@article{ART003310504},
author={Park Jangbeom},
title={The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3},
journal={Journal of Popular Narrative},
issn={1738-3188},
year={2026},
volume={32},
number={1},
pages={289-326},
doi={10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008}
TY - JOUR
AU - Park Jangbeom
TI - The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3
JO - Journal of Popular Narrative
PY - 2026
VL - 32
IS - 1
PB - The Association of Popular Narrative
SP - 289
EP - 326
SN - 1738-3188
AB - This study examines the hermeneutic temporality of digital game narratives through Paul Ricœur’s concept of triple mimesis, arguing that digital temporality conditions both narrative meaning and human temporal experience. Unlike traditional narratives, digital games do not exist as pre-completed texts; narrative and meaning emerge through gameplay. Treating digital game narratives as interpretive texts, the study analyzes Baldur’s Gate 3 to explore how gameplay intervenes in narrative formation and meaning production.
The analysis shows that interpretation occurs as a digitally mediated process in which players organize narrative experience within their own lives through narrative identity. Meaning emerges retrospectively from how players structure the time and experience of play, making gameplay itself a distinct mode of interpretation. The hermeneutic temporality of digital game narratives thus consists of time organized through performance, while digital temporality provides the condition that enables such organization.
From this perspective, interpretation must be reconsidered in relation to action under digital conditions. More broadly, the study proposes digital temporality as a fundamental condition for narrative meaning formation in contemporary media environments.
KW - Digital Game Narratives;Digital Temporality;Mimesis;Hermeneutics;Baldur’s Gate
DO - 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008
ER -
Park Jangbeom. (2026). The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3. Journal of Popular Narrative, 32(1), 289-326.
Park Jangbeom. 2026, "The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3", Journal of Popular Narrative, vol.32, no.1 pp.289-326. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008
Park Jangbeom "The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3" Journal of Popular Narrative 32.1 pp.289-326 (2026) : 289.
Park Jangbeom. The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3. 2026; 32(1), 289-326. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008
Park Jangbeom. "The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3" Journal of Popular Narrative 32, no.1 (2026) : 289-326.doi: 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008
Park Jangbeom. The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3. Journal of Popular Narrative, 32(1), 289-326. doi: 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008
Park Jangbeom. The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3. Journal of Popular Narrative. 2026; 32(1) 289-326. doi: 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008
Park Jangbeom. The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3. 2026; 32(1), 289-326. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008
Park Jangbeom. "The Hermeneutic Temporality of Digital Game Narratives - Digital Time and Meaning in Baldur’s Gate 3" Journal of Popular Narrative 32, no.1 (2026) : 289-326.doi: 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.008
