The video game I have chosen to analyze is Disney’s Club Penguin. I played this game for a long time until it was sadly taken off the internet and replaced with “Club Penguin Island” last March. The game allows players to create usernames and log into different servers as a penguin. Players can waddle around the island, redecorate their igloos, chat with other penguins, and play multiplayer games with other players. Players also have the option to change the color of their penguin and shop for different outfits.
In Ian Bogost’s article “The Rhetoric of Video Games,” he discussed procedural rhetoric in video games and the motives behind how things work. Bogost argues that “video games can make claims about the world. But when they do so, they do it not with oral speech, nor in writing, nor even with images. Rather, video games make argument with processes. Procedural rhetoric is the practice of effective persuasion and expression using processes.” A huge part of Club Penguin are the different processes and the rules that are put together. The games purpose is to create a virtual alternate reality where players can interact with other people all around the world. However, the game establishes sets of rules and guidelines that the players must follow in order to keep the game fun for every body.
The game demonstrates to each player that their actions have consequences and the decisions they make never only effect themselves. In Club Penguin, players have many opportunities to make the game their own. The players can decorate their igloos and own pet puffles. However, if the puffles are not taken good care of, they can fall ill and eventually pass away. The game teaches players about responsibilities and how the decisions they make can affect their lives and other people’s lives.
Bogost argues that games can make claims about the world. In Club Penguin, players can learn a lot about consumerism by earning coins as they win games and challenges and saving up that money to finance their lifestyle. Overall, Club Penguin was a very interactive game that surely follows Bogost’s ideal video game rhetoric. Just reminiscing on the different opportunities the game had to offer makes me miss playing it with my siblings more than ever. I hope kids these days are opportune enough to have their own Club Penguin-esque game that they can play and eventually write a blog post about.
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