Pretend-Playing Fictional Games: The Case of Glaive Master Hodir

Description

When Elden Ring (FromSoftware 2022) had been announced but not yet released, users of the Elden Ring-subreddit collectively pretended to have played it already, creating a communally imagined, fictional version of Elden Ring. They discussed strategies to beat its bosses, most notably the dreaded (and completely made-up) Glaive Master Hodir. In this talk, I discuss how this comical pretend-play was governed by rules that were informed by the actual game literacy of its players, giving rise to an intricate game of make-believe which one could actually win or lose.

This presentation was part of the panel on "Fictional Games and Fictional Game Studies", organised by Stefano Gualeni, Riccardo Fassone, Cristina Di Maio, Daniel Vella and Nele Van de Mosselaer.

Period	22 Jun 2023
Event title	Digital Games Research Association Conference 2023: Limits and margins of games
Event type	Conference
Location	SevillaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International