Not Actual Gameplay, but is it Real Life?

Live-Action Footage in Digital Game Trailers and Advertising as Gamerspace

Résumé

This article examines this boundary between the virtual and the real in digital game trailers and argues that the blurring of this boundary through live action footage creates a third space that encompasses the virtual world and the physical world, called “gamerspace.” This study reports on focus groups with gamers who responded to four different game trailers. The participants’ interpretation of the trailers demonstrates how the gamers saw digital gameplay enacted in different spaces besides just the virtual world of the game itself. The presence of live action scenes in digital game trailers complicate the boundaries of digital games and has implications for the ways games are marketed for mass audiences.