Fictional Game Spectatorship: On Pretend-Play and Collective Imagination in Gaming Communities
Van de Mosselaer,Nele
Van de Mosselaer,Nele
Abstract
Fictional games are games that do not actually exist, but that are presented within works of fiction. They are thus not appreciated through play, but rather through practices of game spectatorship, interpreted broadly as acts of reading, watching, or listening to reports or representations of other people playing games. This paper focuses on fictional games that are pretend-played with the aim of creating captivating experiences for non-playing audiences. More specifcally, I discuss a fictional game created on the subreddit dedicated to the videogame Elden Ring. Before this game was released, users pretended to have played it already, creating a communally imagined, fictional version of Elden Ring. Framing this as an act of game spectatorship, I discuss this comical make-believe game, focusing on the shared game literacy that was leveraged in pretend-play and the way in which it gamified the spectator experience.
Description
Date
2025-10-31
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
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Journal Issue
Keywords
fiction, imagination, pretence, games
Citation
Van de Mosselaer, N 2025, 'Fictional Game Spectatorship : On Pretend-Play and Collective Imagination in Gaming Communities', The British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 651–662.