Rhetoric

Rhetoric can be defined as “the art or technique of persuasion through the use of oral or written language” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric) or it is an “ancient art of argumentation and discourse” (http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_rhet.html). In other words it is a persuasive medium, which can be through anything from language, films or games. It can persuade people to believe in a certain theory or way of life. It can be very subtle, for example, “anyone with sense, believes that violence is wrong”. This is effectively saying that if you believe that violence is acceptable, then you have no sense. Rhetoric can come in a very simple and obvious manner, for example “violence is wrong”. This simply gives a statement and is aiming to convince the reader or audience that it is wrong without putting any peripherals around the edge of the statement.

If we look at this theory in the context of digital games, it could be a very destructive thing. If a young boy played a game like any of the Grand Theft Auto games for example San Andreas, he would become used to hearing bad language, stealing cars and even killing people for fun. If this particular child wasn’t educated enough he could believe that this is an acceptable way of life and by the time he is older, he may start becoming more and more violent and eventually could become very similar to the lead character, CJ, stealing without any worries of the moral consequences for either him or the victims. This of course would a more extreme example but if this is a possibility, should these games be banned.

I think it is very hard to say that all games that contain any violence must be banned. However I do think that there must some more censorship than there already is. Some games do have age censorship on them; however these ratings are rarely ever followed. It is very easy for a 15 year old to get hold of a copy of a game like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, even though it is rated as an 18. I think that if shops are stricter about ratings and ask for ID when selling the game, it could help the situation.

Bibliography:

Rhetoric (Date Unknown). Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 18th February 2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric

Rhetoric (Date Unknown). Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 18th February 2007: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_rhet.html