AN EXPLORATION OF VIDEO GAMES ON INFORMATION SCIENCE AND THE MESSAGES THEY CAN CONVEY

Abstract

The evolution of video games from their humble beginnings as simple arcade games to the current global phenomenon that they are today has been a remarkable development over the last few decades. With the economic impact and pop culture influence that video games have had, there is no denying the widespread growth and success that they have experienced over the last few decades. As time has passed, they have also become far more advanced and intricate providing many more possibilities to portray various ideas and creative expressions. Seeing how video games have emerged as a popular form of entertainment, they have attracted the attention of artists and scholars alike as a potential medium for conveying information and messages. This honors thesis project explores the potential of video games through the use of information science to see how they can be utilized to convey messages and ideas. To this end, a small-scale video game was created as the main focus of this project. The game revolves around ideas related to secretive military operations and government conspiracies in a time of global conflict which provides a way to subvert the perception of players. It puts them in a situation where the line between what is real and what is not is blurred and players must think for themselves to find a way to uncover the truth.