Gaming in the Metaverse: Digital rights, media ecologies and the discourses of digital games
Has been published in the Journal of Digial Media and Policy special issue: Metaverse Futures: Policy, Power and the Digital Media Landscape.
Sandra Alvaro and María Aránzazu Pérez-Indaverea (2026). Gaming in the Metaverse: Digital rights, media ecologies and the discourses of digital games. Journal of Digital Media & Policy, Volume 17, Issue Metaverse Futures: Policy, Power, and the Digital Media Landscape, Jun 2026, p. 239 – 258. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00206_1
Abstract: Video games are among the main entry points to the Metaverse and offer a glimpse of its possible realization, thereby serving as a useful arena for discussing and anticipating policy frameworks. This article analyses three well-known and diverse metaversal games – Fortnite, Minecraft and Guild Wars 2 – at two levels. At the surface, the analysis focuses on the narratives that unfold across interaction while transmitting values and shaping the gamer’s subjectivities in forms that transcend the game arena. At a more infrastructural level, we analyse the terms of service, which coalesce from the companies’ histories and their efforts to balance economic profit and fair participation. This analysis aims to explore a series of issues contemplated in the EU Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles and identified in the previous review of grey literature produced by governmental or well-established non-governmental institutions. From a humanities perspective on Metaverse policy, this article considers metaversal games as potential participatory spaces for collectively proposing a more ethical and diverse Metaverse.
Keywords: cultural narratives; digital sovereignty; entertainment platforms; ethics; game aesthetics; immersive environments; video games