I thought I would link a few more examples of games with clear procedural rhetoric--that is, games that make an argument through their very mechanics. One is "Darfur is Dying," which won the mtvU Darfur Digital Activist Contest a couple of years ago:
Darfur is Dying
The other is a game called "September 12th" that makes the point that retaliation is not the answer:
September 12th
I'll let you guys figure out how these games make their arguments. Remember, pay close attention to the consequences of player action (and inaction), difficulty, and types of operations.
Lastly, I want to also say that a game does not have to have an explicit political message, like these, to make some kind of argument. I would argue that sometimes even the most seemingly inconsequential games make startling arguments about the way our society should be, including gender roles, race relations, etc.
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I tried playing September 12 and it's a very interesting game. I recommend that everyone give it a shot, so to speak.
ReplyDeletePlaying these games kind of makes me overlook the rhetoric within them. I am terrible at playing video games (never really found them of interest) and so concentrate too much, I think. But if I just open the screen an observe, it works out better in my favor.
ReplyDeleteI attempted playing Darfur is dying, for example, and got hit by a car within four seconds. I'm not sure if this enhances the rhetoric of the games or just shows how awful I am at playing them.
ReplyDeleteJordan, don't worry! I'm sure you're not the only one that is thinking "Ack! I'm so bad at games" or even "Games are stupid." Remember, there's nothing to say that you have to like games to analyze them... in fact, sometimes I find that the people that are the most attached to games find it the most difficult to look past their childhood connections to games to see that there is something going on there beyond shooting and running and mashing buttons.
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