After, I got back from class today, I wanted to explore the McDonald's simulation game a bit more. I started off by reading their instructions to see how to be "successful"... they use pretty strong written rhetoric in addition to the procedural rhetoric we find throughout the game:
"Agricultural sector:
If we had to rear all the cattle we need in our part of the world, our cities would drown in an ocean of cow shit. Pastures and soy culture need a lot of land and South America is one of the best places for it. Obviously you have to conquer your land as our forefathers did. Remember the old saying:
'under every forest there is a lawn. "'
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Alysha: Glad you explored the game further! Though I think the written rhetoric in the tutorial is clearly parodic, meant as a scathing critique of McDonald's corporate practices, I think the more interesting thing to notice is how different the same arguments are when put in textual vs. procedural form. It's one thing to say "this is what you should do" and it's another to actually force a player to make certain unethical decisions if they want to "win" the game.
ReplyDelete