Organization
Parts I and II address “Game Rhetorics and Ecologies,” respectively, by detailing how interactive, freeform titles allow invention and composition. Role-playing games, or RPGs, such as City of Heroes and Mass Effect 3 are provided as examples to lead discourse on particular methods in which the player crafts a rhetoric around their immersive play. As an individual well versed in the medium, I appreciated the divide noted between Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs, or MMORPGs, and Action RPGs to showcase how choices and immersion differ between a single player and multiplayer experience. Such a distinction permits the collection to pave the way for less apparent parallels to the world of literacy and the multiple types of play. The editors acknowledge this untapped role of video games as effective learning tools in a natural setting through the inclusion of, “They (video games) have mechanical, character, and social/interaction gaming literacies, even if they don’t realize they are utilizing critical thinking skills, rhetorical strategies, and composing well-crafted texts as part of their hobby,” in the chapter “What Do You Mean None of My Choices Matter?” (p. 94). In addition, Chapter 3 acts as a solid transition into the following section, which calls upon the concepts of “paidia” and “ludus”, which represent spontaneous and unstructured forms of play, respectively. Establishing variations of terminology grants the reader necessary knowledge that can be applied into the more familiar territory of writing outside the confines of a game explored in Part II.
Of special significance is Part III, which examines “Games as Rhetorical Production” with chapters covering how games design spaces where writing and rhetoric can be birthed. Chapter 9 investigates the popular World of Warcraft clip “Leeroy Jenkins!” to assert how players need to expand their definitions of writing to include passionate expression to better draw connections in a classroom setting. In Chapter 10, the topic is shifted more toward the theme of the part with creative gaming culture through machinima, a format centered on fan-made videos that remix video games to add a fresh or comedic twist. Author Wendi Sierra makes the case that, “Using machinima in the classroom offers teachers and students a chance to look beyond the screen, so to speak, and explore the theories and assertions that many contemporary theorists make a new media” (p. 215). In particular, tackling possible applications in the typical classroom setting and the role that teachers play in further understanding through the examples of games provides an overall thoroughly explored part.
This collection closes with Part IV, “Writing Games”, and reviews the common notion that players might attach writing to within the gaming industry. The benefit to this part is the multiple angles that the section tackles through its incorporated chapters, which include writing story and gameplay-based material. Notable are chapters 16 and 17 due to their compelling analysis of superficial versus fundamental elements of a game’s construction as well as the amount of depth as dictated by the player. Brian Ladd hones in on the preference of students to invest their efforts into the surface level material that gives the experience luster rather than the substance. Yet, professors should adapt their assignments to accommodate for this impulse as a method of making the experience feel united. This notion bleeds into the following chapters where depth and respect for the game’s content can be created through these deeper level implementations. Brandes Stoddard provides the example of grand RPGs to demonstrate how these “shiny” features, such as flavor text, can pave the way toward the deeper aspects when he presents, “Flavor text is the writing that hangs out at the edges of the game, providing further context for those players who are motivated to engage with the game’s setting more deeply” (p. 344). The placement of these chapters allows for this central idea to be presented and used as a key that recommends adaptive teaching to professors. This concept of flexible education and adjusting lessons around the player’s inquisitive nature is explored until the collection’s finale, which provides a solid conclusion to the aforementioned parts.