Narrative Selfies and Player-Character Intimacy in Interface Games

This paper examines how selfies function within "interface games," narrative titles staged inside simulated computer, smartphone, or app environments, and how these images negotiate intimacy between player and character while constraining player agency. Its central claim is that intimacy in such games is a fragile tension between privacy and publicness, and that selfies are shaped by the technological and social infrastructures that surround them. The analysis draws on Faimau's three frameworks of self-presentation, communication, and social critique, applied to three case studies: Nina Freeman's autobiographical Cibele (2015), Bury Me, My Love, and A Normal Lost Phone.

The author argues that interface games blur extra-fictional, non-diegetic, and fictional levels of meaning, which can foster compassionate play and reflection on datafication. In Cibele, the curated desktop reveals a developer who carefully selects which images to share and with whom, positioning the player as a voyeur whose presence is partly excused by the autobiographical consent behind the work. Restricted agency and a linear structure create distance, but this constraint is presented as purposeful rather than a design failure.

In Bury Me, My Love, selfies operate communicatively, conveying safety, longing, and trust between the characters Nour and Majd. The paper highlights that receiving a more intimate selfie before a bond is fully developed produces the discomfort of non-consensual voyeurism. A Normal Lost Phone is read as raising more serious ethical questions about privacy and violation, particularly given its marginalized trans protagonist, while the game is faulted for failing to address the consequences of the player's intrusion.

Overall, the paper concludes that these interface games use selfies meaningfully to negotiate intimacy, though they generally maintain more emotional distance than agency-driven narratives such as Life is Strange. The scope centers on contemporary narrative games and draws on photography theory, game studies, and research on intimacy, privacy, and consent.