International Journal of Linguistics & Communication

Ludorative Acts: Questioning the Existence of Performative Acts in Video Games
SF. Luthfie Arguby Purnomo, SF. Lukfianka Sanjaya Purnama

Abstract
This paper aims at questioning the existence of performative acts in video games and proposing the presence of acts, for the purpose of this paper, called ludorative acts. To prove that ludorative acts are existent, the award-winning and commercially successful Konami’s Metal Gear Solid franchises are analyzed. The analyzed titles are Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot. The findings reveal that ludorative acts have four characteristics distinguishing the acts from performative acts. They are mechanistic-narrative, configurative, spatialmultimodal, and HCI (Human Computer Interaction)-Infovis (Information Visualization) bound. The emergence of these four characteristics from which ludorative acts are constructed roots from the fact that ludology, the science of play, and narratology, the study of narratives, are the primary substances of video games. The two substances are linguistically embodied through the appearance of two different language uses in video games. They are instruction based expressions, derived from the ludology of the video games, and narration based, rooted from the narratology of the video games.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijlc.v3n2a8