Hello, and welcome to another episode of Talk This! It’s Dangerous to Podcast Alone. This week, we’re talking about video games that include the player in the story. I’ve played more than one video game, I promise.
As always, you can listen to our podcast basically anywhere. Check it out on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, or Pandora (or head over to our episodes page for even more options). Or just listen below!
The Topic
What are games that involve the player in the narrative? How do games approach doing this? Is a fourth wall break necessary in order to directly acknowledge or include the player in some way? Why are games in a position where they can engage the player like this in contrast to other forms of media?
The Actual Discussion
We talk about a few different categories of metafiction and where this particular subset of games falls within those classifications. In doing so, we cover a few different examples of these types of games. Some of the games treat the player as a twist while others are more upfront. Some games treat the player as a “player” while others give the player some kind of role to play. We talk about how these games differ from each other in their approaches.
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Enjoy the episode! Tell us what you think in the comments or on social media. Make sure to check out last week’s episode and look forward to next week’s where we’re talking about Lumines and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.