Ignoring the fact that doing this analysis made me decide to play a run of the game again (don’t judge me), let’s go ahead and discuss what I learned from r/bindingofisaac today! First let’s start by mentioning another lesson spoken through Understanding Rhetoric: “…while writing exists in many spaces, it also moves. It changes shape, form, and function depending on what we’re communicating, to whom, and how. Sometimes similar ideas may be published in very different kinds of work. … writing moves toward audiences — sometimes specific and intended audiences, and sometimes unintended audiences. As writing gets read, other people can respond.” I’ll explain all of this as I go through what I discovered.

Upon first going to the subreddit, I noticed that the Item Workshop discussion about how an item could possibly be made better has changed to a new item (yesterday it was focusing on “Chocolate Milk” and today it’s focusing on “Remote Detonator”), which confirms my previous assumption that the this is a discussion that changes daily. This is also an example of writing changing form; even though the structure of the writing is the same, the topic has changed, and as such, the communication transforms as well. I also noticed different kinds of post today, one such being fan art or fan projects that people have done as tribute to the game series, such as comics, posters or even board games, as well as post of people doing assignments and requesting the people of the subreddit for assistance (using the space for this task changes it into more than just an area for video game discourse, but also for educational discourse as well). I also discovered an interesting post about an easter egg (for those who are unaware, an easter egg is an extra thing in a game that adds a bit of nice flavor that most of the time doesn’t affect the gameplay) that is in the game that I never knew about until just now. If I wasn’t doing the analysis of this subreddit for the purpose of this blog post, I still wouldn’t have known about this hidden treat, making me part of the unintended audience for this tidbit of knowledge. The community still seems to be quite friendly and constructive, again relaying the rhetorical structure of the community and how discourse should happen within the space.

What I find really interesting is how much people continue to follow this game series with how old it is. The original The Binding of Isaac was released on September 28, 2011, while the Rebirth sequel was released on November 4, 2014. I guess it helps that each game had additional DLC come out that helped the games stay fresh, but this really speaks so much for the amount of replay-ability the games have. Well, that’s all I have for today’s update; let’s see what tomorrow has in store for us, and maybe I won’t get distracted by wanting to play this game again (I make no promises, but fingers crossed).