ABSTRACT
Currently, a new and medium-specific form of metareference is taking shape in videogames. This form, which I propose to call "game-transcending metareference," is characterized by a genuine ontological metalepsis between the videogame and what is outside it. Indie horror games, in particular, can be observed to manipulate the real computer's operating system or involve the player in a kind of alternate reality game that takes them well beyond the game's own program window. Thereby, these games not only blur the boundaries between fiction and reality but also undermine the assumption that the player is invulnerable; protected from real-life consequences by the magic circle of play. In this chapter, I analyze the use of game-transcending metareference in contemporary indie horror games with a particular focus on their impact on the player's emotional experience. Using Imscared: A Pixelated Nightmare (2016) and Archimedes (2016) as my main case studies, I argue that game-transcending metareference is an effective means of creating a player-centered kind of horror that relies not so much on the fear elicited by the narrative or gameplay, but rather videogames' uncanny ability to transgress the supposedly inviolable boundary to "real life."
