I enjoyed the reading for this week. In this first chapter of his book, Ian Bogost states that in procedural rhetoric “arguments are made not through the construction of words or images, but through the authorship of rules of behavior, the construction of dynamic models” (29). A statement by which he means that the actions which players engage in are ultimately more influential than the words or images present. While reading Bogost, I thought of the game September 12th: A Toy World, a serious game where it is just as important to do something in the game as it is to do nothing. Curious after his discussion of the McDonald’s game (29-31), I decided to play it. It immediately reminded me of Farmville, but the click-based time-sink game had several serious messages about corporations and politics. So much of the content on the Games for Change site embrace the procedural rhetoric/persuasive games ideology that Bogost discusses in the chapter (most of the book as well).

You can play McD’s here: http://www.mcvideogame.com/index.html

You can play September 12th here: http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/september-12th-a-toy-world/