April 17, 2020 - Slides presented at the 2020 eLearning Consortium of Colorado Virtual Conference: http://bit.ly/elccschedule Access the Live Slides Presentation: http://bit.ly/gamesituations Session Abstract: "Rhetorician Lloyd Bitzer argues that a rhetorical situation, a situation that calls a rhetor to respond, can be identified by its features of exigence, audience, and constraints. Games are rhetorical in nature and serve as responses to the rhetorical situations that call the games into existence. This session will show how to teach Bitzer's rhetorical situation theory through digital gaming and collaborative writing on Google Docs. Live gameplay and theory-based game analysis will be provided."

1. Teaching Bitzer’s Rhetorical
Situation Theory Through
Game-Based Learning
Sherry Jones | 2020 eLearning Consortium of Colorado Conference

2. HELLO!I am Sherry Jones
★ Philosophy + Games Studies SME Instructor, Rocky Mountain
College of Art + Design.
★ Steering Committee Board Member, International Game
Developers Association (IGDA) - Learning, Games + Education.
★ Judge, Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODiE
Awards - Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Games +
Gamification in Education.
★ Officer, IEEE Computer, Information Theory + Robotics Society.
★ Twitter @ autnes
★ Bio @ http://bit.ly/sherryjonesbio
★ Slides @ http://bit.ly/gamesituations
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3. About This Virtual Workshop
★ The Purpose: This virtual workshop will demonstrate how digital games
can be used to enhance our understanding of complex, rhetorical
theories, that may be difficult for learners to conceptually grasp.
★ Game-Based Learning in Action: We will play a series of digital games
that serve as metaphors of real world situations.
★ Collaborative Assignment in Action: We will complete a collaborative
assignment designed to analyze the digital games using a rhetorical
theory.
★ Further Considerations: Recommendations of digital games for
enhancing rhetoric studies will be provided.
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4. Introduction to Rhetoric Studies
★ Rhetoric Studies Are Interested In:
○ how rhetorical discourses (communications that seek or argue for
the truth) function and are expressed in various patterns and
through various rhetorical devices.
○ why rhetorical discourses about certain issues become necessary or
important during specific time periods.
○ what forms or mediums of rhetorical discourses are most effective
for persuading an intended audience.
★ A Pedagogical Problem: Most introductory rhetoric courses discuss
theories about the processes and procedures for constructing rhetorical
discourses, but ignore discussions about the conditions that allow for
rhetorical discourses to exist in the first place.
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5. Rhetorical Situation
A theory that should be studied in introduction to rhetoric courses.
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6. Lloyd Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation Theory
★ In “The Rhetorical Situation” (1968), rhetorician Lloyd F. Bitzer introduces a
“rhetorical situation” theory that explains the conditions that make the existence of
rhetorical discourses possible. He defines the following terms:
★ “Rhetoric is a mode of altering reality . . . by the creation of discourse which
changes reality through the mediation of thought and action” (Bitzer, 1968, p. 4).
★ “The rhetor alters reality by bringing into existence a discourse of such a
character that the audience, in thought and action, is so engaged that it becomes
mediator of change. In this sense rhetoric is always persuasive” (Bitzer, 1968, p. 4).
★ “Rhetorical situation [is] a natural context of persons, events, objects, relations,
and an exigence which strongly invites utterance” (Bitzer, 1968, p. 5).
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7. 3 Elements in the Rhetorical Situation Theory
★ “Any exigence is an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle,
something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than it should be” (Bitzer, 1968,
p. 6). Exigence refers to problems in a rhetorical situation that are waiting to be
solved.
★ “A rhetorical audience consists only of those persons who are capable of being
influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change” (Bitzer, 1968, p. 8).
Audience refers to those who believe they are able to respond to or solve the
exigence of a rhetorical situation.
★ “A set of constraints made up of persons, events, objects, and relations which are
parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action
needed to modify the exigence” (Bitzer, 1968, p. 9). Constraints refer to objects,
obstacles, or conditions that limit our decisions to modify or solve the exigence.
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8. A Teaching Solution
Use Digital Games as Simulations of Rhetorical Situations
That Invite Rhetorical Discourses.
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9. Why Games for Learning?
★ Games can serve as interactive thought experiments that allow
students to embody and perform a series of actions while
analyzing the simulated conditions that led to actions performed
in a simulated rhetorical situation.
★ As players with personal stakes to survive in a game/thought
experiment, learners pay close attention to the simulated conditions
that constrain or afford their play actions. This differs from reading a
philosophical thought experiment without having to perform the
choice of actions offered.
★ Learners, through play, can reflect on their game actions constrained
by simulated cultural, social, and physical conditions in a rhetorical
situation, which calls for a rhetorical discourse.
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10. Let’s Play “Gods Will Be Watching”
http://bit.ly/godswatch
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11. Time for a Play Exercise 1
Participate in this play exercise by accessing the following
Google Docs.
http://bit.ly/playreflect1
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12. Let’s Play “We Become What We Behold”
http://bit.ly/wbwwb3 12

13. Time for a Play Exercise 2
Participate in this play exercise by accessing the following
Google Docs.
http://bit.ly/playreflect2
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14. Recommended Games
Long form and story-rich indie games recommended for
rhetoric studies.
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15. 15
“Distraint”
Horror
Puzzle
Game About
a Rent
Collector
(Free + Ads)
(Android,
iOS,
Nintendo
Switch,
PS 4,
Windows,
PS Vita,
Steam)

16. 16
“My Child
Lebensborn
(Fount of
Life)”
First Person
Game About
Nazis and
1960s
Norway
($2.99)
(Android,
iOS)

17. 17
"The Park"
First Person
Horror Game
About an
Amusement
Park
($5.19)
(Windows,
PS 4
XBox One,
Nintendo
Switch,
Steam)

18. 18
"GRIS"
Platformer
Adventure
Game About
Tragic Loss
($8.49)
(macOS,
Windows,
Nintendo
Switch,
iOS,
PS 4,
Steam)

19. 19
“Beholder”
First Person
Adventure
Game About
Surveillance
($9.99)
(iOS,
Android,
Windows,
iOS,
Nintendo
Switch,
Linux,
macOS,
Steam)

20. 20
“Beholder 2”
First Person
Adventure
Game about
Surveillance
($14.99)
(Windows,
Linux,
macOS,
Google Play,
App Store)

21. 21
“Jotun”
Action
Exploration
Game in Valhalla,
Based on Norse
Mythology
($14.99)
(Windows,
OS X,
Linux,
PS 4,
Wii U,
XBox One,
Nintendo Switch,
Steam)]

22. 22
“Draugen”
Mystery
Adventure
Game in 1920s
Norway
($19.99)
(Windows,
PS 4,
Xbox One,
Steam)

23. 23
“Inside”
Horror Puzzle
Game
($19.99)
(Windows,
PS 4,
Nintendo
Switch,
Xbox One,
iOS,
Steam)

24. 24
"Kentucky
Route Zero"
A Magic Realist
Adventure Game
About a Secret
Highway
($24.99)
Horror Game
(Windows,
PS 4,
Nintendo
Switch,
Xbox One,
iOS,
Steam)

25. More Game Recommendations
See my 2018 “Ethics and Games” series to discover more games that can be
used to teach theories of rhetoric, as well as theories of moral philosophy
and ethics.
“Ethics and Games”
http://bit.ly/ethicsandgames
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26. 26
THANKS!Sherry Jones
★ Philosophy + Games Studies SME Instructor, Rocky Mountain
College of Art + Design.
★ Steering Committee Board Member, International Game
Developers Association (IGDA) - Learning, Games + Education.
★ Judge, Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODiE
Awards - Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Games +
Gamification in Education.
★ Officer, IEEE Computer, Information Theory + Robotics Society.
★ Twitter @ autnes
★ Bio @ http://bit.ly/sherryjonesbio
★ Slides @ http://bit.ly/gamesituations

27. CREDITS
Special thanks to all the people who made and
released these awesome resources for free:
❑ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
❑ Photographs by Unsplash
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