Proof I read the Bogost document:
read and play rhetoric cs377g f2025
I remember the craze around We Become What We Behold when it came out. I tried playing it for this post but itch was down so I instead watched Markiplier playing it. I think the games message of how media influences our behavior is clear. As a comms major, I think the best point of this game that I can highlight is this slide here:
I know people often attribute blame to social media for mental health, or claim the news is harmful because of what it says. I propose that it’s not the software, it’s the people who make decisions on what you can see. Agenda-setting theory states that media don’t tell you what to think, but instead what to think about. How do CEOs get salaries? Through views. How do they get views? Through sensationalized media. That’s why we saw our current fragmented media landscape lead to filter bubbles and polarized political rhetoric and violence. We only ever see the loudest, most extreme voices first. And the first thing you see is likely the impression you latch onto the most.
Then I played Adventures with Anxiety by Case. I loved how there were three ‘types’ of anxiety attacks players could induce in their human. And I appreciate that the game doesn’t just communicate that anxiety is good or bad, but more that anxiety serves a purpose, even when it’s out of control. I think the way this game utilized the expectations of both a fighting game and an interactive fiction made for a visually and rhetorically complex game! I like presenting the three dialogue options as battle moves.
And I think, while they had to simplify the game to just three kinds of anxiety manifestations, that the idea of using a game to help someone interrogate their own thoughts of anxiety makes the act of self-reflection so much more accessible. The game does a good job of prompting you to echo your own thoughts, and eventually when the character and wolf begin communicating, now you have the opportunity to check in on yourself, your own anxiety, and how to approach it.
These are all things I’d like to think about next time I work on an IF!
