نوع مقاله : مقاله علمی پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 دانشجوی دکتری رشته علوم ارتباطات، دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی، تهران، ایران
2 استاد دانشکده علوم ارتباطات، دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی، تهران، ایران
3 استاد دانشکده علوم اجتماعی، دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران
چکیده
بازیهای رایانهای برخط درونپرداخت، یکی از موفقترین انواع بازیهای رایانهای تجاری هستند. آنها با روشهای مختلفی، کاربران خود را تدریجاً همبود و آنها را سازماندهی میکنند. در این تحقیق، ابزارها و شیوههای همبودسازی بازیکنان بهواسطه طراحی موقعیتهای بلاغی در بخشهای مختلف این بازیها را با استفاده از چهارچوب نظری و روششناختی «نمایشگرایی» واکاوی کردیم. هدف ما درک این مسئله بود که موقعیتهای بلاغی طراحیشده در جهان مجازی بازی، چه نوع انگیزههایی برای تشکیل همبودگاههای گوناگون در کاربران ایجاد میکنند. با اتکا به مفهوم «دایره جادویی» بازی از یوهان هویزنگا و خوانش یان بوگوست از این مفهوم، موقعیتهای بلاغی در جهان بازی را در سه ساحت پیشابازی، پیرابازی و درونبازی دستهبندی کردیم؛ سپس با مفروض گرفتن سرشتی متخلخل برای دایره جادوییِ جهان بازی در برقراری ارتباط مستمر با جهان واقعی، بر تحلیل موقعیتهای بلاغی طراحیشده در «محیطهای پیرابازی» متمرکز شدیم. محیطهای پیرابازی در بازیهای رایانهای برخط درونپرداخت، محیطهایی بیرون از جریان اصلی بازی هستند که بهطور همزمان واجد ویژگیهایی مربوط و وابسته به اقتضائات جهان واقعی و نظام رویهای بازیاند. بهمنظور ارائه نمونهای برای تحلیل موقعیتهای بلاغی در محیطهای پیرابازی، بازی «بازم بازی» را بهمنزله مطالعه موردی انتخاب کردیم. نتایج این تحقیق نشان داد که در طراحی موقعیتهای بلاغی محیطهای پیرابازی «بازم بازی» ایجاد نوعی انگیزههای شبهعرفانی، در نفی دوگانگی میان جهان واقعی و جهان مجازی بازی و همچنین میان هویت واقعی (بهمثابه بازیباز) و هویت مجازی (بهمنزله بازیکن) بر انگیزههای ایدئالیستی، واقعگرایانه، مادهگرایانه و عملگرایانه تفوق دارد.
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
Analysis of Rhetorical Situations in the Perigamic Environments of Online Freemium Computer Games: A Case Study of "Bazam Bazi"
نویسندگان [English]
- Arian Taheri 1
- Ali Asghar Kiya 2
- Masoud Kosari 3
1 Ph.D. Student in Communication Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Jourrnalism, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
3 department of communication sciences, Faculty of social sciences, university of Tehran.
چکیده [English]
Online freemium computer games have established themselves as one of the most successful forms of commercial computer games. They gradually identify their users with different communities within the game. Using the theoretical and methodological framework of "Dramatism," this research analyzes the ways of identification through the designed rhetorical situations in different sections of online freemium computer games. Relying on Ian Bogost's interpretation of the "magic circle" of play, we categorized the rhetorical situations within these games into three areas: pro-gamic, peri-gamic, and gamic. Then, by assuming a porous nature for the magic circle of the game world due to its continuous communication with the real world, we focused on analyzing the rhetorical situations designed in the peri-gamic area. The peri-gamic area in online freemium computer games refers to environments outside the main rules of the game that simultaneously possess characteristics dependent on the requirements of the real world and the procedural system of the game world. To provide an example for analyzing rhetorical situations in peri-gamic environments, we selected the game "Bazam Bazi" as a case study. The results of this research showed that, through the designed rhetorical situations in the peri-gamic environments of "Bazam Bazi," mystical motivations are encouraged by negating the duality between the real world and the game world, as well as between real identity (as a gamer) and virtual identity (as a player). Finally, mystic motivation takes precedence over idealistic, realistic, materialistic, and pragmatistic motivations in identifying users with various communities within this game.
Extended Abstract:
Introduction
This study investigates how rhetorical situations designed within online freemium computer games create motivations for users to identify with various virtual communities connected to common user experiences. Using Kenneth Burke’s theoretical and methodological framework of Dramatism, the research moves beyond classical rhetoric’s focus on persuasion to explore how human motives arise through symbolic action. Burke distinguishes between mere “motion” (physical, involuntary interaction) and “action” (voluntary, motive-driven behavior unique to humans as symbol-using creatures). Motives are not purely psychological but are social, reflective, and tied to specific rhetorical situations. Central to this framework is the concept of “identification,” which develops in response to division (differences in beliefs, values, and worldviews). Language and symbols become key tools for overcoming division, allowing individuals to share perspectives and form communities. Games are bodies of symbolic action that facilitate identification and help avoid division. The magic circle of the game, originally defined by Johan Huizinga as a temporary, rule-bound space separate from ordinary life, has often been misunderstood as a sealed boundary. Following Ian Bogost’s reinterpretation, this study assumes that the magic circle is porous, allowing continuous two-way exchange between the real world and the game world. Players carry aspects of their real identities into the game and bring back remnants of the game experience into reality. Our research question asks: what kinds of motives, generated through designed rhetorical situations, lead to the identification of users within online freemium computer games?
Materials and Methods
We employed Burke’s Dramatism as both an ontology and an epistemology. Our primary analytical tool was pentadic criticism, which identifies five dramatistic elements within any rhetorical situation: Act (purposeful activity), Agent (the actor), Agency (tools and methods), Scene (the context of time and space), and Purpose (the goal). After identifying these five elements according to the characteristics of the case study, we examined “terministic screens” (ratios or relationships between two elements) to determine which element dominates and thus dictates the type of motive being encouraged for identifying users (e.g., materialist, idealist, pragmatist, realist, or mystical). To systematically map rhetorical situations within online freemium computer games, we categorized them into three areas: pro-gamic (the pre-existing social and historical world), gamic (the core procedural, rule-based environment of the game), and peri-gamic (the boundary zone between the real and game worlds through which players pass across the porous magic circle). In this article, we focused exclusively on the peri-gamic area. Our case study was “Bazam Bazi,” an Iranian online freemium computer game released in 2019 by Dart Studio. It consists of six simple, turn-based, semi-board games (e.g., Dots and Boxes, Battleship, Minesweeper) played as two-player competitions. The game’s freemium model involves two key virtual assets: tickets (required to play each match and obtained through purchase, watching ads, or leveling up) and coins (won through matches or purchased, and used to buy tickets, chat stickers, profile effects, boosters, and in-game help). We collected data through textual analysis of game interfaces and field observation (over 4,000 hours of gameplay experience across approximately two years). We identified and analyzed eight distinct peri-gamic rhetorical situations within “Bazam Bazi”: receiving notifications, the lucky wheel, the gift page, the leaderboard, the shop, the user profile, the friends page, and the group page.
Discussion
We employed Burke’s Dramatism as both an ontology and an epistemology. Our primary analytical tool was pentadic criticism, which identifies five dramatistic elements within any rhetorical situation: Act (purposeful activity), Agent (the actor), Agency (tools and methods), Scene (the context of time and space), and Purpose (the goal). After identifying these five elements according to the characteristics of the case study, we examined “terministic screens” (ratios or relationships between two elements) to determine which element dominates and thus dictates the type of motive being encouraged for identifying users (e.g., materialist, idealist, pragmatist, realist, or mystical). To systematically map rhetorical situations within online freemium computer games, we categorized them into three areas: pro-gamic (the pre-existing social and historical world), gamic (the core procedural, rule-based environment of the game), and peri-gamic (the boundary zone between the real and game worlds through which players pass across the porous magic circle). In this article, we focused exclusively on the peri-gamic area. Our case study was “Bazam Bazi,” an Iranian online freemium computer game released in 2019 by Dart Studio. It consists of six simple, turn-based, semi-board games (e.g., Dots and Boxes, Battleship, Minesweeper) played as two-player competitions. The game’s freemium model involves two key virtual assets: tickets (required to play each match and obtained through purchase, watching ads, or leveling up) and coins (won through matches or purchased, and used to buy tickets, chat stickers, profile effects, boosters, and in-game help). We collected data through textual analysis of game interfaces and field observation (over 4,000 hours of gameplay experience across approximately two years). We identified and analyzed eight distinct peri-gamic rhetorical situations within “Bazam Bazi”: receiving notifications, the lucky wheel, the gift page, the leaderboard, the shop, the user profile, the friends page, and the group page.
Conclusions
Our findings showed that the dominance of the dramatistic element “Purpose” in three key situations (profile, leaderboard, and shop) encourages users to seek a mystical union of their real and virtual selves. This is reinforced by pragmatistic motivations (arising from Agency) that treat in-game assets as consumable signs of utility. The combined dominance of mystical and pragmatistic motives overshadows other aspects of user experience, potentially encouraging conspicuous consumerism (the purchase of decorative but non-functional items such as chat stickers and profile effects) and behavioral instability (players migrating rapidly between groups, thereby weakening community cohesion). Theoretically, we suggest that Dramatism can be extended to analyze gamic rhetorical situations and the interplay between peri-gamic and gamic environments. Practically, game designers can strengthen users’ sense of belonging and loyalty by clarifying the nature of in-game communities, imposing limits on group membership changes to reduce the instrumental use of groups, and increasing the number of rhetorical situations that foreground users’ Acts (choice and decision) rather than passive consumption. The porous nature of the magic circle means that identification processes in peri-gamic areas are not peripheral but central to how online freemium games build and sustain their player communities.
کلیدواژهها [English]
- Rhetoric
- Dramatism
- Online Freemium Computer Games
- Magic Circle
- Peri-Gamic Environments
- Kenneth Burke
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