https://gamestudies.org The international journal of computer game research Jonne Arjoranta https://gamestudies.org/2203/articles/arjoranta_how_are_games_interpreted This paper presents a hermeneutic theory for game studies. It starts by giving an overview of hermeneutics, shows how in understanding games it is useful to divide hermeneutics into two aspects -- real-time hermeneutics and game hermeneutics -- and finishes by detailing complementary approaches to hermeneutics for games. Ryan Banfi https://gamestudies.org/2203/articles/banfi This article examines Ellie’s journal in The Last of Us Part II. Naughty Dog utilizes this artifact as a paratext to expand upon their game’s main narrative. By critically investigating Ellie’s diary, this paper explains how videogame stories are inherently singular. Marina Fontolan,James Wilson Malazita,Janaina Pamplona da Costa https://gamestudies.org/2203/articles/fontolan_malazita_dacosta This paper aims to analyze the role players have in videogame localization based on perceptions of localization experts. We use data gathered during ethnographic field work in videogame conventions, archival materials and interviews with localization experts. We conclude that players are key actors driving localization practices. Tanja Välisalo,Maria Ruotsalainen https://gamestudies.org/2203/articles/valisalo_ruotsalainen This study explores how belonging and non-belonging are constructed in discussions around sexuality of game characters in the multiplayer online game Overwatch. Rhetoric-performative discourse analysis is used to identify how different understandings of games, game characters and their functions are used to negotiate who is allowed to belong. John Vanderhoef,Matthew Thomas Payne https://gamestudies.org/2203/articles/vanderhoef_payne This article argues that Red Dead Redemption 2’s deployment of slow game time thwarts player expectations for speed and efficiency, thereby complicating its relationship to hegemonic play and pleasures typical of triple-A, blockbuster action-adventure games.