Gameplay Rhetoric: A Study of the Construction of Satirical and Associational Meaning in Short Computer Games for the WWW

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
The study argues that short web-based games communicate satirical and allegorical meaning through rhetorical devices rather than through story or simulation, so meaning persists even when gameplay is rudimentary.See it on page 1
02
Satirical effect in these games is produced mainly by incongruity, pretense via parody and low burlesque, surprise, superiority, exaggeration, and violence, drawing on Feinberg's taxonomy of satirical technique.See it on page 5
03
Allegorical meaning relies on conceptual mappings such as "life is a journey" and on metonymic relations, which the author's pilot game Vanitas Game uses to express mortality.See it on page 12
04
The authors' most distinctive claim is that norm-breaking in this genre, such as naive 2D renderings of 3D genres and a 3D-constructed Pac-Man parody, destabilizes the category of "game" itself.See it on page 13
05
Satire and allegory are presented as interwoven rather than separate, foregrounding the relationship between game and life along with recurring desires for immortality and mastery that the authors say are largely absent from ordinary games.See it on page 14
06
The analysis is qualitative, based on close readings of a small corpus of web-based games (including The Mujaffa Game, Disgruntled Daytrader, and Driving over Jakob Nielsen), so its conclusions are an analytical framework rather than generalizable empirical findings.See it on page 2

Summary

This study examines how short web-based computer games construct rhetorical meaning that extends beyond their interactive mechanics, focusing on satire and allegory. Drawing on Feinberg's taxonomy of satirical technique and Lakoff and Turner's theory of conceptual metaphor, the authors argue that such games can be analyzed as non-narrative rhetorical systems. Their central thesis is that these games communicate meaning even when their gameplay is rudimentary, and that this meaning arises from specific devices rather than from story or simulation.

The analysis proceeds through a set of illustrative cases, including The Mujaffa Game, Disgruntled Daytrader, Driving over Jakob Nielsen, and the authors' own pilot work, Vanitas Game. Across these examples, the authors identify incongruity, pretense through parody and low burlesque, surprise, superiority, exaggeration, and violence as the principal means of producing satirical effect. Allegorical meaning, by contrast, is shown to rely on conceptual mappings such as "life is a journey" and on metonymic relations, which the Vanitas game uses to express its theme of mortality. The discussion is qualitative throughout, grounded in close readings of individual games rather than in measured data.

The authors' most distinctive claim is that this genre of short games delivers its message through norm-breaking that also destabilizes the category of "game" itself. Examples include naive two-dimensional renderings of three-dimensional genres and a Pac-Man parody constructed in 3D, both of which violate expectations of form. Satire and allegory are presented as interwoven rather than separate: together they foreground the relationship between game and life, along with recurring desires for immortality and mastery that the authors argue are largely absent from ordinary, non-rhetorical games. The scope is limited to a specific, small corpus of web-based works, and the conclusions are offered as an analytical framework rather than as generalizable empirical findings.