Space as a remediation of the character’s metaphor: a narrative provocation

Abstract

In the digital games, the joy of navigation can be interpreted as one of the agency features, and it can be exploited as a resource to enhance the player’s immersion. Like every element of a game, which are orchestrated by a narrative, the space can be projected to influence this immersion process, making possible both the immediacy and hypermediacy, when there are moments of transparency and opacity of the media respectively. In this way, this article analyzes the space of the game as a remediation of the character’s metaphor, which fosters the players’ agency that causes the users engagement. Through narrative poetics, remediation and agency, the digital game Journey is analyzed by the close reading method. The results suggest that the character’s metaphor allows the player to establish a dialogue with the space, which kind of pleasure can be achieved by immersion. Finally, it is argued that immersion supports the environment transparency, enabling player engagement.