An Exploration of Agency in Videogames =Uma exploração da agência em videojogo

The main contribution in the present thesis is a concretization of an Agency perspective of videogame design. The thesis describes design research carried out on videogame design and Agency. This design research process was for theory-building: the construction and evaluation of a design artifact as a theory-instrument (the concretization of an Agency perspective of videogame design), containing prescriptive knowledge. The aim was to open up further exploration of Agency in videogames through design research, at the level of prescriptive knowledge. Knowledge at this level is underdeveloped for Agency in videogames. The founding conjecture in the present thesis is that videogame design can be decisively helped through the availability of a concretization of an Agency perspective of videogame design. The thesis seeks to make such a concretization available.;The thesis describes the state-of-the-art for Agency (in a meaning of the term that can concern prescriptive knowledge and videogame design). The thesis then states the understanding of Agency it follows in making its contributions, and combines it with the notion of a contract at the heart of interactive works. The thesis corroborates its understanding of Agency with a systematic literature review. The thesis follows a five-phase inductive-deductive process of design research, involving a tentative design, hypotheses about that design's performance in solving a design research problem, and tentative explanations for that performance.;The thesis presents the rationale for its founding conjecture, which is also the proposal for artifact construction through design research. This proposal provides an operationalization of the thesis' understanding of Agency, which in turn yields an instantiation of that understanding. The thesis then describes a novel structural treatment of videogames organized around that instantiation. This structural treatment is the concretization of an Agency perspective of videogame design, and is evaluated in accordance with design research through a series of hypothetical videogame design situations. How this opens up further exploration and research is then discussed.