There are lots of other games that seem to try to deliver a message, teach a lesson, or change an attitude. They’re often categorized as “serious games” or “games for change” or evenjust educational games. But can players tell when these games are trying to employ various rhetorical devices and strategies? And given that games are unique among all forms of media that might try to do this kind of thing, can a game do so by having people play the game? Can and do people pick up on a game’s rhetoric based on its systems, its mechanics, and its gameplay in the absence of flat-out explaining its message? Or in conjunction with it?
These are the kinds of questions I will be answering on this episode with the help of my guest expert.
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Links:
Audio Credits:
- “Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
- Satisfactory Dev Highlight Music by Sleeper’s Delight
