THE TETRIS EFFECT: WHEN GAMES SHAPE HOW WE THINK
Most games end when the player stops playing. The screen goes dark, the controller is put down, and the experience fades back into memory. Yet some games refuse to stay confined to the screen. They linger in the mind.
ENGINEFALL: WHEN SURVIVAL MEETS THE EXTRACTION GENRE
On one side stand extraction shooters like Arc Raiders, fast, tense built around high risk and short commitment. On the other sits Rust, the archetype of long-form survival where time investment defines power and stepping away can cost weeks of progress. Enginefall enters the conversation by asking a deceptively simple question: what if survival required more than an hour, but less than a week/month long commitment?
What Is Procedural Rhetoric in Video Games? A Clear Explanation
Procedural rhetoric in video games refers to the way games express ideas through their rules, systems, and mechanics rather than through traditional storytelling alone. Instead of telling players what to think, games can make arguments by shaping what players are allowed to do, what consequences follow, and how systems respond to their actions.
THE ERA OF “FRIENDSLOP” GAMES - WHAT IS IT?
“Friendslop” is a semi-ironic term that emerged online to describe a particular wave of cooperative multiplayer games that thrive on chaos, jank, and shared absurdity. The word “slop” is intentionally provocative. It suggests messiness, rough edges, low polish, even disposability. Yet the “friends” qualifier changes everything…
PROCEDURAL RHETORIC: THE MOST POWERFUL FORM OF PERSUASION
Procedural rhetoric often feels elusive because it does not operate where we expect rhetoric to live. When we think of persuasion, we imagine speeches, manifestos, cinematic monologues, political ads, or emotionally charged dialogue. We look for statements. We look for claims. We look for language. When someone defines procedural rhetoric as persuasion through mechanics, the phrase sounds clinical. It lacks imagery. It lacks narrative drama. It sounds like boring theory on a monday morning.
THE INDUSTRY OF WAR: FOXHOLE’S PLAYER DRIVEN WAR ECONOMY
In Foxhole, the most distinctive system is its player driven war economy. Every weapon is manufactured. Every vehicle is assembled. Every crate of ammunition is transported by another human being. Combat depends on labor. Loss depends on supply. The question this article explores is straightforward: what is Foxhole attempting to persuade the player of through this industrial design?
THE PROCEDURAL ONTOLOGY PYRAMID: READING POLITICS IN GAMES
When we play, it feels like freedom. We choose where to go, what to do, how to act. But behind every moment of agency in a video game lies a hidden architecture of systems guiding, nudging, and sometimes deceiving us.
WHEN GAMES ARGUE: PHILOSOPHY AND THE RHETORIC OF GAMES
Most people think of video games as stories with buttons. A hero, a quest, some dialogue, and maybe a branching ending. But games do more than just tell stories. They argue.
FREEDOM IN DISHONORED: HOW ARKANE TURNED GAMEPLAY INTO PHILOSOPHY
Dishonored persuades by procedure. Arkane Studios designed it so that how you play is what shapes the narrative. In other words, the game itself becomes an argument, a playable philosophy. But how does it accomplish that ?