The Fictional Filter

How Videogames Challenge Traditional Paradigms of Fictional Reconstruction

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of fiction in relation to the representational arts and argues that videogames introduce a new convention for fictional reconstruction, different from other paradigmatic conventions employed in more traditional art forms. We begin by providing an account of how fiction has been conceptualized in relation to the art of literature by author such as Searle (1975), Ryan (1980), and Iser (1993), and how it is conceptualized in the art of videogames following the theoretical propositions of authors such as Walton (1990), Juul (2005, 2014), and Thon (2016). We then propose the concept of “fictional filter” to designate an interpretive competence developed by players in their process of videogame literacy, which conditions how fictional worlds are to be reconstructed based on the semiotic representation presented by videogames. Finally, we argue for the validity of our proposed concept by employing it in the analysis of three historically removed games of similar genres: Deus Ex (ION STORM, 2000), Fallout: New Vegas (OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT, 2010), and Disco Elysium (ZA/UM, 2021). We were able to conclude that the concept of the fictional filter may be a useful tool in describing and discussing the poetical and aesthetical peculiarities of the art of videogames.

Keywords: fiction; videogames; fictional worlds; fictional filter.