Rhetorical foundations of procedurally generated game worlds

The PC and console video game market have overtaken Hollywood movies as the number one source of entertainment dollars spent in North America. Very little work has been done to date on the effects that these games are having on (particularly young) players. This project will take well established rhetorical principles (Burke, Fahnestock, Perlman) that have been applied to the analysis of many other multi-media entertainment products and try to build a framework for a video game rhetoric. Rhetoric itself has been thought of for over 2000 years as dangerous based on the possibility of nefarious uses of persuasion. By critically investigating games under well-established rhetorical paradigms we can better understand how this new media is influencing its user base.

Faculty Supervisor:

Neil Randall

Student:

Adam Bradley

Partner:

Stitch Media

Discipline:

Literature

Sector:

Digital media

University:

University of Waterloo