Gonzalo Frasca

Who is Gonzalo Frasca?

Gonzalo Frasca is a game designer and academic researcher focusing on serious and political videogames. His weblog, Ludology.org, was an important publication during the early 2000s for academic researchers studying video games. The concept of ludology refers to the study of the videogame medium in terms of its defining aspects, such as game rule and mechanics. For many years, Frasca also co-published Watercoolergames with Ian Bogost, a blog about serious games.

Frasca was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he established Powerful Robot Games, a videogame studio. In video game theory, Frasca belongs to the group of so-called "ludologists", who consider video games to be simulations based on rules. They see video games as the first simulational media for the masses - which means a paradigm shift in media consumption and production.

Frasca's game studies are evolved from the work of Norwegian game academic Espen J. Aarseth. Beginning in December 2004, Frasca has studied games at the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen. He received his PhD in Videogames studies on August 2007.

His most famous game is the art game, September 12, a response to the 9/11 attacks. It's based on the political argument that a direct military response will only increase the likelihood of further terrorist attacks on the West. In spite of being controversial at its launch, it is now recognized as a notable early example of both political videogame and newsgame. In 2009 it received a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Knight Foundation. Frasca is also credited with coining the term Newsgame to refer to a videogame based on real, newsworthy events.