Jeroen Bourgonjon - REFL - Exploring the rhetoric of change

24/08/2014
Exploring the rhetoric of
change in (online) discussion
about video games.
www.cultureeducation.ugent.be
Jeroen.Bourgonjon@UGent.be
equipment for living that size
up situations in various ways and
refer to corresponding attitudes
(Burke 1973)
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Sherlock Holmes
Mario
Games will challenge researchers
to develop new analytical tools and
will become a new type of
equipment for living
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Agent
Scene
Purpose
Act
Agency
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equipment for living that size
up situations in various ways and
refer to corresponding attitudes
(Burke 1973)
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Discussion fora
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42 discussions
1881
3 coders
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They really have helped
with my depression at
times, and I was also a
lonely kid so way back then
they were particularly helpful.
It sounds silly, but exposing myself to a lot of video games,
books, and movies since I was young has certainly affected
my outlook on life and worldview. Many people scoff at
the archetypal hero and the notions he or she throws
around, but those are things I've internalized and worked
into the way I see
don't know what is.
things. If that's not a positive impact, I
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For me, games like Dead Space 1 and
MGS3 made me realize that women
can't be trusted with nothing b.
it helps me relax, laugh when I'm
playing with friends and forget
the problems at times.
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To me, gaming is mostly about
relaxing, relieve stress and
get a little lost in world
different from the real one,
where you don’t have to worry
about pretty much anything..
ICO. It took me to a place
where books, film, and my
own imagination had not.
the chrono series spurred
my interest in time
travel and parallel
dimensions.
So much so that I'm
familiar with scientific
theories dealing with
string theory, and the 11th
dimensions. I plan to
eventually write a fictional
story pertaining to that
subject...the 'butterfly
effect'.
Xbox Live in general, it was like in
7th grade i was a loser, in 8th
grade i was less of a loser but then i
started playing
with some of
the more popular kids on
live, and guess what they liked
me!!!
Soon enough they started inviting
my to movies and spending the
night at their houses so now, in 9th
grade, I am having a way
better actual life than i would
have without xbox live
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Another will probably be
Renegade, I played
it with
my dad a lot and it definitely
bound us together
Another will probably be
Renegade, I played
it with
my dad a lot and it definitely
bound us together
(nothing binds son and father
together more than
cooperative beating the crap
out of a hooker).
lost some friends,
but gained new ones!
WoW,
Other games that
have impacted me
were Eternal
Darkness, which (in
addition to having an
amazing narrative)
led me to begin
reading H.P.
Lovecraft, which I
love. Also Bioshock
led me to seek out
and read Ayn
Rand's The
Fountainhead and
Atlas Shrugged,
which I also feel is a
positive impact.
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FFX made me decide to be
a better person. […]
Yuna's story - her idea that she could bring hope to
everyone she met by simply smiling even as she completes
the quest that will ultimately lead to her death made
me
think that my position wasn't all that
bad, and I could do the same for the
people I loved.
So yeah, because of FFX I've made conscious
effort to be a more positive person to
try to help those around me.
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Jeroen.Bourgonjon@UGent.be
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