Metareference in Videogames

Theresa Krampe is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW) at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and a Guest Researcher in Media Studies at Osnabrück University, Germany.

“This outstanding monograph develops a comprehensive conceptualization of metareference in videogames that systematically takes into account transmedial and medium-specific aspects, offering an impressively broad survey of the metareferential strategies that videogames use as well as a theoretically sophisticated model for the close analysis of videogame-specific forms and functions of metareference.”- Prof. Dr. Jan-Noël Thon, Osnabrück University"Much has been written about self-reflexivity in games and other digital fictions, about anti-, meta- and paraludic forms and structures. Yet a full-fledged, systematic study on how games can break fourth walls, create metaleptic transgressions and more generally refer to, parody and problematize their own gameness has long been overdue. Krampe’s diligent work delights as much as it enlightens not only the critical, postmodern and/or scholarly reader/player in us, but indeed anyone wishing to understand the unique creative and literally game-changing affordances of a medium more often misunderstood for its apparently one-sided effects than appreciated for its ultimate complexity and innate, deep metareferentiality."- Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin, Director of DAS|LAB, University of Regensburg

• List of Figures Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Theorizing Metareference: Concepts, Definitions, Models 3 Metareferential Elements in Videogames: Proposal of an Analytical Model 4 Gameworld-Centred Forms of Metareference in What Remains of Edith Finch 5 System-Centred Forms of Metareference in The Magic Circle 6 Game-Transcending Forms of Metareference in OneShot 7 Conclusion Index