Wordplay and the discourse of video games : analyzing words, design, and play

223 Pages·2012·2.37 MB·English

by  Christopher A Paul

Wordplay and the
Discourse of Video Games
Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture
1 Cyberpop 9 Mobile Technology and Place
Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Edited by Gerard Goggin and
Culture Rowan Wilken
Sidney Eve Matrix
10 Wordplay and the Discourse of
2 The Internet in China Video Games
Cyberspace and Civil Society Analyzing Words, Design,
Zixue Tai and Play
Christopher A. Paul
3 Racing Cyberculture
Minoritarian Art and Cultural
Politics on the Internet
Christopher L. McGahan
4. Decoding Liberation
The Promise of Free and Open
Source Software
Samir Chopra and Scott D. Dexter
5 Gaming Cultures and Place in
Asia-Pacifi c
Edited by Larissa Hjorth and
Dean Chan
6 Virtual English
Queer Internets an d Digital
Creolization
Jillana B. Enteen
7 Disability and New Media
Katie Ellis and Mike Kent
8 Creating Second Lives
Community, Identity and
Spatiality as Constructions of the
Virtual
Edited by Astrid Ensslin and Eben
Muse
Wordplay and the
Discourse of Video Games
Analyzing Words, Design, and Play
Christopher A. Paul

NEW YORK LONDON
First published 2012
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2012 Taylor & Francis
The right of Christopher A. Paul to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him/her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Typeset in Sabon by IBT Global.
Printed and bound in the United States of America on acid-free paper by
IBT Global.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Paul, Christopher A.
Wordplay and the discourse of video games : analyzing words, design,
and play / Christopher Paul.
p. cm. — (Routledge studies in new media and cyberculture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Video games—Social aspects. 2. Video games—Design.

3. Vocabulary. 4. Visual literacy. I. Title.
GV1469.17.S63P38 2012
794.8—dc23
2011039068
ISBN13: 978-0-415-89306-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-12403-1 (ebk)
To Erin
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The New Rhetoric of Video Games 1
PART I:
The Context
1 Socializing Gamers 21
2 Video Games as ‘Kid’s’ Toys 39
3 Talking Game Design 53
4 Consoles Read Rhetorically 68
PART II:
The Texts

5 GTA, Humor, and Protagonists 87
6 EA Sports and Planned Obsolescence 100
7 Rearticulating Rewards in WoW 116
8 Theorycraft and Optimization 131
9 Balance and Meritocracies 144
viii Contents
PART III:
Using Wordplay
10 Words, Design, and Play 161
References 199
Index 217
Acknowledgments
Writing a book is peculiar. There are aspects of writing I found to be iso-
lating and solitary, but this book would have been impossible to complete
without the eff orts and assistance of a whole host of people. The ideas gen-
erated here may be credited to me on the author line, but would not have
been possible without the people who pressed me, made suggestions, and
encouraged me along the way. Thank you to everyone who helped make
this possible.
Several pieces of this book have been previously published in one form or
another. Parts of the introduction were published in the Journal of Virtual
Worlds Research in my essay “Process, Paratexts, and Texts: Rhetorical
Analysis and Virtual Worlds.” The base for Chapter 7 previously appeared
in the SAGE journal Games and Culture as “Welfare Epics? The Rheto-
ric of Rewards in World of Warcraft.” Finally, my work on theorycraft in
Chapter 8 was originally published in Game Studies as “Optimizing Play:
How Theorycraft Changes Gameplay and Design.” Part of the analysis of
EVE Online in chapter one previously appeared in the ACM’s proceedings
for FDG’11 as “Don’t Play Me: EVE Online, New Players, and Rhetoric.
Thank you to the reviewers who helped improve those essays, the editors
who worked with me, and the editorial assistants worked in the trenches.
I would be remiss if I did not thank the wonderful people at Routledge
and IBT Global who worked with my on the book project, particulary

Erica Wetter, Matt Byrnie, Felisa Salvgado-Keyes, and Ryan Kenney. Jason
Weidemann was also an invaluable resource who made this project better.
As the son of two teachers, I have been extraordinarily fortunate to
benefi t from the knowledge provided by a bevy of exceptional teachers
throughout my academic career. Thank you to all of them, especially the
three amazing women who shaped my graduate school, undergraduate,
and high school educations. Thank you Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, Adrienne
Christiansen, and Donna Yeargan. Without the three of you this would
not have been possible. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the
students who routinely press me on what I believe and how I think about
video games and rhetoric. Chapter 5 would not have been possible without
the students in my video games classes. There are also a number of people
x Acknowledgments
to thank in the broader game studies community. Thanks to T. L. Taylor,
Mia Consalvo, and Bonnie Nardi for reading my work over the years and
off ering feedback. Thanks to the AoIR, DiGRA, and game studies com-
munities for presenting compelling ideas and asking interesting questions.
Thanks to Ruan Pethiyagoda who read and commented on drafts from a
very intelligent student perspective.
If there is a group I could not complete this book without it is my family
and friends. From the people of the Cardboard Tube Samurai and Brave
Companions who helped me put in enough World of Warcraft time to kick
off my work in game studies to Jason Pittman who worked with me on
an introduction to the discipline when I started what became this project,
thank you. Thank you to Martha Aby who beta tested the book and off ered
her feedback. Thank you Casey, who carved out the time to read drafts,
even as other things were imposing on you. Thanks to my parents, sister,
and grandma with whom I would not have been in this position. Mom and
Dad read drafts, put in their feedback and asked the questions I needed to
get asked to better articulate my ideas; they also both played a game or
two with me, and I would have never been able to write about video games
without them. Mom even went so far as to help index the book. It helps
having a librarian in the family. Lisa was always full of good humor and
our gaming history is documented in an awesome Atari photo. Grandma
taught me plenty about playing with others via Uno and is quite the card
sharp. Thank you to Samantha, Loki, and Kali who kept me company dur-
ing the writing and editing, even if they drove me nuts sometimes. Finally,
thank you Erin. You are an excellent, amazing partner and I appreciate all
that you do. The comments you make on my drafts make the writing bet-
ter and make me laugh, both of which I appreciate. There are no words to
thank you properly, not even on Dictionary.com.