Rhetorical Analysis of “dream Machine” by Will Wright

Rhetorical Analysis of “Dream Machine” by Will Wright

In the 21th century, different types of games developed rapidly. The society views on video games are mixed. Imagine, when the elders think about video games, the impression of most of them is negative. However, the creator of The Sims and many other games, Will Wright, in his essay “Dream Machine”, persuades people to recognize the games are beneficial because they can develop people’s imagination. The use of exemplification, analogy, and comparison make Wright’s essay effective to persuade the intended audience.

Wright uses exemplification stressed his point that the new generation plays and thinks a different way from the older generation. Exemplification means using examples to explain, convince, or amuse. He first states “Most people on the far side of the generational divide - elders - look at games and see a list of ills (they're violent, addictive, childish, worthless).” From this sentence, we can know that elders think games have some negative aspects. Wright is trying to persuade them to recognize the benefits of the games in his essay. So the intended audiences of Wright’s essay are elders. He states “Just watch a kid with a new video game. The last thing they do is read the manual. Instead, they pick up the controller and start mashing buttons to see what happens.” Then he explains “This isn't a random process; it's the essence of the scientific method. Through trial and error, players build a model of the underlying game based on empirical evidence collected through play.” I think most of the elders have kids and they’ve seen a similar scene of the kids playing video games. So it is very easy for readers to relate to their personal experience. By using this example, the readers will know that the process when we are playing a video game is a scientific method, a rational mode of thinking. And it will gradually become to our creativity and imagination. It makes elders have a good impression of the video games in the beginning of the article.

Wright uses analogy to make some difficult terms easier to understand for the elders, and convinces them that games have the same benefits as chess. Analogy is a process of transferring information and meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject. “Consider, for instance, their "possibility space": Games usually start at a well-defined state (the setup in chess, for instance) and end when a specific state is reached (the king is checkmated). Players navigate this possibility space by their choices and actions; every player's path