http://journals.sagepub.com.proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/doi/full/10.1177/1555412014565642
Matheson, Calum. Procedural Rhetoric Beyond Persuasion: First Strike and the Compulsion to Repeat. SAGE, 2014. Web.
In “Procedural Rhetoric Beyond Persuasion”, Calum Matheson builds onto Bogost’s discussion of video games and procedural rhetoric by adding his own twist: taking focus away from rhetoric as defined as an art of persuasion. Matheson claims that Bogost’s understanding of rhetoric is Aristotelian and, consequentially, too narrow in nature, since there are a lot of rhetoricians whose explanation of rhetoric might include more (or simply something different). To remedy this, Matheson brings the psychoanalytic side of rhetoric into the lens Bogost offers up for the examination of video gaming. Taking a stance close within the Lacanian school of thought (particularly Lacanian subjectivity), the author suggests that video games provide a mirror of sorts for the individual to see a representation of the self and for the society to see a representation of its culture as a whole. This idea is further elaborated on by way of a video game called “First Strike” that Matheson uses as their primary example.
