What is the Avatar : fiction and embodiment in avatar based singleplayer computer games What are the characteristic features of avatar based singleplayer videogames from Super Mario Bros. to Grand Theft Auto Rune Klevjer examines this question with a particular focus on issues of fictionality and realism and their relation to cinema and Virtual Reality. Through close up analysis and philosophical discussion Klevjer argues that avatar based gaming is a distinctive and dominant form of virtual self embodiment in digital culture. This book is a revised edition of Rune Klevjers pioneering work from 2007 featuring a new introduction by the author and afterword by Stephan Günzel Jörg Sternagel and Dieter Mersch.