Thursday 8 March 2007

Rhetoric

Digital Games are seen by many as promoting immoral behaviour, aggression, and violent reactions to conflict. Some believe that digital games encourage and, reinforce violent reactions, and that the interaction with the game means they are more likely to replicate these actions in the real life (Emes, C. E 1997). This opinion linked with the rhetoric within the games.
Rhetoric is basically persuasive language. It is used by a writer/speaker (consciously/unconsciously) to try and convince their reader/audience of their beliefs and values. Rhetoric can vary greatly from being very subtle to being very crude e.g. Dr Spock says “most computer games are a colossal waste of time” (Spock. B. 1998), this comment leaves no doubt as to what the writer wants us to think. However, Rhetoric doesn’t have to be spoken/written, it can be visual and behavioural as well e.g. Protesting against cruelty to animals shows the beliefs of the protestor. Giving another example of non-verbal rhetoric, is in the trailer for ‘Moral Kombat’, where ominous music and violent footage indicates the rhetoric nature of the documentary (that digital games are bad and turn people into violent people). As with many other areas, rhetoric can be found within computer games themselves. Some kind of value can be found in all games. For example, in ‘Tetris’, as a puzzle solving game, put a value on thinking through problems, while the opposite can be said about ‘Soulcalibur 2’, as a fighting game it places a value on fighting rather then and beating people up, reinforced by rewarding you with better weapons. So the rhetoric of ‘Tetris’ is to use your brain to think through problems while the opposite applies to ‘Soulcalibur 2’, which encourages violent reactions.

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