Many think video games push people toward an unhealthy lifestyle. I think the lifestyles of the real world are already unhealthy, and that large-scale social video games will expose us to alternative social orders, some of which will be much better than anything we have now. 

--Edward Castronova, Exodus to the Virtual World
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Worldwide, over                                 people play an MMORPG.
50 million
World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King made                                  on its first day.

The highest one-day gross for a film (The Dark Knight) in 2008 was
$112 million
$68 million.
(11.5 million of them play World of Warcraft.)
(Avatar'S first day: $77 million.)
In 2008, the videogame industry made 
$41.9 billion in revenues worldwide.
The business of games
Beyond Renegade/Paragon 
Multimodal, Multivalent Rhetorics and the Future of Videogames
The U.S. accounted for $21.33 billion of that,
leading the world.
2008 media industry revenues

Music              $10 billion US and $30 to $40 billion globally
Film (B.O.)       $9.5 billion US and $27 billion globally
Film (DVD)     $23 billion US
Games            $21.3 billion US and $41.9 billion globally
Books              $40.3 billion US and roughly $63 billion globally (2002)
Sources: 
Book Industry Study Group. www.bisg.org
Video Game Sales Wiki. vgsales.wikia.com
The gaming populace
53% of U.S. adults play videogames of some sort.
Source: Digital Trends. digitaltrends.com
The videogame as a medium
Procedural rhetorics
Procedural elements
Representational elements
Natural and built environments
Characters (NPCs and avatars)
     Physique
     Gender
     Race
     Class
     Language
     History
     Personality
     Moral/ethical stance
     Actions
Music
Sound effects
Plot
User interface
The rules governing 
all of the procedures 
a player can and can't perform within the game.
Procedure: a sequence of actions.
rhetoric: the conscious use of symbols to communicate.
Expression through processes.
Developers
game designers
Marketers
artists
programmers
level designers
writers
testers
Corporation
game managers, community coordinators
Studio
modders
Player
Shawn
Chris
A videogame
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
x 1 million
{real-world identities}
{virtual identity}
single-player RPG
MMORPG
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
Player
reviewers
Players
{projective    identity}
{real-world identities}
Nielsen ratings of top U.S. games played in 2008
{projective    identity}
action
action
action
action
action
action
action
action
action
action
action
action
action
academics
gold farmers
The games industry
distributors
consequence
consequence
consequence
consequence
consequence
consequence
consequence
consequence
consequence
consequence
consequence
*Expression encompasses all rhetorical purposes and motives, whether persuasive or merely informational
*In a videogame, processes are mediated through  representations.
The processes are also themselves representational: they are metaphors for other processes.
Questions we might ask when analyzing procedural rhetorics:

What are the political relationships in the game world, and how do they affect my avatar's available procedures?

What procedures do the developers want me to enact in order to succeed in the game, and what messages do those value-laden procedures convey?

How are my avatar's identity positions (race, class, gender, etc.) and ethical positions shaped by my actions in the game? 

How do systems run in the game world, and how might they be metaphors for systems in the material world?