Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
of MMOG design, that all players begin the game at roughly the same sta-
tus, is the belief that the cream should be able to rise to the top. This frames
discourse about design and play in online games, creating a self-reinforcing
cycle where players are encouraged to earn rewards to prove their worth to
others and 'properly' succeed in the game. Critiquing the perception that vir-
tual worlds are somehow more fair, balanced, and equitable than the ol ine
world, wordplay examines the dynamics that make these games popular and
how the design of games connects to their rhetorical presentation. Within
the context of the section, analyzing the role of balance connects a variety
of elements of the discourse of video games, including the role of designers,
players, and in-game and out-of-game text.
Part III:
Using Wordplay
Chapter 10:
Words, Design, and Play
To conclude the development of wordplay as a critical tool, it is necessary
to bring the threads of gaming, words, design, and play together. Paying
attention to how wordplay helps leverage the resources of rhetorical analy-
sis, examining words, design, and play facilitates a discussion of how video
games work, what video games mean, and how video games both construct
and are constructed culturally. By understanding wordplay and the dis-
course of video games, scholars gain a useful set of tools for their analyti-
cal work, developers gain an understanding of the myriad forces impacting
their games, and gamers gain the critical, refl ective skills to analyze the
games they play.
Wordplay takes advantage of a rhetorical perspective, while freeing itself
from the negative connotations of the word 'rhetoric.' Wordplay takes note
of procedural rhetoric's focus on what makes video games distinct, but
does so in a way that can also account for the words in and around games.
Wordplay blends rhetorical analysis with game studies to analyze the whole
of the discourse of video games by examining how video games are con-
structed as cultural objects through their words, design, and play.
In sum, the upcoming chapters in this topic navigate the terrain of dis-
course inside of and surrounding games to map why things ranging from
patch jackets to the early morning alarms to boss fi ghts matter. Each case
study has been selected to help articulate the larger context of the discourse
of video games and why wordplay is a key part of understanding how games
leverage words, design, and play to create meaning, facilitate identifi cation
and division, persuade, and circulate ideas.
