Rhetorical Analysis Paper

For my rhetorical analysis paper, I plan to find an underlying argument in the game Zoo Tycoon. I have played Zoo Tycoon for many hours over the years, giving me much experience with the game mechanics. One of the underlying arguments in Zoo Tycoon is about the treatment of animals. The game is centered on creating suitable exhibits for each species of animal in the player’s zoo. If the player uses the correct kind of terrain, foliage, other animals, toys, and amount of space in the exhibit, the animal will express happiness. The happiness is expressed through a green smiley face that pops above the animal; the overall animal happiness of the zoo can be monitored at the bottom of the screen, where a bar shows the average animal happiness on a rating scale of 0 to 100. If the animal happiness drops below a certain level, the player can no longer adopt animals into the zoo. The player must increase the animals’ happiness and maintain it for a certain amount of time in order to be able to adopt more animals. Zoo Tycoon also promotes animal conservation and research. The player has the option of funding conservation projects and research projects with monthly donations. As these projects are completed, the player has access to new animals and objects to put in the zoo.