ABSTRACT
This article argues that the additional medium-specific possibilities of implicit metareference in videogames are accompanied by the requirement of more or clearer markers to indicate the presence of a metalevel. Since an implicit metareferential comment is not conveyed by the surface meaning of the sign configuration, markers are necessary to prompt the recipient to read beyond the conventional meaning. Using Far Cry 2 (2008) and Far Cry 3 (2012) as case studies, three categories of potential marker failure due to noise, player perception, and decoding issues are illustrated. By considering the system-theoretical concepts of interpenetration and structural coupling to describe the player-videogame relationship, the analysis of these categories identifies the increased complexity and consequent necessity of complexity reduction as the principal causes of an increased probability of marker failure in videogames.
