ABSTRACT
This chapter is dedicated to a detailed analysis of OneShot (2016) as a representative of the (as yet) comparatively small group of videogames that “really” cross the divide between the game and what is outside it. During the game, there are several instances in which OneShot adds new files and folders to the player’s computer, manipulates its desktop interface, or requires the player to play across multiple windows and make changes to game files via the WIMP interfaces of the Windows operating system. By means of what we might refer to as a genuine ontological metalepsis to the user’s system, OneShot thus extends its gameplay to the actual computer and reveals how the architecture of its fictional world is mirrored in its data structure. Despite the exposure of its own artifice, however, OneShot places considerable emphasis on fostering very real attachments towards the fictional characters in the player, creating an interesting dynamic between immersion and medium awareness.
