I have never written a blog before, so here goes nothing…
Hmm…I suppose my first one will have to be a reaction to our first reading assignment. Not the most exciting first blog, but it will be fun.
First of all, videogames are not a “child’s medium”. Clearly, games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill are gauged to more mature audiences. Such things I would never allow my child to play those games until he or she is in their late teens. Videogames do bring people together, as well as having a social purpose. Any time someone walks into a mall across America, once can spot the “young people” gathered around in the arcade, dancing like maniacs. Games like DDR and classics like Marvel vs. Capcom, allow for multiple players and many watchers. They are as much fun to watch as they are to play. This creates a very social environment, in which social skills arw built, as well as eye-hand coordination skills.
Rhetoric has so many definitions, but I think this one applies the best to his idea of visual rhetoric: the art of influencing the thought and conduct of an audience. (dictionary.com) Videogame rhetoric is all about influence and its messages, whether they be visual, or verbal, or by any other medium. By making the dialogue crude and course, one can easily be placed in a harsher world than their own. Combind that with the antagonist being a tough man with chisled body, completes the fanatsy.
