Conspiracy Thinking and Videogame Interpretation

This paper argues that videogame players and conspiracy theorists share surprisingly similar interpretive mechanics, even though they differ in a key respect: conspiracy theorists come to believe their theories, while players merely imagine fictional truths. Drawing on examples ranging from the unresolved door in Shadow of the Colossus to lore-research around FromSoftware titles, the authors contend that the two communities are shaped by common psychological and aesthetic forces. The paper situates this comparison within philosophy of fiction, invoking Carroll and Walton on the distinction between belief and imagination, and frames its analysis as a case study in how interpretive practices operate across fictional and real-world contexts.

The authors organize their argument around three factors that shape interpretation in both communities. The first is a bias toward meaningfulness, which they link to Ricoeur's hermeneutics of faith and of suspicion and to documented tendencies such as intentionality bias and pattern-seeking. The second is a desire for clarity, drawing on Thi Nguyen's account of the "seductions of clarity," and distinguishing between the epistemic gappiness of our knowledge and the aesthetic crispness of narratives that resolve ambiguity. The third is the role of personal values and self-perception, as shared commitments to identity, elite status, gender, and politics guide which interpretations communities embrace or reject.

The paper concludes that the epistemic goal of discovering the truth, whether about the actual world or a gameworld, is frequently overridden by aesthetically motivated interpretations that give meaning to every detail, offer tidy explanations, and reinforce cherished self-narratives. The analysis is conceptual and illustrative rather than empirical, relying on qualitative examples and existing psychological literature rather than survey data or systematic sampling. It is presented as a contribution to a broader understanding of how interpretive pleasure and epistemic commitment intertwine.