ABSTRACT
Wordplay looks at games diff erently. Wordplay is predicated on identifying ways in which video games persuade, create identifi cations, and circulate meanings. This process of investigating video games leads to paying more attention to three crucial elements of video games: words, design, and play. The words in and surrounding video games are of particular interest to rhetoricians whose tools are well designed to analyze texts composed of words. The design of video games and the society surrounding games shapes the terms of play and represent elements of procedurality often specifi c to the processes of video games. Play addresses who uses games, how they play, and what they play. Play cuts across design and words, emphasizing that video games come into existence through a particular form of doing and a necessary set of actions.
