ABSTRACT
In the face of the rich and rapidly expanding field that is “metagames,” it seems increasingly urgent to put forward a comprehensive and systematic framework for the study of the different elements, strategies, and devices that can contribute to metaization videogames. This chapter is dedicated to developing a conceptualization of metareference that connects to the study of the phenomenon in other media but is nevertheless able to capture the medium-specificity of videogames. To this end, it presents a comprehensive overview of existing approaches to metareference across disciplines, with particular focus on the theories of metafiction that emerged in the wake of postmodernism in literary studies, the transmedial approaches brought forth by (transmedial) narratologists since the 2000s, and finally the emerging interest in meta-phenomena in game studies in recent years. The second half of the chapter engages with some of the most pressing unresolved questions in the study of metareference by exploring the metareferential potential of related devices such as metalepsis, mise en abyme, and intermedial references and by reconsidering metareference’s signature effect of medium awareness.
