西方电子游戏中能源议题的程序修辞研究

Study on the Procedural Rhetoric of Energy Issues inWestern Video Games

以电子游戏为代表的大众文化产品,是晚近能源人文研究关注的重要文本对象之一。通过算法和沉浸式体验,电子游戏革新了传统大众文化产品的信息传播、接收模式,是当代社会一个非常重要的调节公共关系、意义协商、战略沟通的场所。通过程序修辞的分析框架,对两款以加拿大西部阿尔伯塔省油砂产业为主题的游戏的分析表明,两款游戏传达出了明确的殖民主义、新自由主义的立场。尽管在游戏叙事层面展现出了一定的环保主义倾向,但其程序修辞仍以当代资本主义核心意识形态为内核。嵌入特定意识形态的电子游戏可以通过大众文化的全球商业网络形成全球性传播,为特定的议程服务。中国应重视和加强对电子游戏产业的监管、引导与投入,增强中国电子游戏产业的软实力。

Mass culture products represented by video games are one of the important text objects of energy humanities research in recent years.Through algorithms and immersive experiences,video games have revolutionized the mode of information dissemination and reception of traditional mass culture products.Video game is a very important venue for regulating public relations,meaning negotiation,and strategic communication in contemporary society.Analyses of two games featuring the oil sand industry in Western Alberta,Canada,indicate that the procedural rhetoric of both games conveys an explicitly colonial and neoliberal stance.Although the games show some environmentalist tendencies at the narrative level,their procedural rhetoric still takes the core ideology of contemporary capitalism as its kernel.Video games embedded with specific ideologies can be communicated and popularized worldwide via the global commercial network of popular culture to serve a specific agenda.Therefore China should emphasize and reinforce the supervision,guidance and investment of the video game industry to enhance the soft power of the industry.