When a game is more than 'just a game' : metanarrative integration tools in video games

Abstract

Video games are often dismissed in public discourse as 'just games,' implying experiences framed around play, entertainment, and escapism. Yet some titles operate across additional layers of meaning, positioning players within broader systems of cultural, ethical, and interpretive significance. This paper examines the design mechanisms through which such positioning occurs, introducing the concept of metanarrative integration tools. Drawing on Lyotard's conceptualization of metanarratives as legitimizing ideological frameworks, we define these tools as devices that mediate transitions between a game's narrative layer and a higher-level metanarrative perspective, shaping how meaning is constructed through gameplay. Rather than being predefined, these tools were identified inductively through the analysis of autoethnographic data on contemporary games, which revealed patterns of recurrence across cases. Instead of treating interpretive depth as a thematic byproduct, we foreground how specific design choices actively integrate metanarrative meaning, offering a foundation to understand how a game can become, sometimes, more than 'just a game.'