Procedural rhetoric has long dominated the field of game studies. Procedural rhetoric, a concept developed by Ian Bogost, argues that games can make claims about how the world works through words, visuals, the processes they embody, and the models they construct. Miguel Sicart, in his article Against Procedurality, aims to challenge procedural rhetoric by showing its limits for the design and analysis of ethics, politics, and games. To address these limits, Sicart suggests that the theories of play can solve procedural rhetoric’s theoretical flaws.
Sicart’s theory of instrumental play argues that player agency (i.e. the values, opinions, and cultural presence of the player) is the most ethical, political, and creative element of games - that the player creates the message of the game through the act of play. An example of such can be seen in speedrunning. Speedrunning is the practice of completing a video game as quickly as possible. Its popularity has skyrocketed and continues to grow as players around the world spend hours each day on live streams, perfecting their skills in order to achieve a world record. Speedrunning gives fresh life to games that extend far beyond what the developer originally intended. Through speedrunning, games and their objectives are transformed.
Probably the most interesting aspect of speedrunning is the community of players that unite around this sort of play. Speedrunning websites are constantly flooded with both runners and viewers. Battles often break out between players vying for the number one spot, a spot that can change hands multiple times a day. Through runners playing the same game, the speedrunning community shares new routes, tips, and ticks amongst one another.
Over time, speedrunning has become like a form of performance art. Like art, speedrunning comes in various forms and styles. Each speedrunner creates his/her own unique experience; some focus on purely speed, some create memes, some aim to finish a game without being hit, etc. Regardless of what a speedrunner’s objective is, they take video game conventions and subvert them.
When games such as Super Mario Bros, Zelda, and Doom, are analyzed through the lens of procedural rhetoric, player agency is ignored. This, in turn, ignores all of the possibilities and phenomena that players create when projecting themselves onto games through the act of play - including speedrunning. As video games become increasingly ubiquitous in media and culture, analyzing how players interact with them becomes more relevant than ever.