Video Games as Self‐Involving Interactive Fictions

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 74 (2):165-177 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This article explores the nature and theoretical import of a hitherto neglected class of fictions which we term ‘self-involving interactive fictions’. SIIFs are interactive fictions, but they differ from standard examples of interactive fictions by being, in some important sense, about those who consume them. In order to better understand the nature of SIIFs, and the ways in which they differ from other fictions, we focus primarily on the most prominent example of the category: video-game fictions. We argue that appreciating the self-involving nature of video-game fictions is key to understanding various otherwise puzzling phenomena concerning the ways in which consumers respond to them. Video-game fictions are, however, far from being the only extant example of this class; and we suggest that the recent philosophical interest in video games would be better focused on the wider class of self-involving interactive fictions.

Other Versions

reprint Robson, Jon; Meskin, Aaron (2016) "Video Games as Self-Involving Interactive Fictions". Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 74(2):165-177

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-04-26

Downloads
829 (#23,415)

6 months
153 (#26,382)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Aaron Meskin
University of Georgia

Citations of this work

Games and the art of agency.C. Thi Nguyen - 2019 - Philosophical Review 128 (4):423-462.
Philosophy of games.C. Thi Nguyen - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (8):e12426.
Video Games as Self-Involving Interactive Fictions.Jon Robson & Aaron Meskin - 2016 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 74 (2):165-177.
Ludic resistance: a new solution to the gamer’s paradox.Louis Rouillé - 2024 - Ethics and Information Technology 26 (2):1-11.

View all 29 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Fiction as a Genre.Stacie Friend - 2012 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 112 (2pt2):179--209.
The Nature of Fiction.Susan L. Feagin - 1992 - Philosophical Review 101 (4):948.
What Are Videogames Anyway?Grant Tavinor - 2009-09-21 - In Dominic McIver Lopes (ed.), The Art of Videogames. Wiley‐Blackwell. pp. 15–33.
I—Kathleen Stock: Fictive Utterance and Imagining.Kathleen Stock - 2011 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 85 (1):145-161.

View all 17 references / Add more references