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A feelie is a physical item included to supplement a video game. Likely deriving their name from the fictional media in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World, feelies were popularized by the American video game company Infocom in the 1980s and subsequently adopted by such companies as Origin Systems and Sierra Entertainment in the United States and Namco and ASCII in Japan. Becoming less prevalent since the rise of digital distribution, feelies are now limited primarily to deluxe editions that are sold at a premium.
Feelies may take various forms, with common ones including reproductions of game objects, printed materials, cosmetics, and figurines. Historically, feelies allowed video game developers to implement copy protection and minimize the amount of digital space used for supplemental materials while simultaneously distinguishing their products from those of competitors. For players, feelies could provide assistance during gameplay, opportunities for continued play elsewhere, and improved immersion. Scholars have explored feelies as , while video game journalists have recalled them fondly.
Common feelies include reproductions of objects from games, printed materials (such as comic books and novels), and cosmetics for game controllers. Some feelies are integrated into game packaging; the packaging itself may also constitute a feelie. are common feelies in deluxe editions, and may assume a static pose or come with articulated joints that allow for play. Other recorded feelies have included tissues and dry pasta (Infogrames' Murders in Venice, 1989), as well as a cotton ball and a plastic bag said to contain a "microscopic space fleet" (Infocom's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1984).
The video game scholar Ian Peters divides feelies into two categories, artefacts and collectibles. He defines artefacts as objects that "seem to have been yanked from the immaterial world into the material one", thereby providing players with a tangible link to the game world. Collectibles, meanwhile, are understood as generally scaled-down objects that represent elements of the game world without being offered as examples of items contained therein.
Infocom developer Steve Meretzky notes that, in the early years of video gaming when limited space was available for interactive digital media, feelies benefitted the production team by freeing space for other content. Remembering the production of Deadline (1982), Lebling contrasted the game with detective stories. Where novels had space for pages of exposition, such space was not available in contemporary media, and thus the Infocom team had developed a dossier to provide players with the necessary context and information to play the game.
As marketing material, feelies create a sense of added value, giving the impression that games are luxury items. Such upselling has become particularly commonplace with the practice of issuing of video games that contain the games themselves as well as supplemental materials. These special editions, partly due to the size of the figurines and other merchandise contained therein, have distinctive packaging that distinguishes them from other games. After purchase, such packaging may be displayed as artwork.
Some feelies provide players with information that could be used to solve puzzles during gameplay, as in Infocom's Deadline and Cutthroats (1984). Other feelies are used to provide general guidance, such as the cloth maps included with Sierra Entertainment's (1982) and subsequent instalments. Some, such as the pin included with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1984), offer accessories with which players can indicate their interests to others.
Feelies can also contribute to player immersion. This is achieved, in part, through their contribution to worldbuilding. The Witness (1983), for instance, included the fictitious magazine National Detective Gazette as well as a modified copy of the Santa Ana Register, thereby introducing players to game characters as well as the general context of 1930s California. Similarly, Deadline practised worldbuilding through a series of documents that players were instructed to read before beginning the game. and behind-the-scenes videos are sometimes included with collectors' editions, providing insight into the production process.
Feelies provide a physical object that can stimulate the sense of touch even as the other senses are occupied elsewhere.; Some feelies, such as the brochure for the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School (FACS) that was packaged with Sierra Entertainment's (1989), explicitly identify the player as a potential hero, thereby drawing them into the narrative. Others, such as the Goku wig included with (2012), invite players to dress as game characters. Such feelies may be used for role-playing purposes.
Infocom's American competitors Origin Systems and Sierra Entertainment also began to include physical items with their releases in the 1980s, including the headband shipped with Origin's (1985) and the FACS brochure shipped with Sierra's Quest for Glory. Japanese companies also began to ship physical goods with their releases. For (1987), Namco produced a decoder for the game's , while ASCII shipped its strategy game Fleet Commander (1988) alongside a map and miniature ships with which players could track fleet movements.
Such feelies increased the production cost of games, at times resulting in tension between developers and publishing teams. Regarding the Ultima series, Origin vice-president Dallas Snell recalled that developer Richard Garriott would argue for high quality feelies with every instalment, despite the financial burden imposed on the company; conversely, the publishing team would suggest using paper instead of cloth and plastic instead of metal. Lebling considered the cost factor the main reason for Activision abandoning feelies after it acquired Infocom.
Since the 2010s, digitally distributed video games have become more prevalent than physical releases. Where physical copies of games are released, they generally have limited supplemental materials.; Most feelies are included in deluxe editions of video games. Compared to the feelies produced by Infocom and its contemporaries, these objects are generally of higher material quality. The game boxes may be shaped like in-game objects, such as the batarang case used for the deluxe edition of Rocksteady Studios's (2009). Some releases contain special steel cases for the games contained therein.
Other approaches to integrating video game content with merchandise have also been adopted. Some games, such as the Webkinz series, allowed players to include their real-world purchases in case of Webkinz into video games. Others, such as Mass Effect 3 (2012), included codes for downloadable content with merchandise and figurines. The video games scholar Carly Kocurek writes that, although these items are not identified as feelies, they "all fit the general purpose" by integrating merchandise and gameplay. Merchandise may also be offered as a pre-order bonus.
Some companies, such as Limited Run Games (LRG), have developed a business model of publishing physical releases of games, both standard and deluxe editions, with limited production runs. These are sold at a higher price than digital releases and may include a range of feelies; for instance, LRG's re-release of Digital Pictures' Night Trap (1992) was issued with a manual, fold-out poster, cassette tape, and embroidered patch. Others have sought to develop feelies to complement video games released elsewhere. The since-closed website feelies.org, for instance, produced physical items to accompany works of interactive fiction by writers such as Neil deMause, Emily Short, Stephen Granade, and Robb Sherwin.;
The feelies shipped with deluxe editions, Peters argues, may be understood as signifying the achievements of their owners. Such objects are ascribed a rarity and expense that, among video game collectors, is viewed positively. Indeed, the cases included with deluxe editions may be used as display objects, and various feelies including figurines and props are designed for a similar purpose.
Video game journalists have expressed fondness for feelies. Writing for PC Gamer, Andy Chalk described them as bringing games "to life in ways that digital just can't replicate." Adam Rosenberg, writing for Digital Trends, recalled the feelies of the 1980s with fondness, describing them as his biggest attraction when purchasing Bureaucracy (1987). In Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Alice O'Connor recalled that "feelies especially could blur the edges of reality and draw the world close around you", considering them potentially one of the best parts of gaming. Writing in the magazine Eye, Tom Hartshorn described feelies as creating "a layer of joyous interaction between the world we inhabit and the digital worlds we were tentatively exploring", thereby increasing players' emotional investment.
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