I’m going to use my own blog entry called, “Procedural Rhetoric and Maintaining Order!” to reflect upon the first part of the book. Bogost talks a lot about “Procedural Rhetoric” and how video games incorporate it. I really like how Bogost uses rules as a form of expression because it only makes us think in different ways. I believe that video games all contain a procedure that is pre-inputted by the game designer.
One specific example that I found interesting was the game called, “Tax Invaders” because of how simple it looks, but the game meaning is very detailed. The game uses tax strategy as a key concept and the player has to use a procedure in order to get through the game. Bogost also explains “procedural media” (Bogost 52) and how play is incorporated into it.
There are some parts of the first section that I found hard to understand. This first concept is on page 60 and uses “Fogg’s suggestions about persuasive technology” (Bogost 60). The six terms differ from Bogost’s ideology because they do not make the user see the procedures involved in technology. The “Political Processes” chapter was very interesting to me because of the game BioChemFX. This is because the game gives a simulation of a possible negative event.
Overall, Bogost presents many ideas and questions that are interesting to consider such as “Persuasive Games versus Serious Games.” Not only does he give explanations about every idea, but he provides the reader with examples of video games that relate to the specific topic.
Some questions for the class I thought would be interesting:
1. Is technology a persuasive tool that uses specific ideas to influence society?
2. Are text-based adventure games considered "Procedural Rhetoric" Or "Persuasive?"
These are just a few ideas that I think would be interesting to consider for the first part of Bogost.