Analysing games as systems of rules and play: mechanics, goals, feedback, and what players actually do.
Key thinkers: Jesper Juul, Ian Bogost, Miguel Sicart
The longer story
Ludological analysis examines games as systems—rules, mechanics, spaces, goals. Not what games mean but how they work as rule-bound play. Jesper Juul's 'half-real' captures games' tension between real rules and fictional worlds. What choices does the game offer? What does it make possible or impossible? What skills does it reward? Procedural rhetoric—how rules make arguments—extends the analysis to persuasion. If you're studying games, you need to play them analytically, attending to system not just story.