Experiential Metaphors in Abstract Games

Jason Begy's "Experiential Metaphors in Abstract Games" argues that abstract games, which lack obvious representational "aboutness," can nonetheless be interpreted through experiential metaphor. This is a cognitive form of structural metaphor grounded in the player's lived experience of play. The argument distinguishes abstract games, whose objects function primarily as symbols rather than icons, from representational ones: Go and Rod Humble's The Marriage qualify as abstract, while Chess, largely iconic in its pieces, does not. Begy's central claim is that meaning emerges when players map the affective texture of gameplay onto other experiences, with that projection relying on image schemata and systemic correlations within a game's formal properties.

The document develops this mechanism by drawing on Rusch's analysis of God of War II, Bogost's concept of the "simulation gap," and the MDA framework alongside Järvinen's goal-based account of game emotion, such as panic in Missile Command. Its key analytical observation is that both metaphor and simulation amplify some aspects of their source while masking others, so any interpretation depends on what a game emphasizes or omits. Begy applies this critical method to Tetris, where Janet Murray's reading of the game as an allegory for 1990s American overwork is challenged by Eskelinen and Bogost. Begy concludes that Murray's interpretation is properly metaphorical rather than narrative.

Begy's own work extends the method to Tetris and his game Tipping Point, mapping tension, relief, and mounting pressure onto white-collar overwork and the experience of a school semester. He contends that the approach becomes rigorous when source-to-target mappings are explicitly specified, as Bogost demanded, and that such specification makes the interpretation testable. The document positions experiential metaphor as both a critical tool and a design strategy applicable across abstract and representational games, noting that broad audiences can recognize intended mappings. The work is grounded in game studies and design theory, including Juul's Half-Real, Murray's Hamlet on the Holodeck, and Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor research, and it reflects a formal, theory-driven orientation toward the field.