Feelies: The Lost Art of Immersing the Narrative

Veli-Matti Karhulahti's paper examines "feelies," the physical story-related materials, such as maps, documents, and novelty items, distributed with early digital games, and argues that these objects act as narrative props that deepen players' imaginative immersion. The author frames the issue around a tension between interactivity and authorial control: as games give players more agency, they weaken the author's grip on the story and can fragment the player's identification with a character or world. Feelies are proposed as a counterweight, operating on two levels, a global one that enriches the sense of the story world and a local one that anchors the player within a specific situation and player character. The paper also contends that the tactile quality of physical materials gives them an immersive dimension that purely digital content cannot replicate.

The argument is developed through close analysis of two 1980s Infocom detective text adventures, Witness (1983) and Deadline (1982), whose packaging included newspapers, police-style case files, and other objects that situate the player in period-specific settings. The analysis considers how such items supply background detail, invite cross-referencing with in-game dialogue, and occasionally create ontological disjunctions, as when a physical envelope can be opened in defiance of a game rule. The paper also notes the converse risk: attention divided between analog and digital material can disrupt immersion, though this is judged minor in statically timed games.

The work draws on a theoretical base that includes Marie-Laure Ryan's and Ermi and Mäyrä's models of immersion, Janet Murray's notion of encyclopedic writing, and Gérard Genette's concept of paratexts. The study is qualitative and text-based rather than empirical, relying on a small number of case studies and historical sources rather than player data, and it is presented as a conceptual contribution to the study of narrative game design and the material culture of games.