Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2022

Keywords

paratext, mobile games, Animal Crossing, Aglet, textual studies

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211030096

Abstract

In this response article, I revisit the idea of paratext in video games. I start, however, with the example of a book by Tolstoy, and the textual studies work of McKenzie and McGann, in order to make the point that paratextuality has never been limited to Genette’s rigid definition, even in the case of print texts. Video games foreground what has always been the case: the dynamic, volatile, multidirectional nature of paratexts, which can take you into but also out of the enclosure of the main text (or “game itself”) in unexpected ways. Illustrations include Animal Crossing: New Horizons and a mobile sneakerhead game, Aglet.

Comments

Pre-print version of article restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses.

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Games and Culture, v. 17, issue 3, p. 344-353.

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