Super Mario 64

Let’s Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us9SbwqlWlI&index=15&list=PL2DxTTRCgIYUJoaJmZREDzx4i7HlCiSME
Speedrun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qM278YSN2s&list=PLjLL281mHfFLiO00DhgQR5UumwLHx82k2&index=3
(Starts about 2 minutes in. King Bob-Omb fight starts around 20 minute mark; you don’t have to skip right to it. Around the 40 minute mark he breaks the game with his play)

Super Mario Land 2: Yoshi’s Island

Let’s Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT00aCO-qPI&list=PL2DxTTRCgIYUJoaJmZREDzx4i7HlCiSME&index=14
Speedrun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOrA91_xg4M&list=PLjLL281mHfFLiO00DhgQR5UumwLHx82k2&index=4

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Let’s Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJax0YPEDLA
Speedrun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7IINwTFVw&index=1&list=PL2DxTTRCgIYUJoaJmZREDzx4i7HlCiSME

Activity: Take out a piece of paper, turn it horizontal, and write play at one end and rhetoric at another. As your team discusses the questions, map each term and look for connection points where possible.

1. Bogost says that gamified “exploitationware” replaces reciprocal relationships between games and people with one-way, mindless connections. What relationships and connections have you formed to you favorite games and why? What relationships are on display in the gameplay videos you’re watching? How does that contribute to meaning? Also, Bogost’s argument relies on a fairly shallow definition of rhetoric. If you want to discuss/vent about Bogost for a bit and report back to the class about that, I welcome it.
2. Schrimer compares play to techne, a loaded term in classical rhetoric that translates loosely craft or art, in that play is flexible while reaching a linear destination, acquirable in specific context, and fulfills some creative desire through attention to form and content. How is the play in these video creative,  artful, or inventive? Does the comparison to craft ring true to any of your experiences playing your favorite game?
3. These games are, admittedly, not the best to talk about queer identities and gender performance in-game and out, but that doesn’t mean they are the worst, either. Broadly, a (good?) game can let the player express something about themselves through play. How do these players express something about themselves or “write”  through playing them, either through role-play or interpretive action? What “Style” of player are you and how do you express that through play in games?
4. Owens’s article about Mr. Moo and RPGMakerVS.net highlights the processes specialized communities go through to produce knowledge and critique for productive ends. What aspects of community are on display here and how do they contribute to the play in these videos?
5. In what ways are or aren’t the previous readings we’ve done on games, learning, and rhetoric apparent in this book or not? What about the videos?
6. How does this book treat rhetoric? Is it’s treatment of game studies satisfying? How does your own conception of rhetoric reflected or not in this book? How about play?