The end of a world and the loss of a friend: meaning and mourning in online game sunset rhetoric

ABSTRACT Prior rhetorical research suggests that humans grapple with death through media, popular culture, and interactions with technology. This essay details a rhetorical cogitation on mortality and existence surrounding a popular and long-running mobile game’s “sunset,” or end, through examining online media articles reporting on The Simpsons Tapped Out (TSTO) mobile game sunsetting process. As human life becomes increasingly technology-mediated, and research expands in this area, how relationships between humans and technology are represented rhetorically warrants attention. This essay offers a twofold loss framing of the game that goes beyond a technology-based object to reflect a place and a companion. Language on mortality and existence appears when digital content, including the game and the curated and potentially purchased content within it, is lost. As previous rhetorical research suggests that humans seek to circumvent death via technology, this essay broadens that rhetorical understanding to include the loss of digital content.