rhetorical analysis

Running head: Making the Fallout Concept a Reality 1

Making the Fallout Concept a Reality

A Rhetorical Analysis

Ryan Moulton

University of Baltimore

Author Note

This paper was prepared for Writing 300, Section CAS4, taught by Professor Leyva.

Making the Fallout Concept a Reality 2

Making the Fallout Concept a Reality

A Rhetorical Analysis

The Fallout vision statement lays out the GURPS1 team's plans for a new game. The

writer addresses the qualities that they want to see in the game. They explain how they want to

design an interactive game with the end user's experience in mind. The document also touches on

various aspects of the game; such as the game's target audience, it's story and characters, as well

as the systems that will be needed to make their goal a reality. The teams passion for this game is

clearly visible throughout the document (Team GURPS. 2010).

Purpose

When someone wants to have their new game idea turned into an actual game they first

have to get other people behind that idea. That is what this document is doing. The document is

designed in such a way that it presents the authors' ideas in hopes that the reader will like their

concept and approve production of the game. This type of document is usually the first document

that is ever created for a game. As such it becomes the foundation that the rest of the game is

built on. This document will serve as a reference to guide the development team as they craft the

game into the final polished product. This document gives the game a solid foundation which can

be refined into the final polished product that will end up in the homes of thousands of gamers.

1 GURPS is the Generic Universal Role Playing System created by Steve Jackson that was

originally intended to be the foundation that Fallout was built on. Due to a difference of opinions

GURPS was abandoned in favor of an in house system called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. late in the process

of development (McLaughlin, 2010, p. 3).

Making the Fallout Concept a Reality 3

Audience

This document is designed to be used internally by the company developing the game.

The audience would already be familiar with some of the concepts being discussed in the

document. As such there is little explanation of jargon. Some concepts that may be foreign to an

outsider are GURPS as defined earlier. In one section of the document the author makes

reference to this game's open-ended quality stating "as much as it can be and still not pull a

Darklands (Team GURPS, 2010)." The author expects the audience to be already familiar with

this other game and it's open-ended nature. The author writes this with the idea that the reader

wants the game to be a success. They introduce their ideas and explain how those ideas will lead

to that success. After the game is approved other readers will use this document's ideas to guide

them in the creative process.

Persona

The tone of the author is one that conveys the passion the team has for the project. In

their closing statement they state, "we care about this game and we will make it cool (Team

GURPS, 2010)." Throughout this document the writer speaks to the audience directly and in the

first person. The author also takes time to introduce each topic with a bit of joking; section two's

title is, "There is often no right solution (or dang we have some moral dilemmas)(Team GURPS,

2010)."

Text

This document is broken into multiple sections each dealing with a different part of the

game. Each section introduces a new idea such as "the players actions affects the world (and the

world reacts to the player)(Team GURPS, 2010)." The section will then go on to elaborate on

this main idea. The sections are in no specific order but seem to stem from a stream of

Making the Fallout Concept a Reality 4

consciousness. The author does not support their ideas with any outside data but instead lets their

ideas stand alone. The author concludes the document by making it clear to the reader how

much this game means to the team and how motivated they are to see the game in production.

Context

It should be stated that while this document was first shown to the public in 2010, this

would have actually been written prior to the game being published in 1997. This was still the

early days for video games. Many of the ideas that this game introduces are new and innovative

for the time. Coming up with new ideas and ways to do things is a critical part of the game

design process. This document being read years after it was first written gives us a much

different perspective then the original audience. We can see how things finally turned out where

as the first readers would have been thinking if this could really work out.

Making the Fallout Concept a Reality 5

References

McLaughlin, R. (2010, July 21). IGN Presents the History of Fallout. Retrieved from

http://www.ign.com/articles/2010/07/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-fallout

Team GURPS. (2010, May 29). Vision Statement. Fallout A GURPS Post Nuclear Adventure.

Retrieve from http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/File:Fallout-1-Vision-Statement.pdf