Aesthetic Theory and The Video Game by Graeme Kirkpatrick

DEFINITIONS:
Ludology - study of games and types of play
Narratology - study of narrative, narrative structure and how are perspective is affected.
Ergodicity - derived from the fusion of the greek words, 'ergon' meaning work and 'hodos' meaning path. "in ergodic literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text."
Noematic - of or relating to the understanding.

QUOTES:

"The overall argument is that ludology correctly identifies what is essential to the video game as a cultural object, namely, its character as a form of structured play."

"...the discussion here acknowledges the importance of meaning-oriented video game analyses, which have forced ludology to reflect on the differences between traditional games and their modern, digital variant."

"Scholars who emphasize the story element in games jump the gun when they assert that attention to meaning and to the story telling dimension of video games is the correct way to address the deficit in ludology's approach."

"...the way they structure the temporality of gameplay - its rhythms - opens up the possibility of a formal aesthetic method of video game criticism that does not re-centre analysis on the meanings of play as projected by the game's ostensible narrative content."