Delightful identification & persuasion: towards an analytical and applied rhetoric of digital games

Abstract

This article discusses first steps towards a specific rhetoric of digital games where general rhetoric makes up the scientific discipline of strategic communication and symbolic action by means of identification and psy- chagogy. Therefore, this work contributes to the funda- mental and general question why and how players become consubstantialised and persuaded with game designs, and stick to gameplay these games. Accordingly, a first con- ceptual model is introduced and discussed. It features three interrelating dimensions which engage a symbolic, a structural, and a systemic coupling between player and game design during gameplay within an experiential eigen- world of reciprocal control, mastery, and empowerment.