Spel som berättelser

Abstract

The aim of this article is to contribute with knowledge of how games are regarded as stories. Based on a discourse analysis of game reviews from the years 1999, 2009 and 2019 in a specialized computer games magazine, Svenska PCGamer, the article distinguishes between four discourses on games. These focus on, respectively, visual design, intrigue and interactivity, text analysis and the experience of gaming. The analysis shows that, in the period, the discourses shift to regarding games increasingly as an aesthetic experience akin to reading fiction and watching films. However, specific aspects, such as interactivity and genre, distinguish the phenomenon of gaming from other mediations of fiction. The article presents these findings and discusses them from an education perspective, where games can serve as a complement to printed fiction, movies and other fictional texts in Swedish L1.

Keywords

• discourse analysis
• education
• video games
• fiction
• narrative competence