I had somewhat of a challenge picking a game for the upcoming project. The challenging part wasn't really finding a game that contained examples of rhetoric – it was finding examples of rhetoric that made (or lent itself to) a strong, concrete argument. I could argue that any video game in the world from Tetris to Call of Duty: Black Ops exhibits rhetoric, it's just that most games I have played do not have very strong messages conveyed by said rhetoric. I further complicated matters for myself by limiting my search to commercial video games which, unlike “serious” games, tend not to have an obvious rhetorical argument.
I eventually happened to remember some commercial games I have played that had interesting examples of procedural rhetoric – specifically, games that forced me, the player, to make in-game decisions that changed the outcome of the game or modified gameplay or gameplay mechanics. One of those games is called inFamous. In inFamous, I play a person named Cole who gains electric/lightning powers after being caught in a nuclear explosion of some sort. In the open world of his city, Cole can use his powers to do good or bad things, like choosing to save a group of people from certain death, or letting them die and stealing their resources.
I found the way inFamous used these in-game decisions very interesting because not only does it force you to make decisions (which is an element most commercial games lack) these decisions actually change the gameplay. Doing good or bad actions changes your “karma” in the game. If your karma becomes good enough, you get certain powers and unlockables, and if your karma becomes bad enough, you get different powers and unlockables. Also, at the climax of the game, you have to make a final decision that changes the entire outcome of the game.
For this project, my goal is to play through the entire game (with assistance from some of my gamer friends if necessary) twice – once by doing all good decisions, and one by doing all bad, and examining the differences between good Cole and bad Cole.
I have never played inFamous myslelf so I would be incapable of commenting on your choice for a game, but the description of the game that you throw the reader's way makes it sound like something fun and interesting.
ReplyDeleteI feel your approach to the analysis necessary for the report is extremist. I'm not saying that is a bad thing and given the time constraint, its probably a better idea. But I think that if you drew some conclusions from a balanced gameplay (maybe whatever you remember from the last time you played) it would render your paper more effectiveness.
Other than that, I think the game does indeed exhibit a fair amount of rhetoric that if you were to explain in detail, you would have a ridiculously extensive paper. Choose your points of focus carefully.
And I hope you have the best of luck with your writing endeavor.
(ENGL 106)