The world that wasn’t there: Interstitial ontological spaces in contemporary video games
- Authors
- Type
- Published Article
- Journal
- Frontiers of Narrative Studies
- Publisher
- De Gruyter
- Publication Date
- Jun 28, 2018
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 112–122
- Identifiers
- DOI: 10.1515/fns-2018-0008
- Source
- De Gruyter
- Keywords
- License
- Yellow
Abstract
This paper will examine three contemporary video games – Undertale, The magic circle and Pony Island – with an eye towards delineating the ways in which their unique storyworlds and ontological structures align with recent trends in unnatural narratology. Specifically, these games contain interstitial diegetic spaces, and empower the player to move through ‘cracks’ in the façade of the fictional world by acting as a metaphorical programmer, manipulating game files and other extradiegetic components. The metaleptic processes enabled by these actions expose aspects of the respective storyworlds which have been deliberately concealed. Consequently, the games in question literalize existing theories regarding our projection and cognitive exploration of fictional worlds, as they are singular in their capacity for experimentation and transgression of established ontological frameworks.
