Procedural rhetoric is the recurring concept within games that has been iterated over and over. It’s similar to asking what makes this game tick. There is a reason behind every game and a way to proceed through that game to one goal. Fullerton explains this as a few components, which are as follows. The procedure is the process of getting to the goal. The rules restrict the player. Finally the resources help advance or benefit the player on their way to their goal. Although there are more than just these pieces to the puzzle, I found that these three envelop a large portion of procedural rhetoric.

Through class, the objective while playing each game was to understand its procedural rhetoric. Some games wanted you to gain points or find out an enemy, but rules and resources deterred the player from accomplishing their goal with ease. Every structure all came down to the player, again and again. The player is given rules and mechanics that enhance and challenge them so that they are entertained on the way to the goal. However, balance determines if that game is truly fun. As rules were altered in the games during class, we found that one change could completely unbalance that game, making it almost unplayable even though that change seemed like a good idea beforehand. This problem displayed the issue that will be coming up during the game development stages. It shows us that if a new addition or change does not work then we must return to the drawing board and start again. So, the iterative process, that Fullerton mentions, is displayed as generating ideas, formalizing ideas, testing ideas, and evaluating ideas, are all apparent in this exercise, which supports his idea.

Overall, procedural rhetoric not only helps us understand the inner workings of a game, but it also provides us with insight that can be utilized in the iterative process. Components of a game’s procedural rhetoric are changed, which in turn are put through a testing cycle. The work done in class supports these functions and provides a better comprehension of procedural rhetoric.

Works Cited

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.