ABSTRACT
On the basis of a couple of recent publications of mine on the theme of fictional games, this essay introduces some fundamental uses and characteristics of games that can be exclusively encountered in works of fiction. One of the core narrative themes of The Clouds revolves around artificial worlds and the meaning of being and acting within them. Returning Sails is presented as a competitive turn-based strategy board game for two people that is experienced through a holographic device. Returning Sails invites Western the reader to envisage a technologically advanced fictional world that is similar to their own in terms of social politics and play. Accordingly, in its opening section, it divided fictional games into two fundamental analytical categories: fictional games that function as background narrative devices serving worldbuilding purposes and those that serve as elements that are central to the narrative development of the fictional work of which they are a part.
