I was pretty confused by pages 6-8 and Galloway’s description of “diegetic” and “non-diegetic” elements of games. I see that they refer to the elements of games that exist both inside (diegetic) and outside (non-diegetic) the “pretend world” (or “second reality” as Callois would say), but somewhere along the way i found myself completely lost as he analyzed which gamic elements and nongamic elements fell into which category. An example here from page 8:

“To be sure, nondiegetic elements are often centrally connected to the act of gameplay, so being nondiegetic does not necessarily mean being nongamic. Sometimes nondiegetic elements are firmly embedded in the game world. Sometimes they are entirely removed”

Somehow its just not connecting in my mind how elements can be both “firmly embedded in the game world” and completely outside the “pretend world”. Or maybe I’m just misunderstanding his terms here. I guess the “game world” and the “pretend world” are not one and the same, but rather overlapping circles on another confusing Venn diagram?