Ludic Activism

Research

An annotated bibliography on critical, political and Indigenous play, with a focus on Latin America and the Global South. Readings marked as open access can be downloaded for free.

Suggest a reading

Foundations

6
  • Huizinga, J. (1972). Homo ludens (E. Imaz, Trad.). Alianza. (Obra original publicada en 1938). — Play as a “magic circle” at the origin of culture, law and politics.
  • Caillois, R. (1986). Los juegos y los hombres: La máscara y el vértigo. Fondo de Cultura Económica. (Obra original publicada en 1958). — The typology of agon, alea, mimicry and ilinx, and the paidia/ludus distinction.
  • Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The ambiguity of play. Harvard University Press. — The “rhetorics” through which play has been thought, and the politics each one brings.
  • Sicart, M. (2014). Play matters. MIT Press. — Playing as a way of appropriating spaces.
  • Sicart, M. (2009). Mundos y sistemas: Entendiendo el diseño de la gameplay ética. Comunicación, 1(7), 45–61. Open access enlace — Sicart in Spanish, on the ethical decisions that rules raise.
  • Frasca, G. (2009). Juego, videojuego y creación de sentido: Una introducción. Comunicación, 1(7), 37–44. Open access enlace — An introductory reading, in Spanish.

Critical, political and persuasive play

19
  • Frasca, G. (2001). Videogames of the oppressed: Videogames as a means for critical thinking and debate [Tesis de maestría, Georgia Institute of Technology]. Open access PDF — Brings Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed to video games. A founding text of ludic activism.
  • Frasca, G. (2007). Play the message: Play, game and videogame rhetoric [Tesis doctoral, IT University of Copenhagen]. — The rhetoric of play.
  • Bogost, I. (2007). Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames. MIT Press. — “Procedural rhetoric”: games make arguments through their rules.
  • Bogost, I., Ferrari, S., & Schweizer, B. (2010). Newsgames: Journalism at play. MIT Press. — A typology of journalistic games.
  • Flanagan, M. (2009). Critical play: Radical game design. MIT Press. — Critical play in art and a design method for dissent.
  • Flanagan, M., & Nissenbaum, H. (2014). Values at play in digital games. MIT Press. — Designing with values; it has a free curriculum (see Tutorials).
  • Galloway, A. R. (2006). Gaming: Essays on algorithmic culture. University of Minnesota Press. — Coins “countergaming.”
  • Dyer-Witheford, N., & de Peuter, G. (2009). Games of empire: Global capitalism and video games. University of Minnesota Press. — A Marxist reading of the industry and of play as resistance.
  • Grace, L. D. (2019). Doing things with games: Social impact through play. CRC Press. Capítulo de muestra — A practical handbook of social impact games.
  • Pedercini, P. (2014, 14 de febrero). Videogames and the spirit of capitalism. Molleindustria. Open access enlace — How video games reproduce capitalist rationality.
  • Pedercini, P. (2014, 29 de abril). Making games in a fucked up world [Charla, Games for Change Festival]. Molleindustria. Open access enlace — A critique of institutional “games for change.”
  • Anthropy, A. (2012). Rise of the videogame zinesters. Seven Stories Press. — A manifesto for video games made by anyone.
  • Ruberg, B., & Shaw, A. (Eds.). (2017). Queer game studies. University of Minnesota Press.
  • Ruberg, B. (2019). Video games have always been queer. NYU Press. — Queerness in mechanics, failure and desire.
  • Gray, K. L., & Leonard, D. J. (Eds.). (2018). Woke gaming: Digital challenges to oppression and social injustice. University of Washington Press.
  • Romero, B. (2011). Gaming for understanding [Video]. TED. enlace — Presents Train and the series The Mechanic is the Message.
  • Davies, H. (2022). The revolution will not be gamified: Video game activism and playful resistance across the Sinosphere. British Journal of Chinese Studies, 12(2), 76–100. https://doi.org/10.51661/bjocs.v12i2.200 Open access — Protests inside Animal Crossing and protest games in Hong Kong and China.
  • Perani, L. (2007). O lúdico no ativismo global. Contemporânea, (9). Open access PDF — In Portuguese. One of the first texts to use “ativismo lúdico” (ludic activism), on culture jamming and the Rebel Clown Army. It stands as a precedent for the term.
  • Carrubba, L. (2018). El videojuego como dispositivo tecnopolítico: El caso de «Juegos del Común». Icono 14, 16(1), 212–237. https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v16i1.1131 Open access — In Spanish. Workshops for the collective creation of video games about the commons.

Latin America and the Global South

13
  • Jaramillo, M. (2024). Protest video games in the popular uprising in Chile: Analysis of their discourses and contributions to the discussion on political video games in contemporary social movements. En Abstract Proceedings of DiGRA 2024 Conference: Playgrounds. https://doi.org/10.26503/dl.v2024i2.2346 Open access — Protest games from the 2019 uprising. It speaks directly to the site's Chilean catalog.
  • Penix-Tadsen, P. (2016). Cultural code: Video games and Latin America. MIT Press.
  • Penix-Tadsen, P. (Ed.). (2019). Video games and the Global South. ETC Press. Open access descarga
  • Hargreaves Bueno, A., & Argo Chávez, M. A. (2025). Game studies en Sudamérica: Problematizando los estudios sobre juegos en la región. Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación, (271), 29–48. Open access PDF — A map of open-access research in South America between 2013 and 2023. Useful for continuing to expand this list.
  • Contreras-Espinosa, R. S., & Eguía-Gómez, J. L. (2024). Videojuegos en Iberoamérica. InCom-UAB Publicacions. Open access PDF — Ten countries, including Chile, Argentina and Peru; foreword by Gonzalo Frasca.
  • López, B., Contreras Espinosa, R. S., & Frías, J. (2024). Explorando las dimensiones de los videojuegos y la investigación contemporánea en Latinoamérica [Editorial]. Obra Digital, (26), 10–12. https://doi.org/10.25029/od.2024.441.26 Open access — Introduces a Latin American special issue.
  • Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. (2019). Los videojuegos no son un juego. BID. Open access enlace — Industry context, not critical.
  • Navarro-Remesal, V. (2016). Libertad dirigida: Una gramática del análisis y diseño de videojuegos. Shangrila. — Versión de tesis Open access en TDX.
  • Navarro-Remesal, V. (Ed.). (2020). Pensar el juego: 25 caminos para los game studies. Shangrila.
  • Planells de la Maza, A. J. (2015). Videojuegos y mundos de ficción: De Super Mario a Portal. Cátedra.
  • Pérez Latorre, Ó. (2012). El lenguaje videolúdico: Análisis de la significación del videojuego. Laertes.
  • Cuadrado Alvarado, A., & Planells de la Maza, A. J. (2020). Ficción y videojuegos: Teoría y práctica de la ludonarración. Editorial UOC. — Useful for writing workshops with Twine or ink.
  • Esnaola Horacek, G., & Levis, D. (2009). Videojuegos en redes sociales: Aprender desde experiencias óptimas. Comunicación, 1(7), 265–279. Open access — Two Argentine references.

Indigenous games, decolonization and precursors

12
  • LaPensée, E. A., Laiti, O., & Longboat, M. (2022). Towards sovereign games. Games and Culture, 17(3), 328–343. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211029195 Open access versión autoarchivada — Indigenous sovereignty as a design principle.
  • LaPensée, E. A. (2014). Survivance: An Indigenous social impact game [Tesis doctoral, Simon Fraser University]. Open access enlace
  • LaPensée, E. (Ed.). (2017). Indigenous gaming [Número especial]. Transmotion, 3(1). Open access enlace
  • Laiti, O. (2021). Old ways of knowing, new ways of playing: The potential of collaborative game design to empower Indigenous Sámi [Tesis doctoral, University of Lapland]. Open access enlace
  • Lewis, J. E., & Fragnito, S. T. (2005). Aboriginal territories in cyberspace. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 29(2). Open access enlace
  • Lameman, B. A., Lewis, J. E., & Fragnito, S. (2010). Skins 1.0: A curriculum for designing games with First Nations youth. En Proceedings of Futureplay '10. ACM. — Artículo Open access en AbTeC.
  • Meneses, G. P. (2017). Knowledge in play: The creation of the video game Huni Kuin: Yube Baitana. GIS – Gesture, Image and Sound, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2525-3123.gis.2017.129176 Open access — Authorship and rights in co-creation with the Huni Kuin people.
  • Lewis, J. E., Abdilla, A., Arista, N., et al. (2020). Indigenous protocol and artificial intelligence position paper. Open access enlace
  • Dillon, G. L. (Ed.). (2012). Walking the clouds: An anthology of Indigenous science fiction. University of Arizona Press. — Coins “Indigenous futurisms.”
  • Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogía del oprimido (2.ª ed.). Siglo XXI. (Obra original publicada en 1968).
  • Boal, A. (1974). Teatro del oprimido y otras poéticas políticas. Ediciones de la Flor.
  • Boal, A. (2002). Juegos para actores y no actores. Alba.

Readings: Sub-Saharan Africa

3
  • Randle, O., & Bayeck, R. Y. (2025). A qualitative content analysis of African video games developed by students. The International Journal of Games and Social Impact, 3(2), 134–161. https://doi.org/10.60543/ijgsi.v3.n2.06 — Enlace Open access
  • Bayeck, R. Y., Bayeck, J. M., & Randle, O. (2025). Getting in good troubles with mancala. Analog Game Studies, 12(4). — Enlace Open access. Critica el uso de "mancala" como etiqueta genérica que borra la historia de juegos africanos concretos.
  • van der Merwe, R. L. (2021). From global to national: Mapping the trajectory of the South African video game industry. En H. S. Dunn et al. (Eds.), Re-imagining communication in Africa and the Caribbean (cap. 8). Palgrave Macmillan. — Enlace Open access (versión en repositorio)

Readings: Middle East and North Africa

4
  • Šisler, V. (2008). Digital Arabs: Representation in video games. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 11(2), 203–220. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek Open access
  • Šisler, V. (2023). Theoretical and methodological framework for studying video games and orientalism. CyberOrient, 17(2), 4–56. PDF Open access
  • Pöllänen, S., & Arjoranta, J. (2021). 'Whose were those feelings?': Affect and likenessing in Halat hisar live action role-playing game. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(6), 899–916. PDF Open access
  • Sezen, T. I., & Sezen, D. (2016). Designing and playing to protest: Looking back to Gezi games. En Gamer Psychology and Behavior (pp. 73–88). Springer. Registro

Readings: South Asia

4
  • Zeiler, X., & Mukherjee, S. (2022). Video game development in India: A cultural and creative industry embracing regional cultural heritage(s). Games and Culture, 17(4), 509–527. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211045143 — PDF en CORE Open access
  • Mukherjee, S. (2022). Videogames in the Indian subcontinent: Development, culture(s) and representations. Bloomsbury. — Libro pagado; reseña de X. Zeiler en CyberOrient 17(1), 2023 Open access
  • Zeiler, X. (2018). Interview with Satyajit Chakraborty, founder of Flying Robot Studios, Kolkata, India. gamevironments, 8. Enlace Open access
  • Mukherjee, S. (2020, 15 de septiembre). Gyan chaupar to snakes and ladders: How a game about a karmic journey became a plaything for kids. Scroll.in. Enlace Open access — Complemento: Srivastava, M. (s. f.). How gyan chaupar became snakes and ladders in British India. Sahapedia. Enlace Open access

Readings: East and Southeast Asia

5
  • Trigo Maldonado, Á. (2025). Narrativas en los videojuegos coreanos: exploración del trauma histórico a través de la memoria interactiva. Artnodes, 35, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.7238/ARTNODES.35.423991 — ficha Open access
  • Garg, A., Pujari, J. P., & Namboothiri, A. (2024). Digital narratives of oppression: Surveillance and control in Detention and Devotion depicting Taiwan during the White Terror. Acta Ludologica, 7(2), 64–79. https://doi.org/10.34135/actaludologica.2024-7-2.64-79 — artículo Open access
  • Tse, J. W. T. (2022). Games as historical representations: The present/presence in the past. British Journal of Chinese Studies, 12(2), 63–69. https://doi.org/10.51661/bjocs.v12i2.188 — artículo Open access (número especial "Games and Gaming in China and the Sinophone World")
  • Moreno Cantano, A. C. (2019). ACNUR y la promoción de los derechos humanos a través de videojuegos: El caso de Finding Home. Historia Actual Online, 49, 21–32. — ficha Open access
  • Radde-Antweiler, K. (2018). Interview with Kurt Prieto, games designer of Boo! Dead Ka! game. gamevironments, 8, 58–62. — PDF Open access (número especial "Video Game Development in Asia: Voices from the Field")

Readings: Oceania, Pacific and Caribbean

4
  • Mancini, H. (2018). Mā te rongo ka mohio: Māori Pā Wars and Kaupapa Māori methodology at the interface of video games. Back Story Journal of New Zealand Art, Media & Design History, (5), 71–85. Enlace Open access
  • Jankowski, F. (2022). What is a game autrice? The auteur theory and female game developers (Muriel Tramis's example). Proceedings of DiGRA 2022. Enlace Open access
  • Sepinwall, A. G. (2021, 13 de diciembre). Downloadable context: Why a historian of Haiti came to study video games. Age of Revolutions. Enlace Open access — resume su libro Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games, cuyo último capítulo trata los juegos de Tramis. Reseña del libro: Brewer, 2023, World History Connected, 20(3).
  • Loban, R. (2022). Torres Strait Virtual Reality: A reflection on the intersection between culture, game design and research. Games and Culture, 17(3), 311–327. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211020383 Ficha en repositorio (no es de acceso abierto)

Readings: Europe

3
  • Švelch, J. (2018). Gaming the Iron Curtain: How teenagers and amateurs in communist Czechoslovakia claimed the medium of computer games. MIT Press. Estudia los juegos activistas anónimos de fines de los ochenta. Ficha C2DH
  • Ruffino, P. (2018). Future gaming: Creative interventions in video game culture. Goldsmiths Press. Open access OAPEN
  • de la Hera, T., Jansz, J., Raessens, J., & Schouten, B. (Eds.). (2021). Persuasive gaming in context. Amsterdam University Press. Open access (CC BY-NC-ND) OAPEN

Readings: North America

5
  • Phillips, A. (2020). Gamer trouble: Feminist confrontations in digital culture. NYU Press. Apple Books
  • Malkowski, J., & Russworm, T. M. (Eds.). (2017). Gaming representation: Race, gender, and sexuality in video games. Indiana University Press. IU Press
  • Huddelston, S. (2022). When worlds collaborate: The style of early tabletop roleplaying games. Analog Game Studies, 9(4). Open access eScholarship
  • Baker, M. (2022). An analysis of the literature surrounding the intersection of role-playing games, race, and identity. International Journal of Role-Playing, 12, 22–39. Open access IJRP
  • Sarah. (2013, 1 de mayo). Autis(i)m & representation. First Person Scholar. Open access First Person Scholar