论劝导游戏及其对劝导技术伦理困境的超越

On Persuasive Games and Their Transcendence over the Ethical Dilemmas of Persuasive Technology

劝导游戏是利用“程序修辞”的方法去立论进而改变玩家态度和行为的电脑游戏和技术人工物。其中,程序修辞指的是劝导游戏通过“过程表征”去刻画和表达驱动现实事物或系统如何运作的方法和逻辑(即程序性);该表达是以三段论省略式的形式立论的,玩家通过与游戏程序的交互从而填补省略式缺失的前提(即修辞性)。由于劝导游戏是劝导技术应用于电脑游戏后的结果,那么也极有可能会引发与劝导技术类似的侵权和操控伦理困境。劝导游戏试图从两方面超越上述困境:用过程表征等内容建构游戏世界,并把游戏世界作为玩家后续进入现实世界的实验室和缓冲带;利用程序修辞为设计师和玩家提供了一个沟通对话与民主协商的机制和平台。

Persuasive games are the media and technological artifacts using“procedural rhetoric”to make arguments in order to change the attitudes and behaviors of players.Procedural rhetoric means that persuasive games describe and express the way and logic that drive real things or systems to work through“procedural representation”(viz.procedurality);the expressions are made in the form of enthymeme,and players interact with game programs to fill in the missing premise(viz.rhetoricity).As the outcome of persuasive technology applied to computer games,persuasive games may also cause the ethical dilemmas of infringement and manipulation like those happened in persuasive technology.Persuasive games try to transcend these dilemmas from two aspects:using procedural representation and other contents to construct game worlds and taking game worlds as the laboratory and buffer zone that allow players to subsequently enter the real world;procedural rhetoric providing a mechanism and platform for game designers and players to communicate,dialogue and negotiate democratically.