Player Experience: Articulating Suspense as a Configurative Encounter

Abstract

As a complex and hybrid medium, games are at once a ‘text’ that can be read and an activity that demands that players participate in the construction of its structure. This article seeks to articulate the relationship and interactions between games and their players, with a specifi c focus on suspense as a type of player involvement. Previous studies lack a description of the specifi c qualities of game suspense or the participatory aspects that are responsible for triggering the emotion. By examining how the textual and structural characteristics of the game trigger specifi c types of suspense, this article explores the involvement of a player between the virtual world and the actual confi gurative act of play, where personal success and failure are at stake.