Contribution to the conference « Alexis Blanchet : Les jeux vidéo dans les cultures médiatiques », Université de Limoges, 1/10/2013

The close reading of the quests “The Missing Play” in Fable III allows to show different uses of books in the Lionhead series:

• they are used as parts of the gameplay at the same time as mechanisms to trigger meta-reflexivity so the play oscillates between immersion and detachment
• they allow to claim a specificity for video games as an art form, while depicting them as heirs of literary culture
• they contribute to the implied definition of a good story, which is based upon the mixing between tragic and comic.