Something I've been thinking about is how games, in particular TCGs, will have mechanics' diegetic meaning be more vague/ambiguous whenever they depict details at the periphery of the story, away from the focus of action.
…crossposted from fairysvoice.net/microblog/…
Netrunner is a good example: the mechanics relating to what the runner does in prep for runs, such as location cards, card draw events, etc., are a lot less definite than cards that are the focus of attention during runs (ICE, icebreakers, agendas, etc.). Backstory versus story.
…crossposted from fairysvoice.net/microblog/…
Even non-simulation videogames like orthodox JRPGs, tend to give more detail to very carefully selected mechanics: equipment, for instance, gets a lot more detail than money, the inventory, or physical health (outside of HP and status effects).
…crossposted from fairysvoice.net/microblog/…