Rhetoric of a Rage Quit II: Identification, Feedback Loop, and Assessment

Video games bring together three crucial elements under the disguise of entertainment contributing to a "rage quit": identification, feedback loop, and assessment. Identification is a concept that rhetoric and composition scholars attribute to Kenneth Burke, which oversimplified, means we feel a personal connection or relationship with something. For gamers, identification is accomplished through players assuming the role of an avatar (a virtual representation of themselves), which may be heightened due to what perspective the player is playing in (first-person or third-person). Although gamers are able to distinguish fantasy from reality, a strong sense of identification is established within the context of the game and its presentation of rhetorical situations, which is evident when players discuss their losses. Players often describe losing by saying something like "I died" before making another attempt from a previous point within the game.

James Gee identifies an interesting feedback loop that video games rely upon in order to persuade gamers to spend significant amounts of time on task, which he describes as a cycle of "run-jump-die-repeat," but another aspect worth considering is whether or not that feedback loop is providing players with positive or negative feedback. Players often receive positive feedback from video games through some sort of a reward system, whether through earning a certain amount of Experience Points contributing toward an increase in level, or a dramatic cut-scene. The positive feedback acts as encouragement to the player and the player responds with more time invested into playing the game. However, a "rage quit" happens when players lose or "die" too often and they stop playing the game due to anger. Another culprit of "rage quit" is emotional distress or depression due to the same scenario (players lose or "die" too often), but with a different trigger: discouragement. If success equates with encouragement, then its counterpart is failure and that equates with discouragement. In both instances, players still quit playing the game because the amount of negative feedback received overcomes the amount of positive feedback from the game.

As rhetoric and composition scholars, we understand receiving feedback as assessment, which is something most people fear (especially in writing classes). For writing assessment, Edward White provides context explaining why students fear writing assessment through sharing stories about instructors who say something like "I'm going to bleed all over these papers this weekend" referring to their use of red pen, making students associate blood with red pen on their papers because it seems like their writing is bleeding. White's descriptions not only help us understand that students fear assessment, but also that writing is personal and since gaming is a form of new media writing, then gaming is also personal. If gaming is not a personal activity, then no identification would take place and a personal connection is required.