Procedural Rhetoric Bogost

1
Procedural Rhetoric (Bogost)

• 4
• Unless otherwise specified, the ideas and
  concepts in this ppt are either quoted or cited
  from Bogosts Persuasive Games

2
Procedural Rhetoric

• Definition
• Procedural rhetoric is the practice of using
  processes persuasively, just as verbal rhetoric
  is the practice of using oratory persuasively and
  visual rhetoric is the practice of using images
  persuasively.
• Procedural rhetoric is a general name for the
  practice of authoring arguments through
  processes.
• Following the classical model, procedural
  rhetoric entails persuasionto change opinion or
  action. Following the contemporary model,
  procedural rhetoric entails expressionto convey
  ideas effectively.

3
Procedural Rhetoric

• Procedural rhetoric is a subdomain of procedural
  authorship its arguments are made not through
  the construction of words or images, but through
  the authorship of rules of behavior, the
  construction of dynamic models. In computation,
  those rules are authored in code, through the
  practice of programming.

4
McDonalds Videogame

• Using McDonalds Videogame as an example
  (Bogost 29-31 a brief intro of the game).The
  game, according to Bogost, tries to persuade you
  by way of process (or participatory interaction
  in Ryans terms)
• The McDonalds Videogame mounts a procedural
  rhetoric about the necessity of corruption in the
  global fast food business, and the overwhelming
  temptation of greed, which leads to more
  corruption.

5
MV the beginning, 2000
6
MV 2012Profit plusPasture dying
7
MV 2013Profit plusCounteracts A slanderous
videogame self-reflective?
8
MV 2016Profit plusSupervising One of the
workers is not smiling
9
MV game lost (2016)Is it a winless game? TBT.
10
G!rl Power Retouch and Freaky Flakes

• G!rl Power Retouch and Freaky Flakes fail to
  fully fulfill their respective procedural
  argument.
• The piece makes claims about the process of
  retouching, which is itself facilitated by the
  procedural affordances of image editing software
  like Adobe Photoshop. However, Retouch does not
  deploy a procedural rhetoric, since it does not
  use representational processes to explain the
  actual processes used in photo retouching.

11
G!rl Power Retouch
12
Freaky Flakes

• The argument Freaky Flakes mounts is more
  procedural than Retouch, but only incrementally
  so. The user recombines elements to configure a
  cereal box, but he chooses from a very small
  selection of individual configurations. Freaky
  Flakes is designed for younger users than
  Retouch, but the children who watch PBS Kids also
  likely play videogames much more complex than
  this simple program. Most importantly, Freaky
  Flakes fails to integrate the process of
  designing a cereal box with the supermarket where
  children might actually encounter it.

13
Freaky Flakes Begin to select
14
Freaky Flakes Job done after 5 steps.
15
A flashback

• MV the result on the go depends on the player
  GP the result is ready-made. FF the result is
  made out of a limited selection of options.
• Only games with win-lose structure (or a winless
  game) are capable of mounting procedural
  rhetoric, while play (such as G!rlpower and
  Freaky Flake) does not offer the required
  situation for the specific rhetoric to emerge?
• Def of play and games.