Sara. “This Action Will Have Consequences”: Interactivity and Player Agency, 2019. https://gamestudies.org/1901/articles/stang

- Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009.

- Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York: The Free Press, 1997.

- Nguyen, C. Thi. Games: Agency as Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2020.

- Frasca, Gonzalo. September 12th: A Toy World. 2003.

- Ruiz, Susana. Darfur is Dying. 2006.