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/…
Magic: The Gathering is a little problematic in this regard, because the big thing its games are "about" are spells and magical effects, but because the world that they affect has so little definition in comparison, the spells have little explanatory grounding as a result.
…crossposted from fairysvoice.net/microblog/…