I’m not supposed to be buying books, but Cameron Kunzelman over at Game Studies Study Buddies podcast said that Gameworld Interfaces by Kristine Jørgensen is “one of the greatest books of game studies ever written”.
Sold!!! And then I paid some eye watering international shipping 🙁
An investigation into computer game interfaces, both naturalistic and symbolic, and the distinction between gameworlds and other kinds of fictional worlds.
Computer games usually take one of two approaches to presenting game information to players. A game might offer information naturalistically, as part of the game’s imaginary universe; or it might augment the world of the game with overlays, symbols, and menus. In this book, Kristine Jørgensen investigates both kinds of gameworld interfaces. She shows that although the naturalistic approach may appear more integral to the imaginary world of the game, both the invisible and visible interfaces effectively present information that players need in order to interact with the game and its rules. The symbolic, less naturalistic approach would seem to conflict with the idea of a coherent, autonomous fictional universe; but, Jørgensen argues, gameworlds are not governed by the pursuit of fictional coherence but by the logics of game mechanics. This is characteristic of gameworlds and distinguishes them from other traditional fictional worlds.
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