Gamespace PHD McGregor 2009 PDF

Gamespace
Play & Architecture in Videogames
Georgia Leigh McGregor
Doctor of Philosophy
School of Media Arts, University of New South Wales
2009
ii
Abstract
Videogames are created for play. In videogames play takes place in an artificially
constructed environment – in gamespace. Gameplay occurs in gamespace. To
understand videogames, it is essential to understand how their spaces are
implicated in play. This thesis asks what are the relationships between play and
space in videogames?
This thesis examines the relationships between space and play by looking at how
architecture is constructed in gamespace and by looking at gamespace as an
architectonic construct. In short, this thesis examines the architecture in and of
gamespace. The relationships between space and play in videogames are
examined by looking at the structure of gamespace, by looking at the differences
between real space and gamespace and by analysing architectural and spatial
functionality.
This thesis discovers a series of important relationships between space and play,
arguing that gamespace is used to create, manipulate and control gameplay, while
gameplay dictates and influences the construction of gamespace. Particular forms
of play call for particular constructions of gamespace. Particular types of gamespace
construct play in particular ways. This thesis identifies a number of ways in which
gamespace is configured for play. Finally this thesis operates as a conceptual
framework for understanding gamespace and architecture in videogames.
iii
Contents
Abstract ii
Acknowledgements v
Statement of Originality vi
Introduction 1
Vitruvius Didn’t Play Videogames
Chapter 1 Units of Gamespace 14

Understanding Videogame Structure
1.1 Space & Actions 15

1.2 Landscape as Architecture 25
1.3 Stratified Approaches 28
1.4 Qualities of Gamespace 34
1.5 Players & Spatial Practices 42
1.6 Units of Gamespace 45
1.7 A Spatial Heart of Gameness 54
Chapter 2 Dissociation & Reconstitution 56

The Construction of Gamespace
2.1 Sensory Dissociation 57

2.2 Material Dissociation 71
2.3 Reconstituting Function 81
2.4 Reconstituting & Reinventing Space 92
2.5 Reconstituting Architectural Form 102
2.6 Dissociation & Reconstitution 106
Chapter 3 Spaces and Objects 110

Representation & Abstraction in Gamespace
3.1 Representation, Abstraction, Simulation & Transformation 111

3.2 Spaces & Objects 126
3.3 Experiential Space & Symbolic Space 136
3.4 Presence & Gamespace 148
3.5 Modes of Gamespace 151
iv
Chapter 4 Situations of Play 153

Patterns of Spatial Use
4.1 Patterns in Gamespace 154

4.2 Challenge Space 158
4.3 Contested Space 163
4.4 Nodal Space 168
4.5 Codified Space 174
4.6 Creation Space 180
4.7 Backdrops 186
4.8 Spatial Patterns in Use 189
4.9 Patterns of Spatial Use 196
Chapter 5 Terra Ludus, Terra Paidia & Terra Prefab 199

Spatialisation of Play
5.1 Virtual Worlds 200

5.2 Social Space 209
5.3 Paidia and Ludus in Virtual Worlds 221
5.4 Terra Paidia, Terra Ludus 224
5.5 Terra Prefab 234
5.6 Spatialisation of Play 238
Conclusion 242
If Vitruvius had a X-Box
Bibliography 250
List of Games 269
List of Figures 272
Appendix 1 Experiential & Symbolic Space 275

Appendix 2 Experiential & Symbolic Space by Genre 280
Appendix 3 Patterns of Spatial Use 285
Appendix 4 Patterns of Spatial Use by Genre 292
Appendix 5 Terra Ludus, Terra Paidia & Terra Prefab 299
v
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following:
Professor Ross Harley, my thesis supervisor for his patience, wit and humour, and
for never letting me whinge.
My previous supervisor, Professor James Donald, for encouraging my initial ideas.
John Phillips for ceaseless wielding of the red pen in the cause of grammatical
erudition.
The Australian Government for my Australian Postgraduate Award, at least some of

my tertiary education was free.
My parents, John and Joan McGregor, who listened nonplussed to me reading

aloud all my chapters and who supported me throughout the course of this thesis.
My partner, David Griffiths, for believing I can do anything.
And finally thanks to my daughter Jessica, who had to share the computer with me.
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Originality Statement
‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my
knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by
another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been
accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any
other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made
in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I
have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the
thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product
of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the
project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic
expression is acknowledged.’
Signed ……………………………………………..............
Date
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Vitruvius Didn’t Play Videogames
Introduction
As an architecture student playing videogames I often pondered the difference

between what I was taught at university and what I was experiencing in the games.
At the university we were taught of Vitruvius, whose work De architectura from
around 15BC remains the only surviving major Roman treatise on architecture1. In a
pithy aphorism that has echoed through the ages and is still taught at university
today, Vitruvius asserted that architecture should exhibit the three qualities of
firmitas, utilitas and venustas2. In short, architecture should be structurally sound,
functional and beautiful3. Yet the buildings I encountered in videogames appeared to
be illogical, unsound, unusable, and at times downright impossible. Architecture in
videogames varied from the bizarre to the banal, from the passé to trite cliché. To
examine videogames with the same critical eye as was encouraged in my
architecture degree was to invite failure. Why? Because Vitruvius didn‟t play
videogames.
Vitruvius didn‟t play videogames, while none of the architects teaching my course
had more than a rudimentary knowledge of what games were about. As such many
architects tend to dismiss videogame architecture as puerile, anachronistic and a
waste of time. Curiously enough it is Vitruvius who gives us a clue as to why we
can‟t consider architecture in videogames in the same light as buildings in physical
1
De architectura is also known as the Ten Books on Architecture.
2
The Latin text reads “Haec autem ita fieri debent ut habeatur ratio firmitatis utilitatis venustatis”
(Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus. de Architectura. Latin text on Bill Thayer’s Website. Latin text from the
Teubner Edition by Valentin Rose, 1899. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/
th
Vitruvius/1*.html. Accessed 15 October 2008).
3
For the purposes of this thesis ‘structurally sound’, ‘functional’ and ‘beautiful’ are useful
translations of Vitruvius’ maxim, though the exact nomenclature and meaning of Vitruvius’
statement can be endlessly debated. Most online translators of Latin to English return strength or
firmness for firmitas, usefulness or utility for utilitas, and beauty and attractiveness for venustas.
The Morris Hicky Morgan translation reads architecture “must be built with due reference to
durability, convenience and beauty” (Vitruvius. "The Ten Books on Architecture". Trans. Morris
Hicky Morgan. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1960, p.17). Sir Henry Wotton’s 1624 translation
of firmness, commodity and delight is also widely quoted (Wotton, Sir Henry. The Elements of
Architecture: A Facsimile Reprint of the First Edition (London, 1624). Charlottesville: The University
Press of Virginia, 1968, p.1).
Vitruvius Didn’t Play Videogames 2
space. Three things can be inferred from Vitruvius‟ statement – a building should
stand up, it should be useful and it should look good while doing so. Leaving aside
the contentious issue of beauty4, Vitruvius asks us to consider architecture in the
light of how it is made and what it does. To understand architecture in videogames
one must first understand its function and construction.
Videogames are created for gameplay – the sum total of game and play5. The
explicit function of videogames is gameplay. Where architecture in real space6 fulfils
many roles, all that architecture does in videogames is subsumed under the
overriding play experience. Gamic architecture is created for different purposes to
architecture in the real world. The explicit function of architecture in videogames is
to support gameplay. This shapes everything that architecture is and does in
videogames, including their image. My original intent was to study architectural
aesthetics and style in videogames, yet without understanding how and why
gamespace is created any analysis would be flawed. Applying architectural ideals of
good design to videogames is useless when architecture might be constructed to
challenge, repel or scare us as part of gameplay. Gamic architecture must be
considered in terms of interaction design, where architecture is designed for
gameplay. In order to understand architecture in videogames the role of architecture
in gameplay must be understood. This thesis asks – what are the relationships
between architecture and gameplay in videogames?
4
While Vitruvius had firm ideas on beauty in architecture the question of architectural beauty has
been, since the Eighteenth Century, a subject of much debate and disagreement among architects,
critics and the public. It is also difficult to judge the aesthetics of a space without knowledge about
why it is created and how it is used.
5
Gameplay is difficult to define. Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings suggest that there is no
universally accepted definition of gameplay. In popular discussions of videogames gameplay is
generally used to refer to the player’s experience in the game, where reviewers often rate games
in terms of their gameplay. Rollings and Adams set out to define gameplay in terms of its
components but find that no one aspect of a game can be identified as gameplay (Rollings,
Andrew, and Ernest Adams. Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. Indianapolis,
Indiana: New Riders, 2003, Chapter 7). Gunnar Liestol, however, views gameplay as encompassing
both computer actions and player activity. Gameplay then refers to both the computer generated
‘game’ and the player’s ‘play’ experience (Liestol, Gunnar. ""Gameplay": From Synthesis to Analysis
(and Vice Versa)". In Digital Media Revisited: Theoretical and Conceptual Innovation in Digital
Domains. Liestol, G., Andrew Morrison, A. and Rasmussen, T. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts:
The MIT Press, 2003, pp.389-411).
6
Real space refers to the physical envelope in which we live.
After my architecture degree finished I decided to study architecture in videogames,

taking my architectural eye with me. But I soon realised that videogames can also
be thought of as architecture. Marcos Novak envisions cyberspace as “architecture
nested within architecture” so that “cyberspace itself is architecture, but it also
contains architecture”7. Gamespace can be thought of as architecture, the
architecture of gamespace. Equally gamespace contains architectural forms, where
we find architecture in gamespace.
Videogames set play in a construction of space. Created for the purpose of

gameplay, the construction of space where play occurs is called gamespace.
Gamespace refers to the game environment, the spatial setting or locale of the
game. Conjoining game and space to gamespace reflects on the connected nature
of space and play in videogames. Gamespace is a built space, constructed by
humans for the specific purpose of gameplay. We can understand gamespace as a
built environment. Videogames contain architecture. Equally we can see the game
environment as an architectural construct. Ernest Adams sees gamespace as
architectural, gamespace is an “imaginary space, it is necessarily constructed by
human beings and therefore may be thought of as the product of architectural
design processes”8. Looking at gamespace as architectural and as architecture9 this
thesis asks – what are the relationships between gamespace and gameplay in
videogames?
Space is important in videogames. Espen Aarseth declares “videogames are

essentially spatial in nature”10. Each videogame situates play in a representation of
space, from the realistic to the abstract. To understand videogames it is essential to
understand their spaces. James Newman asserts “space is key to videogames”11.
While all videogames are spatial, the concepts in this thesis are more useful in
analysing games that present space as continuous, contiguous, complex or
7
Novak, Kim. “Liquid Architectures in Cyberspace”. Cyberspace First Steps. Michael L. Benedikt (Ed.).
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1991, p.293.
8
Adams, Ernest. "The Construction of Ludic Space". Level Up Conference Proceedings: DiGRA 2003.
Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2003. http://www.digra.org/dl/db/05150.52280.pdf. Accessed 15
September 2005.
9
The viewing of gamespace as architecture is necessarily dependent on an understanding of what is
architecture. Chapter one discusses this point further in section 1.2.
10
Aarseth, Espen. "Allegories of Space - the Question of Spatiality in Computer Games". In Cybertext
Yearbook 2000. Eskelinen, M. and Koskimaa, R. (Eds.). University of Jyväskylä: Research Centre for
Contemporary Culture, 2001, pp.152-171.
11
Newman, James. Videogames. Routledge Introductions to Media and Communications. New York:
Routledge, 2004, p.31. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2004, p.121.
expansive12. Gamespace is an important component of videogames, yet relatively

little work has been done on it in comparison to investigations into narrative in
games or work on analysing game-rules. Michael Nitsche states that “game spaces
have become part of our cultural sphere”13. Published just prior to the completion of
this thesis, Video Game Space: Image, Play and Structure in 3D Worlds, in which
Nitsche advocates an architectural approach in examining the functionality of 3D
virtual spaces14, represents the first dedicated book to seriously address
gamespace.
To understand videogames fully it is essential to understand how gamespace is

implicated in play. As Henry Jenkins notes “game designers don‟t simply tell stories,
they design worlds and sculpt spaces”15. Understanding spatiality in videogames is
critical because their emphasis on space and navigability separates them from other
media. Aarseth asserts that computer “games celebrate and explore spatial
representation as their central motif and raison d’être”16 and that this preoccupation
with space is what distinguishes computer games from other media forms17.
Gamespace refers to the representation of space encountered in videogames. As a

term space refers to dimension and extent18. J. E. Malpas notes space “seems to be
12
And therefore less useful in analysing games with very simple or limited spaces.
13
Nitsche, Michael. Video Game Spaces: Image, Play and Structure in 3D Worlds. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2009, p.244.
14
15
Jenkins, Henry. "Game Design as Narrative Architecture". In First Person: New Media as Story,
Performance and Game. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, and Harrigan, Pat (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts:
The MIT Press, p.121
16
Contemporary Culture, 2001, p.161.
17
It could be argued that movies and comic books can equally be preoccupied with space, however
videogames are notable in allowing the player to have agency in space, the ability to act upon
space.
18
As something that has dimension and extent, space exhibits length, breadth, area and volume.
Space refers to the game environment or spatial setting, however, any discussion of ‘space’ must
also acknowledge the term ‘place’. J.E. Malpas notes that there is considerable interplay between
space and place (Malpas, J. E. Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999, p.19). However place is generally used to refer to a particular
extent of space. Nicole Schröder notes that place is “commonly considered to be a smaller, more
specific and local area” of space (Schröder, Nicole. Space and Places in Motion: Spatial Concepts in
Contemporary American Literature. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag 2006, p.45.). Other distinctions
of place from space are bound up with experience. For Yi-Fu Tuan “what begins as space becomes
place as we get to know it better” (Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001, Original Edition 1986, p.6.), while for Michel De
tied, first and foremost, to a general notion of dimensionality”19. Gamespace is a

fictional environment20, a finite fabrication of space. In this way gamespace is
distinct from real space, referring to the physical environment in which we live. We
can turn off gamespace but we cannot turn off real space21. We can leave
gamespace but we can‟t leave real space even if we wanted to22. Yet this in no way
implies that gamespace is not real. Gamespace is real in that it is created with
physical means, software and hardware, using the physical properties of matter and
electron flow between atoms, to put out sensory information that we interpret as a
coherent environment. Equally gamespace is real in that it is something experienced
and something that has an effect on the player‟s life.
Real space is the space that we are corporeally constituted in. In contrast,
gamespace is not something we enter physically – we receive sensory information
about the game environment but do not bodily live in videogames. We effect
changes in gamespace through an agent, via interface devices that convert our
physical movements into code. Real space is physical space, gamespace is virtual
space23. Gamespace is „cyberspace‟, real space is „meatspace‟24. Gamespace is
coded, algorithmic, digital and dependant on computer technology. The technology
of videogames is located in real space, as is the player. Gameplay occurs as an
interaction between gamespace and real space. Gamespace is located in real
Certeau space is distinguished from place by issues of time, direction and velocity, where “space is
a practised place” (De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. Steven Rendall.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984, p.117.). Yehuda Kalay and John Marx summarise
effectively – place is “the consequence of the activities and conceptions of the inhabitants” while
space refers to “the physical attributes that frame those activities” (Kalay, Yehuda, and John Marx.
"Architecture and the Internet: Designing Places in Cyberspace." First Monday. Special Issue No. 5,
6-8 October, 2005. http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/
1563/1478. Accessed 15 January 2009).
19
Malpas, J. E. Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999, p.23.
20
In that it is something fashioned, a thing arbitrarily and imaginatively created.
21
Meaning that life is indivisible from space, notwithstanding notions of suicide or conceptions of life
as The Matrix.
22
Except in death.
23
Virtual space is a term commonly used to refer to computer environments, which in themselves
have no physical substance but simulate the appearance and structure of physical space.
Gamespace is a particular form of virtual space that occurs in videogames.
24
‘Cyberspace’ is a term coined by William Gibson that refers to the interconnected network of
computers in the world as well as computer generated space, communication and culture (Gibson,
William. Neuromancer. London: Voyager, 2000). ‘Meatspace’ refers to the physical world outside
of cyberspace and as a term has its origins in cyberpunk literature. Gamespace can be seen as a
form of cyberspace that occurs only in videogames.
space; it is physically dependant on real space. Gamespace operates as a subset of

real space.
Gamespace is indebted to real space in other ways. In his investigation into the use
of space in architectural discourse Adrian Forty notes that, as well as being a
dimensional construct, space is a “property of the mind, part of the apparatus
through which we perceive the world”25. The perception of space is tied to our
corporeal existence in space. Maurice Merleau Ponty asserts that the body is at
centre of spatial conceptions26, while Jeff Malpas maintains that as a concept space
is tied to the notion of inhabiting and using space27. Gamespace is dependent on
our bodily living in real space. Lars Qvortrup says that cyberspaces should not be
seen as a representation of the real world but as a representation of our
experiences in space, or a representation of how we perceive, move and interact
with objects in space28. Gamespace can be seen as a subset of real space rather
than as something that is separate to the corporeal world. Gamespace is indebted to
the physical environment and learnt behaviours of thinking about and living in space.
Videogames are a particular form of media and gamespace is a media-specific

representation of space. Building on Vitruvius‟ maxim we must not only understand
the function, but also the structure of videogames. A videogame is a game
controlled by computer technology, displayed on a visual display unit, where the
player can effect changes in the game world through input devices. Videogames are
first and foremost games29, games that create spaces to play in. Gamespace is a
25
Forty, Adrian. Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture. London: Thames &
Hudson, 2000, p.256.
26
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. The Primacy of Perception. Northwestern University Press, 1964.
27
Malpas, J. E. Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999, pp.44-50.
28
Qvortrup, Lars (Ed.). Virtual Space: Spatiality in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds. London: Springer-
Verlag, 2002, p.5.
29
The concept of game is essential to videogames. Jesper Juul looks comprehensively at the notion
of videogames as games, bringing together work from Huizinga and Caillois, to Salen and
Zimmerman, comparing their definitions. Juul proposes a new definition of games, appropriate for
video games. He states: “A game is a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome,
where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to
influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the
consequences of the activity are negotiable” (Juul, Jesper. Half-Real: Video Games between Real
Rules and Fictional Worlds. Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005, p.36). Bernard Suits
offers a much more digestible definition. “Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome
unnecessary obstacles” (Suits, Bernard. “Construction of a Definition”. In The Game Design Reader:
A Rules of Play Anthology. Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT
Press, 2006, p.190).
visual and aural representation of space. The computer generates gamespace. The
player sees that gamespace on a screen, hears the gamescape through speakers
and effects changes on it through a controller, changes to which the computer
responds. Videogames are both a digital illusion of space, and a feedback system.
Gamespace is an artificial construction of space, a particular form of virtual space
that fabricates spatial dimensions and properties. To understand gamespace it is
important to understand how it is constructed and how it is situated within the
medium of videogames.
The media-specific nature of gamespace is part of why a straightforward translation

of architectural knowledge to videogames is ineffective. Videogames include
insidious subversions that Vitruvius would not have recognised – cheats, hacks,
code glitches and internet lag – that subvert our expectations of architecture in
gamespace30. Alexander Galloway embraces the seemingly random idiosyncrasies
of videogames, where “pressing pause is as significant as shooting a weapon”31. In
understanding the construction of gamespace, both the foibles and enhancements
of the technology must be considered. This thesis investigates gamespace as a
technological representation of space and as something different from real space.
Ernest Adams in The Role of Architecture in Videogames notes that the rationale for
producing architecture in real space is different to the rationale that governs the
production of architecture in videogames32. This implies that the study of
architecture in videogames can reveal things about the games themselves. Using
architecture as a tool to examine gamespace is useful because, as Aarseth notes,
space as a representable notion is problematic33. But where space is nebulous,
architecture is concrete. Architects Donlyn Lyndon and Charles W. Moore write that
30
Though it could be argued that the pilfering of water from the aqueducts of Rome described by
Frontinus (circa 40-103 AD) was a form of architectural hacking (Frontinus, Sextus Julius. The
Aqueducts of Rome. Translation of De Aqueductibus Urbis Romae. Trans. Charles E. Bennett from
the Loeb edition of 1925. Bill Thayer’s Website. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/
Roman/Texts/Frontinus/De_Aquis/text*.html. Accessed 5 February 2009). Equally the use of wall
painting in Roman times can viewed as a form of architectural cheating, including the faux finishes
of the First Style (including initiations of marble or oak) and the trompe-l’oeil illusions of depth of
the Second Style.
31
Galloway, Alexander R. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Electronic Mediations: Volume 18.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, p.8.
32
Adams, Ernest. "The Role of Architecture in Video Games". Gamasutra. 9 October 2002.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20021009/adams_01.htm. Accessed 23 April 2005.
33
“architectural space is different from the void of the philosophers. It is palpable

stuff”34. Like videogames architecture is concerned with space. Architecture refers to
something built35; that through its construction defines and organises space. Where
architecture in real space refers to buildings and the built environment36, architecture
in videogames refers to the representation of buildings and the built environment.
An architectural analysis of videogames ties in with Henri Lefebvre‟s‟ refutation of

space as an empty area. Lefebvre asserts that space is not an inert geometrical
thing but something that is socially produced37. By examining gamespace as
architectural this thesis avoids a purely Cartesian view of space (where space is
constructed as an empty Euclidean box) because architecture is about more than
just space. Architecture refers to buildings and their construction but it also
encompasses the activities that occur within them. As architect Bernard Tschumi
says, “Architecture is not simply about space and form, but also about event, action,
and what happens in space”38. Architectural academic Francis Ching notes that
manifestations of architecture accommodate human activity39. Within videogames
that activity is gameplay. Jesper Juul declares that space in games both presents a
fictional world and dictates what players can and cannot do in that world40. Function
and structure are inextricably bound to the architectural object in both real space
and gamespace.
34
Lyndon, Donlyn and Moore, Charles W. Chambers for a Memory Palace. Cambridge,
35
The Shorter Oxford dictionary defines architecture as being about buildings or something built –
“the art or science of building” and “architectural work, something built”. The Shorter Oxford
Dictionary. Fifth Edition on CD-ROM version 2.0. Oxford University Press, 2002.
36
Taking the broadest and most inclusive view of what is architecture. Andrew Ballantyne draws
attention to architecture as an exclusive concept, quoting Nikolaus Pevsner, where “a bicycle shed
is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture”, and architecture as an inclusive concept,
referring to George Hersey’s inclusion of insect constructions as architecture (Ballantyne, Andrew
(Ed). What Is Architecture? London: Routledge, 2002, pp.11-12).
37
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. 1991 ed. Oxford UK:
Blackwell Publishing, 1974.
38
Tschumi, Bernard. Introduction to the Manhattan Transcripts (1981) under Theoretical Works.
www.tschumi.com. Accessed 20 October 2008.
39
Ching, Francis D. K. Architecture: Form, Space, and Order. Second Ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons
Inc. 1996, p.IX.
40
Juul, Jesper. Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. Cambridge
Architecture can also be understood as a metaphor for systems. „Architecture‟ is

used to refer to the conceptual structure of data41, as a system that organises
information. Architecture also acts as a system in the way it both enables and
regulates what practices can or cannot occur within it. Professor of Architecture Kim
Dovey notes that architecture is “framed by the decisions of the designers”42 evoking
and enabling “certain forms of life while constraining others”43. Both architecture and
videogames can be thought of as spatial systems, systems that enable, regulate
and limit what occurs within them. Architecture writers Karen Franck and Lynda
Schneekloth note that “spatial practice is not only the pursuit of an activity; it is also
the manner of doing so” where architecture is constructed to support “culturally
defined practices”44. As an integral component of videogames gamespace acts as a
framework that defines where we play, helping to organise, structure and configure
gameplay. The architecture of gamespace is a system for play and architecture in
gamespace evidence of that system. Gamespace can be analysed through its
architecture.
Each chapter in this thesis articulates one or more of Vitruvius‟ dictums of structure
and function, understanding gamespace as something different to real space. It will
examine how other theoreticians understand videogames and gamespace – looking
at the specific nature or structure of the medium. It will look at the construction of
gamespace, as something that both copies and diverges from real space, examining
structure through the design of architecture in videogames. It will examine issues of
representation in gamespace, looking at how games both abstract and transform
space for the purposes of gameplay. Finally it will look specifically at the
connections between gamespace and gameplay, identifying patterns of spatial use
in videogames and examining how play is spatially hosted. Each chapter examines
either architecture in gamespace or the architecture of gamespace, or both. Over
the course of the thesis we will move from an investigation looking at how buildings
are represented in gamespace to an examination of gamespace as an overall
architectonic45 construct.
41
Particularly in computing (as in software architecture).
42
Dovey, Kim. Framing Places: Mediating Power in Built Form. London: Routledge, 1999, p.1.
43
Ibid, p.17.
44
Franck, Karen A. and. Schneekloth, Lynda H. (Eds.). Ordering Space: Types in Architecture and
Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994, p.24.
45
‘Architectonic’ as pertaining to, or suggesting the qualities of, architecture. ‘Architectonic’ is also
used more specifically in architectural discourse to indicate a building that reveals its structural
composition.
I have elected to use the term „videogame‟ throughout the thesis, because of its
widespread usage in popular culture. Alternatively the terms „computer game‟ or
„digital game‟ can be used, reflecting the technologically mediated nature of these
games. But in the linking of game to screen technology46 the term videogame seems
particularly appropriate for an architectural study of gamespace, firstly because the
screen dictates how architecture is experienced in videogames and secondly
because this thesis concentrates on commonly available games, the overwhelming
majority of which are screen-mediated47.
As an umbrella term ‘videogame‟ is used to refer to all types of computer controlled

screen-based games, on many platforms, including console, computer and mobile
phone. Videogames are, however, distinct from virtual reality, which aims to provide
a physically immersive experience in concert with a computer-simulated
environment48. This thesis also extends to other closely related media forms, namely
social virtual worlds, which, like videogames, construct graphical virtual
environments in which their activities take place. Gamespace is akin to the digital
spaces of architectural visualisations and CAD programs. Yet gamespace differs
from these in that it is formed for the purpose of play. As such gamespace places a
greater emphasis on activity undertaken in its space, including player agency and
navigation49.
The topics of space and architecture are, needless to say, very large topics,
embracing a wide range of issues. It is not the purpose of this thesis to
comprehensively explore those topics. Rather an architectural analysis is used as a
tool for exploring gamespace and its connection to play. Beyond using Vitruvius‟
maxim as a starting point, this thesis will not adopt any particular method of
architectural analysis or depend on any specific architectural theory, though it will
use prevalent architectural concepts. While it may be valuable and interesting to
examine architectural theories and gamespace in general, they were found to be
46
While the word video refers specifically to the cathode-ray tube, it is commonly used to refer to all
forms of visual display device. Mark J. P. Wolf describes many screen variants from handheld LCDs
to arcade machines (Wolf, Mark J. P. (Ed.). The Medium of the Video Game. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 2001, pp.16-23).
47
This includes games played on PC and on consoles available from Nintendo, Playstation and X-Box.
48
Though virtual reality set-ups can act as games.
49
There is however considerable interplay between the two. For example architectural visualisations
have been produced as mods using game engines. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water House can be
found as a Half-Life 2 mod that user can navigate (Kasperg. “fallingwater.zip” CStrikePlanet.
http://www.cstrike-planet.com/maps/969. Accessed 14 January 2009).
less than useful when analysing gamespace and gameplay connections. This is why
the thesis sits apart and introduces new concepts. Neither will this thesis make
value judgements as to what is good or bad architecture. One must first define the
nature of the material before offering an effective criticism. As such this thesis does
not critique architecture or gamespace in videogames. Instead it works at a
structural level, setting out a framework for understanding gamespace, helping to
inform those that wish to evaluate and appraise.
Gamespace can be viewed in many ways. It is not the intent of this thesis to
examine videogames in the light of philosophical theories of space. Other
approaches to space, such as gender-and-space50 or analyses based on film
studies51 will not be addressed here. Nor does this thesis specifically address the
connection between narrative and gamespace52 (though it does use and adapt
terminology from narrative game scholars). Rather this thesis can be thought of as a
framework for understanding gamespace and architecture in gamespace, which will
complement other approaches.
A number of researchers stipulate that videogame studies are best approached as a

multidisciplinary exercise53, an approach that this thesis adopts, using concepts from
architecture within the emerging field of game research. An understanding of
gamespace benefits from an analysis of videogames as architecture, where
architectural analyses are ideally suited to reveal things about that space. The
differences between architecture in real space and architecture in gamespace help
to expose the influence of the medium. Equally we understand gamespace as
50
Such as Jenkins, Henry. " “Complete Freedom of Movement”: Video Games as Gendered Play
Spaces". In From Barbie to Mortal Kombat. Cassell, J. and Jenkins, H. (Eds.). Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998, pp.262-297.
51
Such as King G. and Krzywinska, T. “Film Studies and Digital Games”. In Understanding Digital
Games. Rutter, Jason, and Bryce, Jo. (Eds.). London: Sage Publications, 2006, pp.112-128.
52
Connections between gamespace and narrative have been made by other theorists, including
Henry Jenkins, Janet Murray, Marie-Laure Ryan and Michael Nitsche. This thesis does not indulge in
the erstwhile debate between narratology and ludology; instead taking the position that
gamespace contributes both to gameplay and story. In an interview with Henry Jenkins, Michael
Nitsche notes that space can include narrative and ludic qualities, where “both narratology and
ludology are part of how we deal with spaces” (Jenkins, Henry. “Computer Game Spaces: An
Interview with Georgia Tech's Michael Nitsche (Part One)”. Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The official
Weblog of Henry Jenkins. http://henryjenkins.org/2009/02/what_architecture_and_urban_pl.html.
Accessed 19 February, 2009).
53
Including Jason Rutter and Jo Bryce, whose book brings together approaches to videogames from a
number of academic fields (Rutter, Jason, and Bryce, Jo. (Eds.). Understanding Digital Games.
London: Sage Publications, 2006).
constructed for play. Understanding the environments of videogame as part of a

game reveals the motive forces driving the construction of space. By looking at
videogames as architecture we can recognise gamespace both as a construction of
space and as an arena for play.
This thesis looks at architecture in gamespace and the architecture of gamespace,

looking at how buildings are portrayed in gamespace and examining gamespace as
an architectural construct. Individual buildings and the totality of gamespace both
serve to illustrate the connections between gameplay and gamespace. Architecture
is a way of analysing gamespace, while gamespace is a unique representation of
architecture. This thesis will serve a dual purpose. For those who are interested in
architecture it will examine how architecture operates under the aegis of gameplay.
For those who are interested in videogames it will examine the relationships
between gamespace and gameplay. This thesis should also be of interest to game
developers and designers who wish to improve their understanding of gamespace,
researchers interested in the role of space in new media and researchers interested
the role of space in play.
Videogames are a significant form of popular culture. In Australia 68% of all

Australians play videogames54 and 88% of households have at least one device for
playing computer games55. The game industry in Australia alone is worth over 1.3
billion AUD (2007) and continues to grow56. Gamespace is in nearly every
household yet we do not fully understand how gamespace operates within game
play. It is important that we understand gamespace because it is a significant
component of videogames. To date gamespace is under-researched and the
relationships between gamespace and gameplay not fully explored. No adequate
framework exists in which to understand gamespace. This thesis attempts to fill that
gap.
54
Interactive Australia 2009. National Research prepared by Bond University for the Interactive
Entertainment Association of Australia. 2009. http://www.ieaa.com.au/research/IA9%20-
%20Interactive%20Australia%202009%20Full%20Report.pdf. Accessed 19 November 2008, p.30.
55
Ibid, p.5.
56
Ibid, p.53.
The buildings in videogames might not stand up to the rigorous scrutiny of an

architectural historian, or please a structural engineer. Yet it is precisely this
difference from architecture in real space that makes architecture in gamespace and
the architecture of gamespace so interesting. As a distinct medium, where
gamespace is constructed for gameplay, videogames take architecture in new
directions. By examining the links between gamespace and gameplay, through
analysing gamespace as architecture, we begin to understand how and why
videogames construct their spaces in the ways they do. Building on Vitruvius‟ maxim
this thesis examines the function and construction of gamespace, asking – what are
the connections between gamespace and gameplay? Finally this thesis will
conclude by asking – what might Vitruvius have written had he played videogames?
Chapter 1 Units of Gamespace
Understanding Game Structure
How do we start teasing out the links between gamespace and gameplay?
Gamespace is a virtual construction of space in a videogame. Architecture is part of
gamespace, but that space is part of a larger system that incorporates a number of
complex interrelationships. Gamespace is embedded in the specific medium of
videogames. Because the game environment is part of this distinct and idiosyncratic
media form it is essential to understand the structure of videogames in order to
understand gamespace.
For Ian Bogost videogames are unit operations, discrete units of meaning operating
in a dynamic network1. Unit operations are not in opposition to systems; rather
systems are seen as a result of complex multitudes of units, deriving their meaning
from the interrelatedness of their components. Yet unit operations, unlike the
totalising influence of systems, articulate both the unit and the relationships between
units. Because videogames are complex mechanisms that can offer a wide range of
play experiences (even within the one game), unit operations, as “fluctuating
assemblages of unit-operational components”2, are particularly suited to their
analysis. Unit operations allow us to see videogames as both technological and
cultural artefacts3 and because architecture is also a merge of technological and
cultural attributes lends itself to an architectural reading of gamespace.
What are the components of videogames that we can discuss as the units of
gamespace? This chapter begins the process of understanding the relationships
between gameplay and gamespace by reviewing the literature, looking at how other
researchers understand the basic structure of videogames. Space in videogames is
examined through its architectural units, using the correspondence between
architecture and space as a way of substantiating and unpacking gamespace. The
discourse is examined for commonalities in spatial understanding, situating the
1
Bogost, Ian. Unit Operations an Approach to Videogame Criticism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The
MIT Press, 2006.
2
Ibid, p.4.
3
Ibid, cover comments.
Units of Gamespace 15
study of gamespace within the specificities of its medium. Because there are no
appropriate schemes for understanding gamespace within the context of the
medium this thesis sets out the results of the review as a new scheme – the units of
gamespace.
1.1 Spaces and Actions

According to Espen Aarseth the defining element of videogames is spatiality4; yet it
is clear that videogames are composed of more than just spatial representation.
Inextricably linked to the technology that powers them and bounded by the
paraphernalia of digital media, each spatial world is part of a more complex system.
The limitations and idiosyncrasies of the medium impact on how architecture is
portrayed and on the functions it is assigned. Spatiality and architecture cannot be
considered in isolation from either gameplay or equipment. A study of game
architecture and gamespace must be situated within the entirety of videogames.
For Alexander Galloway “videogames are actions”5. A videogame cannot be played

until the machine is powered up and the software running. Equally the videogame is
dependent on the player who must execute and perform actions to allow the game
to start and proceed. Galloway‟s actions have a close relationship to the notion of
gameplay. According to Gunnar Liestol the conjoining of game and play into
gameplay refers to the processes and actions that takes place when a videogame is
played, encompassing both the activities performed by the user and those
performed by the computer6. Gameplay occurs as a cooperative relationship
between the two. Galloway‟s actions distinguish gameplay as two units, operator
and machine.
4
5
6
Liestol, Gunnar. ""Gameplay": From Synthesis to Analysis (and Vice Versa)". In Digital Media
Revisited: Theoretical and Conceptual Innovation in Digital Domains. Liestol, G., Andrew Morrison,
A. and Rasmussen, T. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2003, pp.389-411.
Galloway goes on to distinguish between diegetic and non-diegetic acts in

videogames, adopting the term diegesis from literary and film studies, while
acknowledging that there will be differences in its usage7. Where “the diegesis of a
videogame is the game‟s total world of narrative action”8, its characters, events and
space, non-diegetic elements operate outside the story and mise-en-scène9.
Videogames are acts of doing – acts of technological fabrication and operator
choice – enacted by the player and the technology in a cybernetic relationship that
can occur as part of the diegesis or as separate from the narrative world of the
game. Placed by Galloway in a cooperative relationship, gamic10 action is divided
into four units of action: the operator and the machine, the diegetic and the non-
diegetic. The four part interpretive framework that Galloway proposes, based on the
perception of videogames as actions, is expressed in Figure 1. Each axis becomes
a descriptor of the different modes of action performed by the machine and the
operator.
Figure 1
Galloway‟s Gamic
Action, Four
Moments
1. Non-diegetic machine acts are acts perpetrated by the machine that occur
outside of the narrative world. Non-diegetic machine acts can be either enabling
acts that assist the player, such as save points and health packs, or disabling
acts that are disadvantageous to the player, including game-over. Other machine
acts disrupt the game, such as bugs, glitches, crashes, downtime and lag11.
7
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, pp.7-8.
8
Ibid, p.7.
9
Mise-en-scène is the setting of an event. Within theatre productions mise-en-scène refers to the
scenery and properties of the stage and within cinema to the composition of framed space. For
videogames mise-en-scène refers to digital gamespace and elements in that space.
10
Gamic is a term that is occasionally found in videogame discourse but is not in general usage.
Adding the suffix “ic” to game creates an adjective with a meaning of “pertaining to gaming”.
Galloway notably adopts gamic as a term in Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture.
11
Bugs are defects in software, usually disadvantageous to the player. Glitches are unintended
programming errors, which are often exploited by players. Crashes refer to system or program
failures. Downtime or outage refers to times when a system is unavailable (often due to crashes or
maintenance). Lag refers to noticeable delays in executing actions in gamespace, often as a result
of latency issues and low speed internet connections.
2. Diegetic machine acts or the diegesis produced by the technology of videogames,

include the actions of non-player characters, the game environment or world and
the multitude of peripheral items found in that world.
3. Non-diegetic operator acts are executed by the operator and received by the
machine. The player initiates and uses the menus, configuration settings or
presses pause, actions that are a familiar part of the videogame modus operandi
yet are clearly not part of the diegesis. Non-diegetic operator acts can
encompass player actions that strive to subvert the gameplay so cheats, hacks,
add-ons and macros are included12.
4. Diegetic operator acts are acts perpetrated by the game player within the game
world. Galloway distinguishes between move acts, where the player initiates
changes in camera and avatar position, and expressive acts, where the player
acts upon the actionable portions of the environment, attacking and emoting,
selecting and building, examining and selecting13.
By placing machine and operator in a praxis with diegetic and non-diegetic acts
Galloway not only enfolds the more commonly iterated components of algorithmic
program and player acts, but celebrates the traditionally ignored and often vilified
aspects of gaming including crashes, cheats, hacks and lag. The pause button is as
important as the shoot or action button and the non-diegetic routines of saving and
loading are of consequence. Gamic Action, Four Moments thus allows a place for
the peculiarities of gaming environments.
Acknowledging the idiosyncrasies of the medium, from lag to cheats, is essential in

understanding the construction of gamespace. Players acknowledge and remark on
geometry failures in game worlds, sharing knowledge of bugs that offer advantages
to the player. Other users post about bizarre experiences; a player laments on a
forum how he was unable to attend a group event when an entire mountain went
12
Cheats are alterations to the game that are advantageous to the player, embedded in the code by
the games designers. Cheats are usually initiated with a code word or phrase, such as God Mode,
where the player becomes invulnerable. A hack is a program that modifies another program. A
mod ‘modifies’ the original game, either adding new content or altering the original content. An
add-on is a peripheral device or software that enhances or adds to the original game but cannot
function without the host game. A macro is a script that automates player actions.
13
missing from his version of the game14. Lag can prevent a player from acting on
gamespace, creating a temporal discontinuity between the player‟s input and the
reaction in gamespace. Internet lag is notorious for disrupting online gameplay when
players with low speed internet connections fall out of synchronisation with the rest
of the game world. Technological malfunctions not only provide unique interactions
with architecture and landscape, they can change the play encounter. Experiencing
Titan Quest (Iron Lore 2006) erupting in sheets of striated geometry was a
noteworthy occasion that caused deviations in my playing process, forcing me to
constantly re-enter the towns where it occurred and repeatedly reload the game.
Cheat codes can dramatically affect gamespace. Cheat codes which change the
weather, allow instantaneous travel and unlock doors are coded into The Elder
Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethseda 2006)15. While Galloway celebrates cheats as a
significant gameplay strategy, Aarseth abhors the use of cheats when playing
videogames for research, including the use of walkthroughs16. Yet the sheer mass of
cheats and walkthroughs available on the internet indicates that they have a role to
play in games. Galloway‟s inclusion of cheats and add-ons in Gamic Action, Four
Moments signals that rather than making value judgements about them we should
be including them in our field of study. Aarseth‟s own comment that non-playing
sources of information are important sources of knowledge for researchers partially
contradicts his prohibition of external assistance in playing17.
There are counterparts to cheats and glitches in primary space. A blackout in

Akihabara, the electronics district in Tokyo, switching off the imposing proliferation of
neon, would significantly change the way we experience the city. A shortcut
between buildings can be seen as a cheat and is often prohibited by authorities who
place physical barriers to their use. But the code-based nature of videogames
provides the greatest opportunity for technological anomalies. By taking up
Galloway‟s position – where crashes, cheats and technological glitches are
significant to the study of videogames – we acknowledge the influence of the
14
Post by Aide. The Older Gamers Forum. Posted 5 September 2006.
http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77315. Accessed 11 September 2006.
15
Some commonly available cheats can be found for Oblivion on Cheat Code Central.
http://www.cheatcc.com/pc/elderscrolls4oblivioncheatscodes.html. Accessed 15 June 2007.
16
Aarseth, Espen. "Playing Research: Methodological Approaches to Game Analysis". Melbourne
DAC: The Fifth International Digital Arts and Culture Conference. RMIT, Melbourne, 2003, p.4.
17
Ibid, p.4.
medium on the representation of space and the opportunity for both machine and
operator to affect that space.
If videogames are actions, how does architecture and spatiality fit into Galloway‟s
scheme? For Galloway the game environment is part of the diegetic machine act.
Architecture and space are hence part of the diegetic machine act, the mise-en-
scène in which the game story takes place. But architecture and spatiality also occur
in the other units of gamic action.
Spatiality is noticeably part of the operator‟s diegetic domain. Move acts are
expressly concerned with navigating the game world, expressive acts concerned
with interacting with that domain. This unit defines an area of interaction between
the player and the environment. Architecture can be both an environment to which
the operator reacts and an actionable object that the operator brings into play.
Player interactions with architecture may consist of indirect acts, where the player‟s
character opens a door or their tank smashes a building, but equally architecture
can be under the direct control of the player; building a house in The Sims (Maxis
2000) or creating defensive structures in strategy games.
Galloway discusses how some non-diegetic machine acts exist within the game
world, noting that their presence is often disguised. Features particular to
videogames such as saving and loading, or health upgrades (changes to avatar
statistics) are embedded into the environment where “diegetic objects are used as a
mask to obfuscate non-diegetic (but necessary) play functions”18. Explicitly gamic
functions are disguised as part of gamespace. Thus a health upgrade in Tomb
Raider (Core Design 1996) is marked within a small canvas roll marked with the red-
cross, while items found are placed in Lara‟s exponentially capacious backpack.
Other upgrades are known as power-ups (beneficial events embedded in the game
world that take effect immediately upon acquisition by the player‟s character19). The
super-mushroom from Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo 1985) affects player agency in
gamespace. After picking up a super-mushroom the player can smash overhead
bricks by jumping into them. Galloway equates these disguised non-diegetic
18
19
Power-ups are usually beneficial, though some games offer harmful power-ups. Super Mario Bros.:
The Lost Levels (Nintendo 1986) contains a poison mushroom that can either kill Mario or act as a
super-mushroom.
elements with Eddo Stern‟s “metaphorically patched objects”20 where the function of
patched metaphors is “to assimilate unwanted technological residues into the
narrative diegesis”21.
Architectural and spatial metaphor is often part of this non-diegetic machine sleight-
of-hand. Saving the game in Dog’s Life (Frontier 2004) is presented as entering a
kennel in the landscape. The movement of the dog avatar into the kennel triggers
the act of saving and the time it takes for the machine to record the save file is
expressed as the dog resting in the shelter of his kennel. Rebirth fountains conceal
the prosaic process of spawning a dead character from the game‟s save files in
Titan Quest while the routine of logging out in Everquest (Sony Online
Entertainment 1999) is presented as making camp. Each of these games uses
architecture to metaphorically patch computer routines into gameplay. Architectural
thresholds, implying a change of state, provide a logical way to transfer a character
from the diegetic world to the non-diegetic and are often employed to camouflage
routines of saving, loading and support.
Figure 2
Choosing a „save-
game‟ through
architectural
metaphor in the
Dog’s Life.
20
Stern, Eddo. "A Touch of Medieval: Narrative, Magic and Computer Technology in Massively
Multiplayer Computer Role-Playing Games". Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference.
Tampere, Finland, 2002, p.263.
21
Ibid, p.263.
By the same process of disguise, or metaphoric patching, architecture can be part of

the non-diegetic operator act. Menus and configurative choices can be displayed
within architectural metaphors. In Dog’s Life (Frontier 2004) the choosing of a
particular saved game to play is enacted through the metaphor of choosing a kennel
(Fig. 2), while in Katamari Damacy (Namco 2004) the player rolls up a save game to
select it, mimicking the actions they will later perform in the game world.
Alternately the add-ons, cheats and hacks that are injected by the player into the
game world can impact on the game environment and connect the non-diegetic
player act to the spatial. Patching in Laurana’s Flight Amulet22 into The Elder Scrolls:
Morrowind (Bethseda 2002) allows an aerially challenged avatar to levitate around
the world, while using the COC cheat23 allows instantaneous travel to any city in the
game. Emergent play, where the player uses the game environment in ways
unanticipated by the designer, can also affect the player‟s experience of gamespace
as a non-diegetic operator act. Using glitches, players can complete The Legend of
Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD 1998) without entering any of the
dungeons24. Non-diegetic operator acts can change the interaction the player has
with the environment and acknowledges that the player‟s agency is variable.
More important for consideration with architectural studies are the examples of the
non-diegetic operator act where the configuration has become a major part of
gameplay. Galloway terms this as a configurative act25. Setting up a building to
create warriors and conduct research activities in Starcraft (Blizzard Entertainment
1998) is an example of an architectural configurative act. Galloway notes that real-
time strategy (RTS) and resource management games like Civilization III (Firaxis
22
A mod that when placed into the game files by the player deposits an artefact into the game
world. When equipped by the player this artefact allows the player’s avatar to walk through the
air, an effect only normally possible with the use of a spell. Laurana’s Morrowind Mods.
http://inky.50megs.com/mwmods/index.htm. Accessed 5 March 2007.
23
By entering COC and the name of an in-game city into the interface the player is instantly
transported to that city. This cheat is readily available in multiple locations on the internet.
24
Cheats known as "Escape the Forest", "Door of Time skip", and "Reverse Bottle Adventure" allow
the player to effectively skip a majority of intended gameplay.
25
For Galloway the configurative act is one where the operator dictates the configuration of the
game (Galloway, Alexander R. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Electronic Mediations:
Volume 18. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, pp.12-14). Configurative acts can
occur as part of gameplay or outside of gameplay. The routine of choosing a save-game file at the
beginning of play is a configurative act. Pressing pause is a configurative act that sends the game
into a case of suspended animation. Choosing from a menu as part of gameplay in a strategy game
is a configurative act. The configurative act is closely associated with and reveals the algorithmic
nature of the game.
2001) and Warcraft III (Blizzard Entertainment 2003), in which the player can
conduct much of the game through interfaces and menus, are connected to the
diegetic game world but exist at a remove from it. In Battle for Middle Earth II (EA
Los Angeles 2006) the act of spawning an army occurs only by accessing menus
from buildings, which then stand as symbolic containers that represent linked
capabilities. Architectural properties are transformed into informational matrices and
the architectural object becomes a place where the information layer connects to the
diegetic game world.
Architecture and spatiality invade all units of Galloway‟s Gamic Action, Four
Moments but as previously noted videogames are about more than spatial
representation. Each unit contains acts that occur within the spatial simulation of the
game and acts that do not. The simulation of a navigable landscape is a spatial
machine act, while a game-over screen is a machine act unconcerned with creating
space. Galloway‟s distinction of operator acts as either move or expressive acts
clearly ties them to the spatial, but we can also find operator acts that are not
specifically spatial, such as exclamations and conversations (though some dialogue
is triggered by particular locations and is therefore spatially determined). Machine
and operator acts can be spatial or non-spatial.
We can also see diegetic and non-diegetic acts as either concerned or unconcerned
with spatial matters, though Galloway notes that the division between diegetic and
non-diegetic is not always clear26. The diegetic production of the game-world by the
machine is clearly spatial, but the production of textual narrative screen in Doom is
less spatially orientated. The non-diegetic machine act of producing the heads-up
display (HUD) has a spatial logic of its own but a computer crash serves only to end
the production of space. Diegetic operator acts of moving and acting on gamespace
are clearly spatial, but it is also possible for a player to initiate an act that has no
affect on gamespace, such as the numerical distribution of talent point in a role-
playing game. Non-diegetic operator acts can also be spatial, such as wall-hacking
in Half-Life (Valve 1998)27. However a cheat that instantly gives the player more
26
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, p. 8.
27
Wall hacking is the practice of creating changes to wall properties in first-person shooters, such as
rendering the walls transparent in Half-Life, giving them an advantage in gameplay.
money28 is a non-spatial non-diegetic operator act. Both machine and operator acts,
as diegetic or non-diegetic, can be spatial or non-spatial. Adding the spatial
dimension as a new axis to Galloway‟s Gamic Action, Four Moments, produces
Figure 3: Gamic Action, Six Moments, situating gamespace within the totality of a
videogame.
Figure 3
Placing a new spatial

axis in Galloway‟s
Gamic Action, Four
Moments to create
Gamic Action, Six
Moments
Games-as-actions situate videogames as temporal objects. Actions happen across

time, as do videogames. We know that in videogames players experience and
initiate different actions in their temporal journeys. Aylish Wood notes, “While many
virtual interactions are possible, only some will be actualised”29. Each gamer
experiences the game in a different way; they move through the game world
differently, they die at different points and they choose different actions to
accomplish goals. Players “apprehend the game as a matrix of future possibilities”30
in which branching storylines, vast open game worlds and sandbox games explode
the possibilities of gamic action for the player. Playing in World of Warcraft (Blizzard
Entertainment 2004) it is possible to reach the highest levels without ever entering
the infamous city of Gnomeregan, thereby ignoring a number of rewarding quests
that occur in its depths. Gnomeregan remains only a potential action.
28
Such as the “klapaucius” cheat in The Sims, which awards the player with $1000 every time it is
used.
29
Wood, Aylish. Digital Encounters. New York: Routledge, 2007, p.108.
30
Atkins, Barry. "What Are We Really Looking At? The Future-Orientation of Game Play". Games and
Culture. Volume 1, Issue 2, 2006, p.127.
When the machine is switched off the game world exists only as potential, possible
rather than actual, digitally inert. During play the player‟s actions dictate what parts
of that world are called into being. The rest of gamespace remains dormant until
called for, a potential machine act. The appearance of a persistent and navigable
world is machine sleight-of-hand, where digital code is constructed into the space on
our screens as required. Despite appearing to extend beyond its bounds the game
world exists only on the screen in front of us, though we can imagine that space
before it is rendered or remember it from other play sessions. Games are not only
actions, as Galloway declared, they are potential actions. Gamespace is latent in the
code, brought into existence when we switch on the machine. The potentiality of
videogames is both the capacity to create gamespace on the fly and the potential of
acting in that space.
The potentiality of gamespace is a product of the algorithmic nature of the medium,

creating a vision of space from the code. But the technological mediation of
gamespace also engenders the possibility of disrupting that code. The coded nature
of virtual space gives rise to the possibilities of machine disruptions, where glitches
and lag intervene in the production of gamespace. Other disruptions occur through
operator acts, through interventions like cheats and mods. Videogames contain both
the potentiality of the designer‟s vision and the potentiality to disrupt and mutate that
vision through operator and machine acts. Gamespace is susceptible to alteration,
gamespace is mutable space.
The game world does exist in a certain manner beyond the potentiality of
gamespace. Described in walkthroughs and screenshots, mapped, annotated and
written about, the game world is extended beyond its medium. Architecture in
primary space is promulgated more by the plans, elevations and glossy photos in
journals and books, than by the physical buildings31. Game worlds are likewise the
lustrous advertisements in magazines, the improbable and exaggerated box art, the
level design, the maps and the fan tributes. Player and creator acts also exist
outside of the game. Players discuss acts that occurred in gamespace, swap tips on
how to negotiate gamespace and simply talk about parts of gamespace that they
31
Kester Rattenbury notes that despite being driven by the notion that it is a material, physical thing,
architecture is “discussed, illustrated, explained – even defined – almost entirely through its
representations” (Rattenbury, Kester (Ed.). This Is Not Architecture: Media Constructions. London:
Routledge, 2002, p.xxi).
like. Situated in time, gamic actions are potential, enacted, disrupted and
remembered.
Galloway‟s scheme is significant in that it incorporates all of the aspects of gaming

in an array that encapsulates the process of playing, from turning on a console to
creating a character, to fighting a monster in a subterranean cavern, to saving the
game, to dying and reloading. More importantly Gamic Action, Four Moments
situates a number of relationships in proximity, defining but not separating the
different aspects of videogames. The cybernetic relationship between the player and
the technology, the diegetic and the non-diegetic, the spatial and the non-spatial,
intersect in an associative matrix. Distingushing between the generation of game
space and the player‟s ability to interact with that space, the scheme also allows us
to discern and incorporate how architecture works within the narrative and how
architecture is implicated in gamic events periphereal to the diegesis, privileging
neither. Combining Galloway‟s scheme with the discourse of spatiality we end up
with a model that allows architecture to be implicated in all aspects of videogames.
Galloway declared that videogames are a series of machine acts and player acts,
from this we understand that videogames are not only spatial they are actions.
1.2 Landscape as Architecture

Architecture and hence space is implicated in each unit of Galloway‟s Gamic Action,
Four Moments. But how does an architectural reading of videogames operate when
a large percentage of gamespace is composed not of urban environments but of
natural environments or simulated landscape (Fig. 4). Ernest Adams argues that
game space is “imaginary space, it is necessarily constructed by human beings and
therefore may be thought of as the product of architectural design processes”32. As
an artificial construct designed by humanity every landscape in a videogame is a
built environment. Game space is a man-made construction where both
representations of urban settings and natural landscapes are architectonic objects.
Videogames can be understood as a built space composed of architectural
elements.
32
Figure 4
Map of gamespace
extracted from the
height editor in The
Elders Scrolls IV
Oblivion showing the
extent of in-game
„natural‟ landscape
Every landscape is engineered from scratch by human involvement. Even those

landscapes that are dynamically generated by computer programs are defined by
human intervention. The designer dictates the characteristics and spatial limits of
the game environment. Peter Hines of Bethseda Softworks notes of the artificial
computer-generated landscape of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: “We created a
program and we ran it thousands, tens of thousands of times, on different parts of
the world until we got the parameters the way that we wanted them”33. Videogame
landscapes constructed for gameplay, despite appearing as natural, are actually
built environments, constructed according to the whims of their designers. Even if a
designer copies an existing natural landscape they must necessarily simplify,
abridge and abstract that landscape due to technological limitations. Until a
videogame can replicate an existing natural landscape to such a degree that it is
indistinguishable from that landscape then the designer‟s decisions of what to
represent and how to represent are imposed on that landscape. As built
environments all of gamespace, even renditions of wilderness, can be read as
architecture.
33
Hines, P. “A Chin-Wag with Bethseda”. Australian Game Pro. Issue 15, April/May 2006, p.27.
The understanding of gamespace as architecture is in part reliant on an

understanding of what is architecture. Professor of Architecture Andrew Ballantyne,
in an essay on the meaning of architecture, notes that “architecture becomes not a
pigeon hole into which we can put a set of objects, but something more like a point-
of-view”34, one that will depend on our perspective and cultural inheritance.
Definitions of architecture can be inclusive, counting all constructions as
architecture, or exclusive, referring only to what their proponents understand as
culturally significant buildings. If art historian George Hersey could include the non-
human buildings of ants and bees in his inclusive understanding of architecture35
then an understanding of all gamespace as architecture is not implausible. The
construction of videogame architecture certainly fits effortlessly into the Shorter
Oxford Dictionary understanding of architecture as “the art or practice of designing
and building edifices for human use”36.
There are other compelling reasons for understanding game landscapes as

architecture. Both architecture and landscape in gamespace are constructed using
indistinguishable techniques and are subject to the same vagaries of the medium.
Both landscape and architecture in videogames share a fundamental similarity in
how they host gameplay, sharing the same patterns of spatial use. Both landscape
and architecture in videogames are abstractions of real space. Following Katie
Salen and Eric Zimmerman‟s argument that simulations are of an abstract nature37
the simulation of both manmade and natural environments in videogames are an
abstraction of space, with a limited representation of detail. The artificial landscapes
of videogames are as much architecture as their buildings. Henry Jenkins and Kurt
Squire observe that “game worlds are totally constructed environments”38, where
everything on the screen has been put there for a purpose. As artificial and abstract
human constructs, all aspects of gamespace, including landscape can be read as
architectural. Nevertheless this thesis will at times differentiate between
representations of man-made and natural environments; calling them „architecture‟
34
Ballantyne, Andrew. “The Nest and the Pillar of Fire”. In What Is Architecture? Ballantyne, A. (Ed.).
London: Routledge, 2002, p.12.
35
Hersey, George. The Monumental Impulse, Architecture’s Biological Roots. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999.
36
The Shorter Oxford Dictionary. Fifth Edition on CD-ROM version 2.0. Oxford University Press, 2002.
37
Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge,
38
Jenkins, Henry, and Kurt Squire. "The Art of Contested Spaces". In Game On: The History and
Culture of Videogames. King, L. (Ed.). New York: Universe Publishing, 2002. p.65.
and „landscape‟, while recognising that in videogames both are artificial

constructions of space.
1.3 Stratified Approaches

Beyond Galloway‟s schemata of machine, operator and diegesis there are a number
of other approaches to studying videogames that are concerned with distinguishing
videogame components and advocating different ways to analyse videogames.
These morphologies stratify and separate different aspects of videogames. Each of
these schemes offer useful points to be considered in understanding gamespace,
but as they are not specifically composed for understanding gamespace they are
limited in their usefulness. By looking at where architecture, and hence gamespace,
might be situated in following schemes we can begin to garner a series of units
useful in analysing gamespace.
Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron in their introduction to The Video Game Theory
Reader define four components to videogames; graphics, interface, player activity
and algorithm39. Graphics is defined as the changing visual screen display, which
Wolf and Perron suggest directly implies an electronic imagery in reference to
videogames. Wolf and Perron note later that “spatial metaphor is indirectly reliant
upon the presence of graphics”40. Interface refers to the junction between the player
and the videogame, and contains those devices that allow the player and the game
to communicate, so that handsets, keyboards and the onscreen heads-up-display
(HUD) are included. Player Activity, which is necessarily ergodic41, includes activity
on the screen due to player input and the activity the player undertakes physically to
achieve that input. Algorithm is the program or software that determines the
procedural and representational elements of the game, creating the rules of play.
Wolf and Perron suggest these four components are fundamental to videogames,
separating them from other media forms, including literature and film. The game
environment and architecture are most clearly evident in the graphic component,
39
Perron, Bernard, and Wolf, Mark J. P. (Eds.). The Video Game Theory Reader. New York, London:
Routledge, 2003, p.15.
40
Ibid, p.17.
41
A term coined by Espen Aarseth in Cybertext-Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, that combines the
Greek words ergon, meaning work, and hodos, meaning path, to denote text that requires non-
trivial or extranoematic effort (or effort occurring outside of human thought) to traverse (Aarseth,
E. Cybertext: Perspective on Ergodic Literature. The John Hopkins University Press, 1997, p.1).
particularily in a visual sense, yet architecture and landscape are also heavily
implicated in player activity, delineating player movement and being acted upon.
Likewise algorithm cannot be separated from architecture in that it controls the ways
in which the player can move and act within the game world. Interface then appears
as the least connected to architecture yet when we look at strategy games, such as
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II (EA Los Angeles 2006), architecture is a
primary means of accessing complex information interfaces. Other aspects of
interface may also connect to the architectural experience through rumble paks and
other feedback devices. Each component then contributes to the game environment
and its architecture. Wolf and Perron‟s scheme, while perhaps the broadest and
therefore the lest effective in analysing gamespace as a distinct unit of videogames,
does suggest a division between player agency and the representation of space,
enabled by the interface and driven by the underlying algorithms.
In Computer Game Analysis: A Method for Computer Game Criticism42 Lars

Konzack separates videogames into seven distinct layers, attempting to provide a
means of analysing the technical, aesthetic and socio-cultural aspects of
videogames. Konzack‟s seven layers are; hardware, program code, functionality
gameplay, meaning, referentiality and socio-culture.
Hardware refers to the physical technology of the game; while program code refers
the underlying software which Konzack stresses is an essential component of
computer games (a component that can be understood indirectly through its effects
on other layers). Functionality can be defined as the computer reaction to user input,
or what the computer application does. Functionality is dependent on the code and
the hardware. Konzack refers here to the variety of functionalities observed by
Aarseth in Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature.
Gameplay refers to ludological factors of play, where ludology refers to the study of
games. Konzack places the simulated game world in this category, which would
then include gamespace. Meaning refers to semiotic conveying of meaning through
signs, secondary to the ludology of the game. The signs, ornament and game
structures that are reused from other games and media are designated as
referentiality. Konzack includes narrative and historical sources in referentiality, but
42
Konzack, Lars. "Computer Game Criticism: A Method for Computer Game Analysis". Proceedings of
Computer Games and Digital Cultures. Tampere, Finland, 2002, pp.89-100.
also points out that genre structures in games are commonly reused. Finally Socio-
Culture refers to the culture around computer games, including the interaction
between game and player, the interaction between real space and players, and the
interaction between players.
Architecture is dependent on hardware and program code, both of which operate at

a sub-level, driving the simulation of space and the rules governing player
interaction with that space. Architecture is also dependent on functionality, which
underlies how the player interacts with the game world. For Konzack the game
environment is part of gameplay, gamespace is ludological. Architecture is a
component of play. Yet Konzack also mentions gamespace as a component of
meaning during his dissection of Soul Caliber (Namco 1999)43. This implies a
distinction between how the environment hosts gameplay and how the environment
can be read or can add layers of meaning to gameplay. What architecture does is
then different to what architecture means, yet considering that culturally applied
aspects of architecture influence usage patterns there will be intersections between
the two layers.
Architecture in referentiality is of interest, particularly in relation to a study of the

modification of architectural norms in videogames. The use of architectural
conventions, the use of architectural stereotypes and the imitation of successful
game environments are all examples of referentiality. Architecture is also implicated
in socio-culture when game environments influence social space. Gamespace can
be used to limit player numbers, set out spatial boundaries to activity and define
what interactions can take place between players. How gamespace manipulates
and controls player interactions is also part of an architectural study.
Espen Aarseth suggests that Konzack‟s methodological framework should be used

more as an open framework where the analyst would choose a few particular layers
to work with, given that few games contain innovations or interest in more than one
or two of the seven categories. While all of Konzack‟s layers are relevant in some
manner to architecture the layers of functionality, gameplay, meaning and
referentiality are the most pertinent for studies of gamespace. Aarseth goes on to
43
Konzack refers to the locations of Soul Caliber as visually impressive yet having little impact on
gameplay, hence functioning as superfluous context (Konzack, Lars. "Computer Game Criticism: A
Method for Computer Game Analysis". Proceedings of Computer Games and Digital Cultures.
Tampere, Finland, 2002, pp.95-96).
remark that “layers should not be seen in isolation”44 but should be analysed
together for best effect, noting that the separation of the layers is both the scheme‟s
strongest and weakest point. Konzack also notes that any layered analysis of
videogames should be situated within an overall description of the game in order to
retain a sense of the game as a whole. Konzack‟s scheme is most valuable in
highlighting the multitude of ways in which videogames operate, in particular
drawing to our attention to the ways in which videogames offer interpretative or
connotative material.
Aarseth, in examining the elements that computer game researchers choose to

examine, redefines the field of study as “games in virtual environments”45. By taking
this approach Aarseth argues that uninteresting and trivial computer games are
eliminated, such as computerised chess and toys, while closely related tabletop
simulation games, like Dungeons and Dragons (Gygax and Arneson 1974), are
included. Games-in-virtual-environments are characterised by their gameplay,
game-structure and game-world.
Gameplay includes the actions, strategies and motives of the players.
Game-structure contains the rules of the game.
Game-world refers to the simulated spatial representation and the fictional
content of the game.
According to Aarseth games-in-virtual-environments must take place in a game-

world since computer games are characterised by their spatiality. Where
videogames as a definition privileges the digital and the screen, games-in-virtual-
environments stresses the spatial and virtual. Aarseth‟s redefinition is useful in
reducing the field to only those games that simulate an environment and can hence
contain architecture. Yet as a field for spatial study games-in-virtual-environments is
problematic, the technological mediation of a pen & paper game is significantly
different to that of a videogame, while just what constitutes a virtual environment is
not specified by Aarseth.
44
45
Ibid, p.2.
Architecture is implicit in the game-world as a spatial representation. Yet

architecture also functions as part of gameplay, affecting and channelling the player.
Architecture is also reliant on the rules of the game; the game-structure defines the
rules of their interaction between player and world. From a spatial perspective
Aarseth‟s three points can be restated as the game world, what the player does and
can do in that world and how the game world operates. Like Wolf and Perron‟s
scheme, Aarseth‟s proposal stresses the division between player acts and
gamespace. Less usefully it does not indicate how the rules are implicated in
gamespace. Aarseth notes that each one of the three characteristics of games-in-
virtual-environments will be relevant to different games research disciplines. A
study of gamespace requires an understanding of all three.
The Game Ontology Project, hosted by the Experimental Game Lab at the Georgia
Institute of Technology, is an evolving project that aims to create a hierarchical
framework for describing and analysing games46. The top level of the Ontology
consists of four basic categories; interface, rules, entity manipulation and goals.
Interface describes the meeting of player and game, incorporating input methods
and devices, and the presentation of the game world. Rules determine what can and
cannot take place in the game. Entity manipulation refers to the alteration and action
of entities in the game world. Goals describe the objectives of the game. The Game
Ontology Project then collates the representation of gamespace with the means by
which the player can act on that space, but creates a separate category to describe
the acts that can be undertaken in gamespace.
For architecture in videogames the most potent categories are those of interface,
and rules. Interface covers the representation of architecture and gamespace, or
more simply that which is built, while the rules determine the actions performable in
and by gamespace. Most importantly rules set down the framework in which the
game takes place, indicating that gamespace is part of the framing of the whole
game. By distinguishing entity manipulation, or what we can do in gamespace, as a
separate category The Game Ontology Project again emphasises that player
agency is a distinct unit. Architecture is both a spatial representation and active
component of the game that is subject to manipulation by the player.
46
The Game Ontology project is continually evolving as it is worked on, the categories stated here
may have changed. The Game Ontology Project. www.gameontology.org. Accessed 7 September
2009.
Distinguishing between the rules that govern gamespace and the presentation of
space by videogames is a common thread in the schemes mentioned in this section.
The distinction is echoed from a different direction in Jesper Juul‟s concept of half-
real, where videogames are made of real rules and fictional worlds47, suggesting a
distinction between gamespace and the rules that govern the game. However Juul
goes onto note the “level design of a game world can present a fictional world and
determine what players can and cannot do at the same time. In this way, space in
games can work as a combination of rules and fiction”48. From this we can infer that
gamespace consists of both a fictional representation of space and a set of rules
that govern player actions.
Common to Wolf and Perron‟s, Konzack‟s, Aarseth‟s, and the Game Ontology
Project’s conceptualisation of videogames are references to the simulated spatiality
of the game or to the entire game world, to the rules that govern the simulated game
environment, and to the activities that the player undertakes in the process of
gaming. Aarseth‟s scheme neatly encapsulates these three core components. Yet
Aarseth situates space as a fictional representation, while Konzack and the Game
Ontology Project emphasise the active role of space in videogames, connecting
space with gameplay and the devices that allow us to act upon gamespace. The
other approaches highlight additional aspects of gamespace including the role of the
interface between the player and the game world, the semiotic meaning of
architecture, referentiality within games and the role architecture may play in the
associated socio-culture. None of the schemes is sufficient; a conceptual structure
of gamespace needs to recognise gamespace both as a fictional representation and
as an active component of play.
More importantly the schemes suggest that a distinction between gamespace and
player agency should be made. Yet beyond Juul, none of these approaches indicate
the relationships that occur between the different units. In looking at gamespace a
stratified methodological approach is limited. Architecture is a construct that can
simultaneously represent and structure, influence and organise, imply and denote,
act and be acted upon within gameplay. That each element of the four schemes can
47
48
Ibid, p.163.
be seen as implicated in or impacting on architecture in videogames indicates that

gamespace inhabits a broad spectrum of game aspects.
1.4 Qualities of Game Space

Rather than taking a stratified approach in analysing videogames other theorists
have proposed less hierarchical typologies. While the schemes are not specifically
focused on gamespace they often refer explicitly to qualities of gamespace. Each of
these schemes then offers ways of directly analysing gamespace and contains units
important for an architectural study of videogames.
Espen Aarseth, Solveig Marie Smedstad and Lise Sunnaná propose a Multi-
Dimensional Typology of Games specifically for games in virtual environments49.
Separating out five distinct dimensions to games, each category contains a number
of subordinate divisions that can be used to create game genres. Each heading is
intended for convenience and does not have intrinsic significance. Space contains
distinctions between the perspective used, the player‟s movement and the level of
dynamism in the environment. Time refers to how the game is paced, how time is
represented and the teleology or final goal of the game. Player Structure relates to
player numbers and their configuration. Control refers to the influencing or rewarding
of the players position, how the game uses saving and whether a game is
deterministic or not. Rules indicate if games are determined by conditions at certain
points in the game world, if there are time based rules and if there are objective
based rules.
Of the five main categories space is obvious as relevant. As a subset of space

perspective details how players see or experience the world and whether they can
examine gamespace at will or if the camera is tied to the player‟s avatar. In games
like Starcraft the player can move the camera to any point of the battlefield, while in
games like Tomb Raider the camera operates only inside a concentric circle up to a
predetermined distance from the player. The subset of player movement also
determines the player‟s experience according to the level of freedom allowed.
Aarseth, Smedstad and Sunnaná determine player movement as either geometric,
49
Aarseth, Espen and Smedstad, Solvieg Maie and Sunnana, Lise. "A Multi-Dimensional Typology of
Games". Level Up Conference Proceedings: DiGRA 2003. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2003, pp.48-53.
allowing the player to move in any direction, or topological where the player
movement is restricted.
Environmental dynamism refers to the status of the game environment, which may
remain unchanged throughout gameplay, or be changed, configured by player
actions and altered substantially in the case of destructible terrain. Simple actions
like opening doors are seen to be changes in status as opposed to dynamic
changes. Dynamic environments can be modified by the player, while static
environments cannot be strategically manipulated by the player. Computer
generated changes are not addressed specifically, only the quality of modification by
the player. Environmental dynamism increases the potentiality of videogames,
where players have the potential to act directly on gamespace as well as in
gamespace. Each subcategory in space then directly relates to how the player
experiences the game. Space is valuable in showing us that gamespace has an
effect on gameplay through manipulating the player‟s viewpoint, their ability to move
and their ability to change the game world.
The category of rules can also have a considerable effect on how we experience
architecture in videogames. The presence of time-based rules can determine
architectural content; if the player has only a set period of time to manoeuvre
through a level, then that will determine the length and environmental difficulty of
that level. Objective-based rules can impact on architecture when the objective is
architectural or involves movement through architecture. Both time-based and
objective-based rules can be present without affecting game architecture.
The most obvious spatial element in the category of rules is the subset of topological
rules, where rules are linked to topological features, such as the position of the
player in gamespace. This is most noticeable in the application of environmental or
architectural attributes where position in space can have deterministic qualities.
Standing on lava terrain in American McGee’s Alice (Rogue Entertainment 2000)
can result in avatar death, while moving onto a tile in Tomb Raider may trigger the
ignition of burning infernos and the eruption of spikes from the floor. These violent
executory spaces are common in adventure and puzzle games. Yet even the tamest
game world tends to have location specific rules for determining qualities of access
and movement. Considering the converse of a topological rule is a universal rule, do
we classify game-wide topologically linked spatial rules as universal or not? This
suggests that this classification is less useful than might be expected depending on
how it is defined. It is interesting to note that the authors did not include an example
of classifying using these subcategories in their paper.
The other categories in Aarseth, Smedstad and Sunnaná‟s paper could be said to
influence architecture indirectly, so that a multiplayer game environment might differ
from a single player environment. Only one other subcategory, the representation of
time, is commonly seen to have a direct effect on architecture in videogames. Time
can be mimetic, seeking to correspond to the timing of events in primary space, or
arbitrary, scheduling events unrealistically. The building of a fortress in Battle for
Middle Earth II is arbitrary, occurring as it does within a period of minutes, while the
opening of a door in Oblivion is mimetic, taking the same time to open as a door in
primary space. It is worth noting at this point that most games commonly compress
events that take place over long periods of time, such as building structures and
travelling long distances.
Aarseth, Smedstad and Sunnaná‟s scheme is significant in that it identifies

differences between games and consequently is most useful when comparing
similar games. The authors note this scheme does not necessarily need to be
accepted as a whole and can be modified without destroying its underlying
usefulness. In an architectural investigation space, time and rules provide valuable
insights into the operation of gamespace. Space, time and rules incorporate player
experience, touching on how players see the game world, how they move through
gamespace, the changes they can make to the game world, how long it takes for
things to happen in the game world and what happens to players at different points
in the game world. Viewpoint, player agency and spatial consequences are the
extracted qualities that can be applied to architecture.
Aarseth briefly touches on some of the categories described above in his earlier
paper, Allegories of Space50. The main thrust of the paper contends that computer
games are an allegory of space. Considering gamespace as an allegory for space
we can note that gamespace is not real space, but describes, and has points of
congruence with, real space. Aarseth goes on to note that computer games could
50
Yearbook 2000. Eskelinen, M. and Koskimaa, R. (Eds.) University of Jyväskylä: Research Centre for
Contemporary Culture, 2001, pp.152-171.
potentially be classified according to how they deal with space. Aarseth indicates
that the player‟s level of influence in the game world, whether the player is
embodied in gamespace or not and the construction of space in that world could
provide a means of classifying videogames. The player‟s level of influence equates
to player agency and player embodiment is commensurate with viewpoint51, but the
only point Aarseth develops in any detail refers to the construction of space as open
and restricted.
Aarseth distinguishes between open and closed worlds, referring to them, by means
of a spatial metaphor, as indoors and outdoors. For Aarseth Myst (Cyan Worlds
1993), with its discontinuous space and labyrinthine, obstacle-ridden maps, is
indoors while the more open continuous space of a game like Morrowind would
qualify as outdoors. Indoors and outdoors are about qualities of navigation rather
than the appearance of gamespace. A landscape with an open appearance may
actively restrict movement; in Battle for Middle Earth II landforms restrict player
movement to corridors within certain maps. Open and closed worlds then set out
degrees of limitation to movement.
While limited in its application52 Aarseth‟s concept of open and closed worlds shows
how player agency, as navigation, is governed by the construction of gamespace. In
an architectural context open and closed worlds are essentially about restricted
circulation or open circulation. Interestingly, cheats are available that circumvent
architectural restrictions to movement. Turning on the IDSPISPOPD cheat53 in
Doom (iD Software 1993) allows players to walk through walls, transforming what is
essentially a corridor game into an open plan environment. The player gains control
over the architecture and its properties through digital conventions in a way that they
cannot in real space. Player agency, as cheating, turns the tables and negates the
control over movement by gamespace, reminding us that gamespace is mutable
space.
51
Aarseth refers to the quality of being in the world or the relationship between representations of
the user and game world, but the accompanying descriptions refer more to modes of spatial
production, such as three-dimensional or isometric space. Taking the relationship as the most
salient aspect here I align player embodiment with viewpoint.
52
Namely because it sets up a dichotomy between the two sorts of gamespace, while many games
indulge in combinations of open and closed constructions of space.
53
A freely available cheat, if the player types IDSPISPOPD into the game it turns off the clipping
ability of walls allowing the player to glide through them.
Janet Murray also displays an interest in how game environments restrict

navigation. She begins by positing that digital environments are procedural,
participatory, spatial and encyclopaedic54. When paraphrased this might read as;
videogames are algorithmic systems of connecting actions that involve player
activity in a navigable space capable of complexity. Ian Bogost emphasises
Murray‟s quality of procedural arguing that “although Murray places procedurality
alongside three other properties, these properties are not equivalent”55. The
procedural, as a process driven by rules of execution, is the principal value for
Bogost. The procedural emphasises the machine act, both in creating gamespace
and in responding to player actions. Gamespace (as spatial and encyclopaedic) and
player agency in that space (the participatory) are dependent on the algorithmic act
(the procedural) to exist.
Murray is principally interested in narrative, yet she confirms the importance of

spatiality in videogames, averring “the new digital environments are characterised
by their power to represent navigable space”56 (invoking what Murray calls the
pleasure of navigation) and asserting the significance of player activity in
gamespace. Murray distinguishes two qualities of navigational space; the maze and
the rhizome. The maze refers to the pre-ordained exploration of space tied to
narrative, where player options and gameplay solutions are limited57. The rhizome,
borrowing from Gilles Deleuze‟s vision of the tuberous root system where all points
can be connected with each other, in contrast signifies the linkable, reusable,
tangled pathway with no end point.
A game like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Ubisoft 2003) in its linear
exploration of space is a maze. Players are forced to take a predefined route
through the palace, funnelled by architectural barriers into particular encounters with
space and enemies. In contrast Planescape Torment (Black Isle Studios 1999)
presents a recurrent and tangled, rather than sequential, experience of space.
Where Prince of Persia is concerned with spatial progression, Planescape Torment
54
Murray, Janet. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. Cambridge,
55
Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2007, p.4.
56
57
Referring to Umberto Eco and Penelope Reed Doob, Aarseth discusses mazes as linear and
unicursal, or as multicursal with alternate branches. Aarseth, Espen. Cybertext: Perspective on
Ergodic Literature. Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press, 1997, p.6.
focuses on conversation and story, with nearly one million words of dialogue waiting
to be discovered (Fig. 5). Equating Planescape Torment with the rhizome Diane
Carr notes that the “amount of dialogue from the game's inhabitants makes it difficult
to empty any space of its potential to offer variety”58, encouraging players to revisit
and re-examine its spaces and population. The path each player takes can vary
dramatically as they uncover quests and information central to gameplay in different
orders.
Figure 5
Planescape
Torment operates
as a rhizome,
presenting the
player with multiple
narrative options for
each encounter
The maze and the rhizome (as two qualities of gamespace) intersect with Jesper
Juul‟s understanding of games as open or closed, or games of emergence or
progression59. Where progression games have serially introduced challenges,
predetermining play and exerting control over navigation, emergent games use
combinations of rules to offer variations of gameplay and broadly defined goals.
Where progression games can have walkthroughs (player guides that set out
explicitly how to win the game) emergent games can only offer generalised solutions
to gameplay problems (or strategy guides). Progression and emergence are partially
enabled and controlled by gamespace. Juul shows how choke points in gamespace
become a focus of emergent gameplay in first person shooter (FPS) games60.
58
Carr, Diane. "Play Dead, Genre and Affect in Silent Hill and Planescape Torment". Game Studies.
Volume 3, Issue 1, 2003. http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/carr/. Accessed 20 November 2007.
59
Juul, Jesper. "The Open and the Closed: Games of Emergence and Games of Progression".
Computer Games and Digital Conference Proceedings. Tampere, Finland, 2002, pp.323-329.
60
Taking gamespace as emergent or progressive reconnects to the notions of

freedom or limitation in navigational freedom and player agency as a way of
controlling play in space.
In spatial terms Aarseth‟s indoor and outdoor analogy, Murray‟s maze and rhizome,
and Juul‟s games of emergence and progression, describe qualities of constraint in
gamespace. All of them focus to an extent on the degree of control over navigation.
Where Aarseth was concerned with the configuration of space, Murray ties that
control to the narrative context of the game. Of the three Juul‟s scheme is the most
expansive, examining gameplay as a holistic construct of which gamespace is only
one part. What emerges from each of these schemes is that player agency is
dependent on the construction of gamespace.
Like Janet Murray, Henry Jenkins is also interested in the connections between
narrative and space. In his paper, Game Design as Narrative Architecture, Jenkins
examines games “less as stories than as spaces ripe with narrative possibility”61.
Looking at how the structures of gamespace support narrative in videogames
Jenkins describes four means of environmental storytelling62 that can be
paraphrased as:
Evoked narrative space or spaces influenced by prior narrative
Embedded narrative elements in space
A space for narrative which enables narrative enactment
Emergent narrative space or a space of narrative potential enabling players
to create their own narrative
Jenkins‟ categories highlight how videogame environments connect to narrative.
Architecture plays a part in narrative by acting as a setting for well-known narratives,
by acting as part of the narrative, by being the space in which narrative happens and
by providing the resources for players to create their own story. Architecture, as
buildings, can be implicated in each of Jenkins‟ four modes of narrative space, yet
the schemes very inclusiveness limits its usefulness. Jeffery E. Brand and Scott J.
61
Performance and Game. Harrigan, P. & Wardrip-Fruin, N. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The
MIT Press, 2004, p.119.
62
Ibid, pp.118-129.
Knight, who analysed 80 games using Jenkins‟ narrative architecture categories as

part of the Diverse Worlds project, note that these definitions are too broad63.
While Jenkins used the evoked narrative space in reference to games shaped by
narrative franchises, such as the various Star Wars games, in an architectural sense
the entire game world is evoked. We bring pre-existing knowledge of architecture to
every videogame, where most of the buildings we encounter are familiar to us from
other media narratives. Videogames often rely on architectural stereotyping to evoke
settings, where a game like Fable (Lionhead Studios 2004) is contextualised by the
deployment of rustic villages and masonry castles. The architectural narrative is built
from documentaries, historical dramas, travel programs, television, fantasy novels
and from the countless other pieces of media that are set in some form of space.
The architecture of videogames is also evoked from primary space, copying

conventions of architectural use and constantly referring to aspects of spatial usage
in buildings. Doors are variable states of open and closed in videogames and
primary space alike, they are portals to different spaces, dividers of program. A door
in Oblivion does not operate as a door in a mechanical sense. Clicking on the door
precipitates an intermediate screen that loads a new interior or exterior. Yet in a
procedural sense it operates like any door in primary space, as a spatially flattened
passageway between distinct areas. Likewise architecture in videogames evokes
the familiar spaces of other games, reusing gamic conventions and, through genre,
reinforcing architectural stereotypes. Even an architecturally bizarre game like Prey
(Valve Corporation 2007) – which warps gravity and distance in improbable ways –
references other games that have used portals and teleportation.
Building on the notion of evoked space, we can argue that space and architecture in
videogames is then intertextual, self–referential and dependant on convention. In
much the same way it could also be argued that all architectural space in
videogames enables diegesis, whether structured or emergent, through architectural
citations, configurations and connotations. Yet to argue this point would draw away
from the intention of Jenkins‟ work, which seeks to understand the new ways in
which games tell stories and relate to narrative through their spatiality. The
63
Brand, Jeffrey and Knight, Scott. "The Narrative and Ludic Nexus in Computer Games: Diverse
Worlds II". Changing Views: Worlds in Play, DIGRA. Vancouver, Canada, 2005.
http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06278.57359.pdf. Accessed 3 April 2006.
categories of narrative architecture are less a typology than a modus operandi of

spatial narrative. Notably Jenkins draws our attention to the inclusion of interpretive
material in gamespace, both through association with prior narratives and through
embedded narrative material.
Each of these schemes mentioned in this section focuses on qualities of gamespace

and each suggests units that relate to the representation of architecture in
videogames. Aarseth, Sedated and Sunnaná‟s scheme contains the architecturally
relevant facets of viewpoint, player agency (including movement in space and time)
and spatial consequences, all of which directly affect the player‟s experience.
Aarseth, Murray and Juul also iterate the importance of player agency, particularly
as navigation, connecting its control to the construction of gamespace. Finally
Jenkins‟ paper adds an understanding of how games create, connect to and
reinforce narrative, highlighting interpretative modes of space. More importantly
these investigations begin to show how qualities of gamespace are inseparable from
gameplay. Player agency, navigation and story are both implicated in gameplay and
dependant on space. If Aarseth‟s triumvirate of gameplay, game structure and
game-world typifies the stratified approach to videogames then approaches focused
on qualities of gamespace begin to suggest links between them.
1.5 Players and Spatial Practices

Other approaches to videogames examine them as constructs that are not distinct
from real space. Arguing that game space is comprised of a hybrid spatiality, best
understood through Michel Foucault‟s notion of a heterotopia (different
emplacements in one location), Axel Stockberger separates game space into five
different modalities: user space, narrative space, rule space, audiovisual
representational space and kinaesthetic space64.
User space is the space in which the user is situated, defined as the external
context to the game being played. Narrative space describes the narrative journey
performed in the game and the “potential arena”65 of game space in which the story
can be enacted by the player. Stockberger relates narrative space to Michel De
Certeau‟s conception of how narrative structures are spatialised. Rule space
64
Stockberger, Axel. The Rendered Arena: Modalities of Space in Video and Computer Games.
Doctoral Thesis, University of the Arts, London, 2006.
65
Ibid, p.111.
describes the impact of the rules on space, including explicit game rules and the
tacit rules of engagement with gamespace. Audiovisual Representational space is
the visual and aural presentation, or simulation of space. Kinaesthesia is the body‟s
spatial sense; kinaesthetic space is the site of interface between the player and the
game, acting as an extension of the body.
Stockberger asserts that gamespace is a result of dynamic interplay between the

five different modalities of space, wherein each modality influences and affects the
others. Significantly two of the five modalities sit outside of what is normally
regarded as gamespace, occurring outside of the digital representation of space.
Stockberger‟s scheme situates external player space within gamespace by including
user space (the space in which the operator acts) and kinaesthetic space (the
interface between the machine and operator) within the modalities. Stockberger
extends gamespace making us aware of the role of the player. The player operates
in user space, acts within kinaesthetic space and is implicated as an interpretive
agent in narrative space, while the rules dictate what the player can and cannot do.
Stockberger concludes that the player is the nucleus of the dynamic feedback
system of play, stating that even a study focussed on visual representation must
take into account the kinaesthetic dimension66. Architecture is directly implicated
within the modalities of narrative, rules and audio-visual representation, but
Stockberger indicates we must also understand the player as an operator and
interpreter of gamespace.
For Bernadette Flynn the spaces of computer games are about more than just
representation. Spatiality is fundamental to gameplay, which becomes a form of
spatial practice indebted to the player. Drawing on the work of Henri Lefebvre,
Doreen Massey and Michel de Certeau, Flynn asserts that the spatiality of games
goes beyond aesthetics and narrative to become a cultural social space. She also
notes that movement plays a critical role in videogames – games are traversed and
explored, not just watched. Spatiality is linked to navigation and the player, where
spatial practices in videogames always involve player agency. Flynn argues that “if
space is not only aesthetics, but also trajectories of navigation, then by definition the
66
Doctoral Thesis, University of the Arts, London, 2006, p.261.
player is implicated as agent in the structure of the game”67. The designer may
create the game space but the player reconstitutes that space during gameplay,
appropriating the space in a way that corresponds to Michel De Certeau‟s account
of user transforming place into space. Any analysis of gamespace needs to take into
account “the participatory and embodied positions of the player”68, while examining
the spatial is essential when looking at user engagement.
Flynn argues that construing gamespace according to the Cartesian tradition of

spatial representation as a series of “solid objects in empty space”69 ignores the
ways in which games incorporate social practices and influence player behaviour.
Flynn argues that gamespace is a space in which “players inhabit space and
engage in a range of spatial practices that are linked to the social”70. Social activity
exists both in the external milieu of the gaming environment and in the context of
multiplayer games, within the games themselves. Navigating computer space and
spatial practice in games is also a cultural act. Building on Doreen Massey‟s work
Space, Place and Gender, Flynn tells us that navigation of space is “socially
constructed and historically and politically constituted”71. Flynn draws to our
attention the ways in which gamespace is not culturally disinterested but instead
extends colonial myths and ideologies of conquest.
Taking Maurice Merleau-Ponty‟s notion of embodiment (where body image is task

orientated and spatiality relates to situation not position) Flynn goes on to suggest
that players are conditioned by their bodily experiences in primary space. Movement
and navigation in gamespace reflect movement and navigation in primary space.
Felicity J. Colman also sees gamespace as bodily produced – “Game-spaces are
configured at a variety of representational levels, re-produced, and produced by the
body‟s concrete and intuitive knowledge of the physical properties of space”72.
Game players inhabit game space in a subjective manner and bring to the game
world their physical and mental personal history. This suggests another way in
67
Flynn, Bernadette. "Games as Inhabited Spaces". Media International Australia Incorporating
Culture and Policy. The Games Issue, No 110, 2004, p.55.
68
Ibid, p.52.
69
Ibid, p.55.
70
Ibid, p.53.
71
Ibid, p.56.
72
Felicity J. Colman. “Affective Game Topologies: Any-Space-Whatevers–”. Refractory: A Journal of
Entertainment Media. Volume 13, 2008. http://blogs.arts.unimelb.edu.au/refractory/2008/05/21/
affective-game-topologies-any-space-whatevers-felicity-j-colman/. Accessed 24 July 2008.
which social practices are brought to the game world by designers and players,
through their unconscious familiarity with socially encoded environments.
By linking gamespace with corporeal experience and social practices Flynn

suggests ways in which games are cultural acts. Gamespace not only imitates the
look of primary space it replicates the cultural patterns that occur in primary space
and hosts social activity. The magic circle, a commonly used term taken from Johan
Huizinga‟s work Homo Ludens that describes play as bordered and distinct from
ordinary life, is (to borrow an architectural metaphor) shown to be a permeable
membrane rather than an exclusionary device73.
Both Stockberger and Flynn see games as social spaces that incorporate spatial
practices from primary space. While Stockberger dwells on the connections between
different modalities of space, Flynn focuses on the importance of player embodiment
and player agency through navigation. Both emphasise the role of the player in
videogames. Stockberger‟s scheme broadens the scope of spatiality in videogames
and would be useful in considering spatial issues outside the construction of
gamespace. Yet Stockberger does not distinguish between the actions of the player
on space and machine acts performed by gamespace. Neither am I convinced that
narrative space can be separate from the audio-visual representation of space,
considering the embedding of narrative into space. Flynn‟s work notably highlights
the interpretative role of the player and can be extrapolated to include the interplay
between player and designer, both of whom bring social practices to the game.
Their work shows that qualities of gamespace are entwined with and dependent on
real space.
1.6 Units of Gamespace

We began this chapter with Galloway‟s scheme, placing machine and operator in
one axis, the diegetic and non-diegetic in another. Gamic Action, Four Moments
encompasses all of the paraphernalia of videogames, the acts of the player and
their intersections in a connective framework. Architecture and space are implicated
73
In relation to videogames the “magic circle” has been critiqued for regarding play as separate to
physical space and everyday life. Edward Castronova argues that the magic circle is porous rather
than sealed, noting in particular the transfer of economic activity from gamespace to physical
space (Castronova E. Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 2005, p.147).
in each axis of the matrix. Gamespace can also be seen as a potential space, a
mutable space. From there we moved to look at stratified approaches to
understanding videogames, finding that architecture was instituted in the units of
rules, player activity and the representation of space. Aarseth‟s triumvirate of game-
structure, gameplay and game-world encapsulated the stratified approaches. Going
on to investigate schemes that looked at qualities of gamespace the role of player
agency and navigation in gamespace was highlighted. Finally we looked at
gamespace as social and cultural, implicating spatial practices and the user in the
reading of gamespace.
Each of the schemes examined suggests ways in which we can understand

gamespace. Yet these schemes are general in scope. While they contain points of
interest for a study of gamespace, they fail to bring those points together in single
scheme. For a study of architecture in gamespace and the architecture of
gamespace a more focused scheme, which garners and collates the relevant units,
is needed.
Investigations into architecture in videogames have already been carried out,

notably by Ernest Adams. In Adam‟s study the primary role of architecture was to
support gameplay, through spatial layouts of constraint and concealment, spatial
challenges of skill and wayfinding, and ambient effects of atmosphere74.Other
approaches have looked at specific units within gamespace, including genre specific
studies75, discussions of spatial exploration76, technically mandated configurations of
space77 and intersections with narrative78. You can find papers on gender and
74
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20021009/adams_01.htm. Accessed 23 April, 2005.
75
Including: Hourigan, Ben. "The Utopia of Open Space in Role-Playing Videogames". Melbourne
DAC: The Fifth International Digital Arts and Culture Conference. RMIT Melbourne, 2003, pp.53-62.
Pinchbeck, Dan. "Counting Barrels in Quake 4: Affordances and Homediegetic Structures in FPS
Worlds". Situated Play: Proceeding of the DiGRA 2007 Conference. Tokyo, 2007, pp.8-14.
76
Including: King, Geoff, and Tanya Krzywinska. "Gamescapes: Exploration and Virtual Presence in
Game Worlds”. Level Up Conference Proceedings: DiGRA 2003. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2003,
pp.108-119.
Lammes, Sybille. "One the Border: Pleasure of Exploration and Colonial Mastery in Civilisation III
Play the World". Level Up Conference Proceedings: DiGRA 2003. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2003,
pp.120-129.
77
Including: Fernandez-Vara, Clara. "Evolution of Spatial Configurations in Videogames". Changing
Views -Worlds in Play: DiGRA 2005. Vancouver, 2005.
Flynn, Bernadette. "Imaging Gameplay - the Design and Construction of Spatial Worlds". Imaginary
Worlds Symposium. University of Technology, Sydney, 2005. http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/research/
videogames, notably Henry Jenkins‟ text on videogames as gendered play spaces79,

and many other areas which intersect with investigations into gamespace80. Other
studies look at how videogames are relevant to architecture. José dos Santos
Cabral Filho positions concepts of game theory and the work of Roger Callois into
architecture81, focusing mainly on how this can facilitate the architect and client
relationship. Yet none of these approaches provide a framework for analysing
gamespace and its relationship to gameplay.
This thesis is primarily concerned with gamespace and gameplay interactions. While
many earlier approaches have appreciated gamespace as a significant component
of videogames no comprehensive models of how gamespace is implicated in
gameplay exists. This thesis proposes a new scheme. Taking as a starting point Ian
Bogost‟s unit method we can rewrite the sundry approaches into four units of
gamespace, where each unit offers a distinct fact of spatiality in videogames. The
core facets of an architectural and spatial study are hereby termed as the units of
gamespace. The units of gamespace as stated by this thesis are: representation,
assigned qualities, player agency and interpretation.
Representation refers to the simulation of architecture and space on the screen.

This is the act of configuring a space and the act of making the game world
manifest. It is a technological mediation of gamespace, the making of a complex
picture by the hardware and software. At its most simplistic interpretation it refers to
the appearance, sound and form of the game world. Representation also includes all
the multifarious attributes of gamespace and is analogous to the game-world
component in Aarseth‟s triumvirate. Representational space includes the visual
presentation of space, but also embraces other ways in which a construction of
conferences/imaginary-worlds/imaging_gameplay.pdf. Accessed 16 July 2006.

Wolf, Mark J. P. (Ed.). The Medium of the Video Game. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
78
Including: Wilhelmsson, Ulf. "Computer Games as Playground and Stage". CyberGames 2006:
Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Game research and Development. Fremantle,
WA, 2006, pp.62-68.
79
Jenkins, Henry. "Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces". In
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat. Cassell J. and Jenkins H. (Eds.). Massachusetts: Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, 1998, pp.262-297.
80
For example Tanya Krzywinska’s paper discusses the mythological styling of different spaces within
the World of Warcraft (Krzywinska, T. "“Elune Be Praised” The Functions and Meanings of Myth in
the World of Warcraft". Aesthetics of Play. University of Bergen, Norway, 2005.
http://www.aestheticsofplay.org/kryzywinska.php. Accessed 20 April 2006).
81
Dos Santos Cabral Filho, J. Formal Games and Interaction Design: Computers as formal devices for
informal interaction between clients and architects. Doctoral Thesis, Sheffield University School of
Architectural Studies, 2006.
space can be made manifest, such as aural and performative qualities.

Representational status can refer to general features that the game space exhibits,
such as open or restricted circulation, or refer to compound characteristics that are
formed from multiple components, for instance the simulation of a particular
historical period. The representation of space in videogames also includes the act of
framing space through the virtual camera.
Assigned Qualities are the qualities, both active and passive, that the algorithmic
program gives to gamic architecture and gamespace. It refers to the game structure
and rules that describe and regulate gamespace. According to Salen and
Zimmerman rules are the formal structure of a game, the fixed set of abstract
guidelines describing how a game system functions82. Salen and Zimmerman note
that the primary way in which rules operate is to limit player action83. In the case of
gamespace rules determines how space operates and define how the player may
operate in that space.
It is important to remember that all qualities of space and architecture in videogames

have to be applied and are not intrinsic to materials and structure as they are in
primary space. Whether the architecture is destructible, traversable or impassable is
determined by the assigned qualities. Any spatial consequences, the temporal
aspects of architecture and the limits of player involvement in the world are
described by the assigned qualities, which can be realistic or fantastic. Assigned
qualities include all the potential actions of gamespace and architecture (the acts
that could happen or could be performed) and the denial of acts.
Player Agency refers to the ways in which the player can interact with architecture
and gamespace, and the manner in which the player is embodied in that space.
Agency as a term refers to both the action and position of the agent. If assigned
qualities describe all that could take place in gamespace then player agency is
restricted to those acts that the player can initiate, influence or terminate. Aylish
Wood notes that agency occurs when the player “exerts power over the digital
materiality of the game84”. In this way player agency refers to gameplay. How the
player moves through space and time, how the player is embodied in, or views,
82
83
Ibid, p.122
84
space (including player control over the virtual camera) and the activities that the
player undertakes within space are part of player agency, as are alterations to
gamespace and its qualities through cheating. Galloway makes a useful distinction
between two types of player actions on space – move acts or changes in camera
and avatar position – and expressive acts, where the player perpetrates changes on
gamespace.
Interpretation describes the ways in which the player or watcher interprets the
game world and the designer‟s incorporation of interpretive material. The act of
building a game is in itself an interpretive act. The layers of semiotic meaning,
metaphoric patching, cultural allusion, architectural citation and intertextual
referencing, are ways in which gamespace incorporates interpretative material.
Interpretative material can exist on many levels in gamespace – from general
references, for example the use of historical buildings to indicate a particular kind of
societal milieu, to more specific references, such as the inclusion of quests in World
of Warcraft that refer to Zelda series of games85. The other class of interpretative
acts relate to cultural readings of space. The range of spatial practices that are
culturally dependent, the influence of inherited and learnt knowledge of space, the
making of space into place and the impact of space on social interactions are acts of
interpretation. Playing in gamespace can be considered as an interpretation of that
space. Interpretation is a personal act on the part of the player, who chooses how to
play and navigate the game world, bringing to the game learnt ways of interacting
with space.
The four units of gamespace occur in every game. In Prince of Persia: The Sands of
Time the four units are clearly identifiable and important to gameplay. Prince of
Persia is set in a sprawling Persian palace where the player, having let loose the
zombie-inducing sands of time, must navigate and fight their way to the highest
tower in the palace to return the sands to their hourglass. Representation in Prince
of Persia includes the three-dimensional palace (including its appearance of adobe
block work and its decoration with the motifs of the Middle East) and its design as a
linear pathway that forces players to take a predefined route through the palace
(funnelling the player into particular encounters with space and enemies).
85
World of Warcraft abounds with these kind of allusions. The quest reward for Its Dangerous to Go
Alone in the Un’Goro Crater is called “Linken’s Boomerang”, a reference to the boomerang used by
Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD 1998).
Representation is instigated directly as gameplay in Prince of Persia where

architectural challenges require the player to leap over chasms, swing from ropes
and avoid deadly traps.
Assigned qualities in Prince of Persia refers to all the qualities of the palace
including the basic assigning of walls as solid, but also includes mechanically active
sections of the palace, where spikes protrude out of walls when triggered and
blades scythe through hallways. Other assigned qualities of architecture include life-
restoring qualities where players can restore the prince‟s health by standing in pools
of water or finding one of the wells scattered through the palace. A different
assigned quality occurs when places hold triggers that activate narrative events.
Entering a part of the palace elicits a cut-scene that propels the story onwards, or
initiates gameplay acts where scripted waves of enemies enter the scene.
Figure 6
Prince of Persia,
players are
embodied in the
game as the prince,
negotiating
architectural
challenges
Players are instituted in the game as the prince, watching and manipulating him in
the third person (Fig 6). Player agency is dominated by combat and spatial
interactions with the palace. The prince has a range of movement abilities and a
range of combat abilities, within gamespace the prince can run and jump, climb and
descend, swing on poles, hold onto ledges and back flip to a position behind his
original location. More unusual within videogames is his ability to run along walls,
tracing an arc across a vertical section of palace. But the most interesting facet of
player agency in Prince of Persia is the ability to rewind time, to move backwards
through the actions just undertaken to return to an earlier point. Upon using the
sands of time contained in the dagger the prince‟s body moves backwards through
the actions previously taken. Falling to death is no longer fatal, mortality is
temporally mitigated and space subject to temporal fluxion.
Prince of Persia also demonstrates how the units of gamespace interact. The player
can choose how and when to move across the palace but many of the actions they
undertake are context reliant. The player can only leap and hold onto a protruding
element of the palace if that section has been coded to allow that action. What the
player can do is then reliant on the assigned qualities of the architecture. The
assigned qualities of the palace also affect player agency through particular
conjunctions of avatar and architecture. If the prince is standing in knee-deep water
and the player tries to make him run along the wall, the prince will fail the move as
his feet slip. The action of the agent is linked to its position in space86. Equally
players can affect the representation of space through the virtual camera, by
choosing to frame certain parts of the palace in the screen.
Figure 7
The Persian
style palace in
Prince of Persia
The designer‟s interpretation of a Persian palace is a mix of architectural

stereotypes, adopting the currencies of Islamic and Persian architecture, and an
intertextual reference to the conventions of adventure games, building on earlier
86
The ability or level of the character also determines the possible actions of the agent. In Prince of
Persia as the character advances so does their capacity to rewind time.
adventure puzzle games like Tomb Raider87. The architecture supports the fake
mythology that underpins the story, as a setting for play and as an active component
in play. Rather than a historically accurate depiction, the palace in Prince of Persia
is a mythical pseudo-Persian palace of Hollywood-esque proportions, the Alhambra
on steroids (Fig. 7).
Interpretation also takes into account the player‟s experience of gamespace.

Considering the palace must be encountered sequentially, every player who
completes the game must take the same path. Yet each fatal fall when jumping
chasms and each rewriting of time inscribes a personal journey, where player skill
and choices result in a different experience. Player agency also includes acts of
cheating, using codes embedded in the game by the designers, and acts where the
player alters and adds to the original code (such as hacks and add-ons). These
optional player actions significantly change the game experience, allowing players to
bypass a level in the game, evading its architectural complexities and challenges.
Cheating changes the architectural experience, allowing the player to switch
between different potentialities of gamespace. Equally machine disruptions can
affect Prince of Persia; players post on the internet about glitches that leave
characters floating in mid air88. Prince of Persia also operates as a mutable space.
The four units of gamespace are representation, assigned qualities, player agency
and interpretation. The four units of gamespace thus refer to (1) the representation
of space, (2) what can happen in gamespace, (3) how the player is situated and
what they can do in gamespace and (4) interpretations of the gamespace. Each one
of the units is not distinct from each other, all overlap. The four units are dependent
on and connected to each other. In order to have agency in gamespace there must
be a representation of space, while the level of agency is dependent on the
assigned qualities of that space. Assigned qualities as a unit are part of the unit of
representation, acting as the operational part of the representation of space. Player
agency in space is dictated by the representation of space and the assigned
qualities of that space. Interpretative material is placed in the game by its designers,
as part of its representation. Interpretation also occurs when players interpret
gamespace as they play, and must therefore occur in each of the other units. The
87
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is also a re-imagining of the original two-dimensional Prince of
Persia game produced in 1989 by Brøderbund.
88
Post by fnctool. YouTube. Posted 6 June 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Q137VdWoM. Accessed 8 January 2009.
units then cover both the player‟s experience (where the actions they choose to
perform are ultimately subject to their interpretation) and all the possible actions and
spaces in the game (whether they are played by the player or not) all of which have
been subject to a process of interpretation by the designer. The relationships
between the four units can be set out in a diagram (Fig. 8), where the units nest
within each other.
Figure 8
The units of
gamespace
nested
Returning to Galloway‟s proposed axis of machine and operator we can assess

each of the four units of gamespace as a machine act or an operator act. The
representation of space and its assigned qualities are machine acts. Player agency
and interpretation come under the aegis of operator acts, including here the
placement of interpretative material by the designer and the act of playing by the
user. Two of the units of gamespace are machine acts and two are player acts.
Yet within each axis of machine acts and player acts, a relationship occurs between
the units of gamespace. Assigned qualities are the operations that gamespace
performs, acts performed within the representation of space. Placing representation
and assigned qualities on the axis of machine acts, we note that assigned qualities
are a subset of representation. Player agency is the operational act of interpretation,
what the player does in gamespace. Placing player agency and interpretation on
the axis of operator acts, we note that player agency is a subset of interpretation.
Assigned qualities and player agency are placed at the heart of gamespace.
Gamespace without assigned qualities and without player agency would be only
space, the game could not occur. The assigned qualities of gamespace and player
agency in that space are what make possible the cybernetic relationship between
operator and machine. This suggests a spatial heart of gameness89 where assigned
qualities and player agency make gamespace actionable and hence gamic (Fig. 9).
Figure 9
The Spatial Heart of

Gameness - the units
of gamespace placed
on Galloway‟s axis of
operator and machine
1.7 A Spatial Heart of Gameness

Videogames are spatial and videogames are actions. They are acts in a constructed
space. By adapting Galloway‟s Gamic Action, Four Moments we can situate
gamespace and gamic architecture within the totality of the medium. Galloway‟s
scheme links specific acts to the diegesis but also allows gamespace and game
architecture to be connected to acts that occur outside of the diegesis. Within
videogames four components of space were identified – representation, assigned
qualities, player agency and interpretation. Rather than dictating how spatiality in
videogames should be studied and analysed, the units outline four ways of thinking
about and understanding game architecture and space. Each unit impacts on the
others and cannot be considered in isolation. Each unit works in concert with the
others, creating the unit of gamespace.
Galloway also leads us to consider the idiosyncratic aspects of gaming. Routines of

saving, configuring and other non-diegetic acts are significant, as are technological
glitches and coded cheats. Space is co-opted into acts on the periphery of
gameplay, spatialising computer practices of saving and loading. Gamespace is also
constructed as a mutable space, where acts occurring outside of the diegesis can
alter the designer‟s intentions. Machine acts can alter the production of space
through technological glitches, bugs, crashes, downtime and lag. Player acts revise
space through cheats, mods, hacks, add-ons and macros.
89
The spatial heart of ‘being a game’, where gameness expresses a state or condition of being a
game.
More importantly for the purposes of this thesis the four units of gamespace in
conjunction with Galloway‟s Gamic Action, Four Moments begin to show us how
gameplay is linked to gamespace within videogames Gameplay occurs in a
construction of space, where space is an act of representation and interpretation.
Within gamespace gameplay occurs as a cooperative act between machine and
operator, where interaction is facilitated through mechanisms of assigned qualities
and player agency.
At the centre of gamespace assigned qualities and player agency set up a spatial
heart of gameness, highlighting the active nature of the medium. Through assigned
qualities gamespace performs operations, allowing certain acts and disallowing
others. Through player agency the player acts on gamespace. That assigned
qualities and player agency, as active units, are situated at the centre of the units of
gamespace supports Galloway‟s notion of games as actions. Videogames are
temporal and potential acts. Assigned qualities set the potential for gamespace to
act. Player agency sets the potential of acting in gamespace. The spatial heart of
gameness sets the potential for computer reactions to player actions in space and
vice versa, enabling reciprocal action or interaction. The spatial heart of gameness
is at the core of the potentiality of gamespace.
Setting out the game environment as a series of interrelated units, the units of
gamespace are set firmly in the context of the medium. The units of gamespace
show how the spaces of videogames are game-spaces. Gameplay cannot occur
without the representation of space, the place in which we play. Gameplay cannot
occur without assigned qualities of space, the unit that makes gamespace
operational. Gameplay cannot occur without player agency, the unit that gives the
player the ability to act in gamespace. Finally gameplay cannot occur without
interpretative acts, both on the part of the designer and the player. The units set out
a general structure of gamespace, establishing how gameplay is enabled by
gamespace, from here we can now go on to look more specifically at the
construction of gamespace.
Chapter 2 Dissociation & Reconstitution
The Construction of Gamespace
Gamespace refers to the representation of space by a videogame. Real space

refers to the physical environment in which we live. Gamespace is not the same as
real space, being a digital rather than a physical construct. Any understanding of
videogames then needs to understand how gamespace diverges from real space,
particularly an investigation that analyses the game environment as architecture and
hence is dependent on comparisons with architecture in real space. This chapter
examines this difference by looking at how architecture and space are produced in
videogames, finding that gamespace is both limited and augmented in comparison
to real space.
This chapter looks at how space is constructed in videogames, analysing the

construction of architecture in gamespace in order to examine the construction of
gamespace. Where the last chapter looked at the overall structure of videogames
this chapter looks more specifically at how gamespace is formed. In videogames the
experience of space is technologically mediated and altered. Understanding the
differences between gamespace and real space reveals the influence of the
medium.
Videogames are not particularly accurate in their depiction of architecture. Game

architecture draws from corporeal architecture, but only appropriates part of what
architecture is in real space. In this chapter I argue that the act of representation of
architecture in videogames is an act of dissociation and reconstitution, acts that
enable videogames to reinvent space. To dissociate is to cut the associations
between architecture and the senses, building and materiality, space and function,
separating architecture from the limitations of physical reality through gamic
construction and practices. Reconstitution is the reassemblage of these dissociated
parts. Reinvention is the reassemblage of those parts into new identities as a
response to the demands of play. By exploring the dichotomy between real space
and gamespace we begin to understand how the units of architecture and space are
reconstituted for play.
Dissociation & Reconstitution 57
2.1 Sensory Dissociation

Gamespace is not the same as real space. Game architecture is not the same as
architecture in real space. The differences between real space and gamespace are
significant and impact on how players experience space and architecture in
videogames. These differences relate to the technology that creates gamespace
and to the design decisions taken by game designers in creating a space focused
on gaming. Dissociation is the act of cutting associations. To reconstitute is to
reconstruct, reorganise and reform. Game architecture is both dissociated by the
technological demands of creating digital space and combined anew when
reconstituted by game designers1.
The first act of dissociation is the technical displacement of sensory data from gamic
architecture. The way in which architecture is experienced in videogames is
divorced from our sensory experiences of architecture in real space. This occurs in
part because space in videogames is an artificially constructed space presented on
a screen. Architecture in videogames can be rich and detailed, but as players we
are not materially present within it. As Laurie N. Taylor notes, ―space in video and
computer games is virtual — a presentation and representation of space generated
through the programmed code — and not physically experienced space, in the
sense that there is no material dimensionality of the space of a video or computer
game‖2. More significant than the presentation of space is the fact that game
designers can choose what sensory data to present and how to present it, so that
the underlying structure of gamespace is mutable3.
Players are not physically present in gamespace but they do have agency, the
ability to effect changes in the game. Players effect changes in and inhabit
gamespace through agency, using what Ulf Wilhelmsson terms the ‗game ego‘4.
The ‗game ego‘ is that which performs player initiated actions within gamespace,
1
The designer set the limits of what the player can do and therefore controls any processes of
reconstitution by the player.
2
Taylor, Laurie. Video Games: Perspective, Point of View and Immersion. Master’s Thesis, University
of Florida, 2002, p.1.
3
Even a pervasive mobile phone game, where the space presented on the screen has a
correspondence with real space, only selectively represents real space and in doing so transforms
the data taken from real space into different phenomenon.
4
Wilhelmsson, Ulf. "Computer Games as Playground and Stage". CyberGames 2006: Proceedings of
the 2006 International Conference on Game research and Development. Fremantle, WA, 2006,
p.67.
operating as the player‘s agent. The ‗game ego‘ is the point at which the player is
given agency within gamespace. The ‗game ego‘ can be a diegetically sensible
character – a representation of a person or an army – but can equally be
contextualised as an object – the crowbar of Gordon Freeman in Half-Life or the
Mercedes Benz W196 in Toca Race Driver 3 (Codemasters 2006). Wilhelmsson
also includes non-visual manifestations of player agency in his definition, such as
the functional ability to turn blocks in Tetris.
Ulf Wilhelmsson‘s concept of the ‗game ego‘ then incorporates at least three
different ways of acting on gamespace. The ‗game ego‘ includes acts of agency
performed by an agent that exists within in the game world (such as a human avatar
like Lara in Tomb Raider or an army of tanks in Starcraft), acts of agency performed
by artefacts that exist outside of the diegetic game world (such as the mouse
pointer) and acts of agency performed without any visual artefact (such as the ability
to manipulate blocks in Tetris). Wilhelmsson posits the ‗game ego‘ as an ―extension
of the human body container‖5, as an extension of the body‘s sensory motor system
where the player exerts agency in gamespace via a tactile motor/kinaesthetic link6.
Thus the ‗game ego‘ is the link between actions in real space (performed on input
devices such as keyboards or gamepads) and actions in gamespace. The ‗game
ego‘ allows the player to establish a point of being within the game environment and
as a concept brings to the fore the mediated quality of action in gamespace.
The player is not bodily present in gamespace but players still receive sensory
information about gamespace, primarily through their eyes and ears. Videogames
privilege visual and auditory data. Laurie Taylor notes, ―video games are focused on
the visual registers of representation‖7. Looking at the psycho-sensory limitations of
gamespace in comparison to real space Ernest Adams details a number of
discrepancies between visual perception in the real world and our perceptions of
screen-based space8. Adams notes that the field of vision provided on a screen is
5
Wilhelmsson, Ulf. Enacting the Point of Being - Computer Games, Interaction and Film Theory.
Doctoral Thesis, Department of Humanities: University of Skövde, Department of Film and Media
Studies: University of Copenhagen, 2001, p.247.
6
Wilhelmsson, Ulf. “Game Ego Presence in Video and Computer Games". In Extended Experiences.
Fernandez, A., Leino, O. and Wirman, H. (Eds.), Lapland University Press, 2008.
7
Taylor, Laurie. "Video Games: Perspective, Point of View and Immersion". Master’s Thesis,
University of Florida, 2002, p.30.
8
significantly smaller than the full range of human sight; that in screen-based games
vision is not stereoscopic and the focal field remains at a fixed length; that there are
limitations in the range of light intensity available on a monitor in comparison to real
space and that the human eye possesses a far greater ability to perceive detail and
contrast than can be provided on a computer screen. Video games are also
selective in their depiction of other familiar visual phenomena. Atmospheric
perspective is often ignored or simplified9. Videogames do not replicate the visual
experience of being in the world but present only a portion of that experience.
The way in which videogames present navigable space is distinct from the lived-in
experience of real space. Gamespace is a screen-meditated space. Clara
Fernandez-Vara asserts ―the screen is the basic unit of space in video games, since
it frames the interface‖10. Gamespace is experienced by the user as a graphical
projection of space on a two-dimensional screen. The screen delineates the player‘s
view of gamespace. Referring to the persistence of rectangular framing Lev
Manovich paraphrases Leon Battista Alberti –―the frame acts as a window onto the
world11‖. The size of the screen sets the proportions of viewable area. Anne
Friedberg notes ―the screen is at once a surface and a frame‖12.
Figure 1
On a 4:3 ratio screen only a portion of World of

Warcraft’s space can be seen at any one time.
September 2005.
9
Atmospheric perspective is often used as a reason for dropping distance detail thereby reducing
the rendering demands on the computer
10
Fernandez-Vara, Clara. "Evolution of Spatial Configurations in Videogames". Changing Views -
Worlds in Play: DiGRA 2005. Vancouver, 2005. http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06278.04249.pdf.
Accessed 23 April 2006.
11
Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2001,
p.81.
12
Friedberg, Anne. The Virtual Window. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006, p.1.
Gamespace can also appear to extend beyond the screen. In World of Warcraft the
player can turn around and walk into gamespace from any point, the landscape
surrounds the player in a 360˚ panorama of which only a portion is seen on the
screen at any one time (Fig. 1). Mike Jones calls this extension of gamespace the
―macro mise-en-scène”13, where the composition of the frame (the mise-en-scène)
has moved to a composition of space (the macro mise-en-scène). In the macro
mise-en-scène the potentiality of gamespace is framed within the screen by the
virtual camera. The virtual camera sets the point-of-view into gamespace (either
imposed on the player or under their control), while the screen sets a perimeter limit
on how much of the virtual world is extruded into real space. In creating a macro
mise-en-scène videogames extend the possibilities of composition, creating space
with the potential of many different views of that landscape, constrained only by the
rules of the virtual camera14.
Mediated through the virtual camera and the screen, videogames dissociate bodily
point-of-view and space. The artificial world is contained and bordered, isolated from
real space. Yet despite its separateness, screen-mediated space is dependent on
the conventions of real space and our experiences in it. Bernadette Flynn argues
our bodily experiences in real space are expressed in videogames, where
movement and navigation in gamespace emulate real movement and navigation15.
Gamespace is situated as discrete from real space, yet remains dependant on it.
A different relationship between gamespace and real space occurs in pervasive

games, where gamespace is overlaid onto real space. Using headsets and mobile
technology game data is partially superimposed over an existing landscape. This
intersection of real space and gamespace is most prevalent in what Carsten
Magerkurth and colleagues call location-aware games, which ―regard the entire
world, the architecture we live in, as a game board16‖. A game like Triangler (TNO
13
Jones notes uses mise-en-scène as a term “appropriated from theatrical origins to encompass the
choices a director makes in regard to the composition and population of the cinematic frame”
(Jones, Mike. "Composing Space: Cinema and Computer Gaming - the Macro-Mise En Scene and
Spatial Composition". Imaginary Worlds Symposium. University of Technology, Sydney, 2005.
http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/research/conferences/imaginary-worlds/composing_space.pdf.
Accessed 23 March 2006).
14
Unlike a painting or film, that set a particular, predetermined view onto their space.
15
16
Magerkurth, Carsten, et al. "Pervasive Games: Bringing Computer Entertainment Back to the Real
World." ACM Computers in Entertainment Vol. 3, No. 3, 2005, p8.
2007) is played both in real space and on a mobile phone screen. Teammates
attempt to surround enemy players with triangles formed by their bodies, using GPS
technology to coordinate their movements. The body is the control device; you move
it to move the mobile phone in gamespace and real space. Gamespace shares a
direct relationship to real space, where players negotiate real world hazards as they
manoeuvre.
Another form of pervasive gaming that overlays gamespace onto real space occurs
in augmented reality games like Human Pacman (Cheok et al 2004), which places
virtual items into the real world. Using wearable computers and head mounted
displays Human Pacman superimposes digital objects onto a predefined area of
urban space, where players collect virtual cookies in physical space. Gameplay
requires the player to act within the real world, where gamespace corresponds
dimensionally to real space.
When gamespace is embedded within a specially constructed physical space a

different relationship to real space occurs. Games played in virtual reality caves use
physically immersive visualisation systems, allowing the player to be embodied
within the virtual. An augmented tabletop game that uses a physically modelled
landscape in conjunction with virtual inhabitants embeds gameplay in a contrived
reality. Gamespace is embedded and constrained within an artificial real space.
Embedding can also occur when a screen-mediated space is contained within a

physical structure that contextualises the game. Tamagotchi (Bandai), literally
translated as egg-watch, is a simulation game with a small screen contained in an
ovoid carapace. The casing is an integral part in the presentation of the tamagotchi
world; the egg-shaped exterior is the environment and the screen a window. The
―periscope‖ viewfinder in the original Battlezone (Atari 1980) cabinet mimics the
viewing apparatus of a real tank. Another example is Pixel Chicks (Mattel), whose
advertorial catch cry is a 2D girl living in a 3D world. Here a pixelated digital
character is projected above a plastic moulded house. The pixel chick interacts with
the real space of her synthetic home. Artificial gamespace is given an artificial real
space.
Both ubiquitous and embedded games can use screens within gameplay, in doing
so they can be considered as videogames. Embedded and pervasive games have
a special relationship with real space, extending the medium beyond the screen.
Triangler‘s in-screen gamespace exhibits an idiosyncratic correspondence to real
space, but also displays the characteristics of a screen-mediated space. This thesis
concentrates on screen-mediated games, the prevalent form of videogames, but
many of the spatial concepts discussed can be adapted for games that blend virtual
and real spaces.
Some games present space on the screen as two-dimensional while other games
appear three-dimensional. Many games use orthographic projections of space or
employ perspective to extend gamespace, using vanishing points implemented in
three dimensions. Other games use isometric or more accurately axonometric17,
projections of space. Taylor asserts, ―video games have given implicit priority to the
concept of unified monocular vision‖18. Videogames are limited in their portrayal of
space, relying on modes of rendering space that have close links to art. Bernadette
Flynn relates gamespace to early forms of spatial projection, relating panoramic
games to Chinese and Japanese scroll paintings, and three-dimensional
environments to Renaissance paintings19. Rather than a space that replicates our
physical way of being in the world, videogames reconstruct space as a visual illusion
that is dependent on user movement and action to achieve a sense of realism and
agency in the game environment.
Audio input is similarly dissociated. Axel Stockberger notes that in videogames

―there is no ‗natural‘ relationship between a visual object and a sound, simply
because all of these elements are brought together by an ‗artificial‘ program‖20.
Architecture creates sound through user interaction, the sound of footsteps on a
paved floor. Architecture affects sounds, altering sound through its construction and
materials; the echo of footsteps in an empty chamber. Architecture itself is not
17
All forms of axonometric projection in videogames are commonly referred to as isometric, though
some videogames more correctly use diametric or trimetric projection.
18
19
20
always silent. Architectural components and machinery can be intrinsically noisy and
interactions with the wider environment can create other sounds; the hum of air-
conditioning or the creaking and cracking that accompanies thermal expansion in
roofing materials. Videogames may or may not choose to simulate these acoustic
phenomena.
Mark Grimshaw and Gareth Schott understand game sounds as being either
symbolic or representational21. As with visual data, auditory input in videogames
does not replicate the full range, complexity and layering of sound available to
hearing within real space. Grimshaw and Schott note that most representational
sound in gamespace tends towards caricature. Games rebuild an acoustic palette of
architectural sound that varies enormously from game to game. A multiplayer FPS
game, where directional or localised audio helps players to orientate themselves in
the environment and acoustically place enemies in gamespace, uses sound
differently to a linear platformer where symbolic noises mark the player‘s progress or
failure in the game.
Videogames also provide an extra aural dimension, layering music and ambient
noise over activity and location. Sound in videogames can be linked to events or
actions, operating like a film soundtrack, or it can be linked to the environment.
Some games include sounds that duplicate environmental effects, adding echo to
footsteps in large areas or including water sounds near streams. Other sounds
connected to gamespace include music and noises associated with specific places.
While real life does not come with a soundtrack videogames offer an aural
thematisation of space; each zone in World of Warcraft has its own distinctive
noises, themed with ambient sounds and music.
Sander Huiberts and Richard Van Tol describe game sounds as diegetic and non-
diegetic in the IEZA framework (Fig. 2)22. Diegetic sounds are divided into sounds
linked to the game environment (such as wind and jungle noises), or zone sounds,
and sounds linked to sources in the game world (such as avatars and vehicles), or
21
Grimshaw, Mark and Schott, Gareth. "Situating Gaming as Sonic Experience: The Acoustic Ecology
of First-Person Shooters". Situated Play: Proceeding of the DiGRA 2007 Conference. Tokyo, 2007,
pp.474-481.
22
Sander Huiberts, Richard van Tol. IEZA: A Framework For Game Audi. Gamasutra. 23 January 2008.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3509/ieza_a_framework_for_game_audio.php.
Accessed 14 September 2009.
effect sounds. Interface sounds are associated with non-diegetic activities (such as
the sound produced when a pop-up menu appears), while affect sounds are external
to the game environment and often included to set the mood (such as music tracks).
Sounds associated directly with gamespace can then be distinguished as native to,
or commonly associated with, an environment and or as introduced.
Figure 2
The IEZA
Framework.
Sander Huiberts
and Richard Van
Tol , 2008
Sounds are also divided into those associated with the setting of the game (zone
and affect) and those associated with activity in the game (effect and interface).
While the IEZA framework offers a useful way of thinking about gamespace sounds
it is important to point out that gamespace can influence and link to both effect and
affect sounds. An effect sound like vehicle noise may have echo added to it when
racing down a narrow street, while the level of sound can be muted as a vehicle
appears farther away in gamespace or momentarily disappears behind a building.
Equally by associating cinematic sounds with specific parts of gamespace, we can
link zone and affect sounds.
The player‘s acoustic and visual experience is mediated by the size and quality of
the equipment used. As Alexander Galloway indicated, machine malfunction and
limitation are important issues in game studies. Technological mediation can be
central to the quality of the player‘s experience. Hardware determinations of draw-
distance23 and rendering of shadows and texture can dramatically affect the
23
Draw distance is a term in computer graphics that refers to the distance to which objects will be
drawn in the games field-of-view. A large draw distance places heavy computing demands on the
graphical processing unit, while a short draw distance results in objects suddenly popping up on
screen as the player approaches them. Other common graphic settings that can affect computing
performance and the visual quality of gamespace include anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing and
resolution.
experience of game architecture. Cruising in a virtual world like Second Life (Linden
Research 2003) with low-grade hardware is an exercise in patience, with buildings
taking up to a full minute to render upon arrival in a new location (Fig. 3). Similarly,
riding through the countryside in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion using an inferior
computer results in bushes springing into existence on a bare hill at a short remove
from the player‘s avatar. As Ernest Adams notes, audio output is dependent on the
software available to the designer and the quality of audio equipment installed by
the player24, so that creating three-dimensional surround-sound relies on both the
software package used to create the game and the correct speaker set up at the
point of play. While each player receives the same game not all play experiences
are equal. Hardware differences add to the mutability of gamespace.
Figure 3
Render delay in
Second Life -
showing a location
at arrival and the
same location one
minute later
24
September 2005.
The same game can be customised in other ways. Patches25, add-ons, mods and
cheats can significantly change the player‘s experience. Microsoft released a patch
that removed the World Trade Centre from Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000
(Microsoft Game Studios 2000). Mods add new content26, from partial conversions
that may insert a new weapon into the game world to total conversions that create
an entirely new game world. Add-ons alter the original game. Cartographer27 alters
the standard map interface in World of Warcraft, allowing players to see unexplored
and unmapped dungeon areas. Julian Kücklich see cheats as gameplay techniques
that exploit the malleability of gamespace28. Through dissociation and reconstitution
gamespace operates as an altogether more mutable experience than real space.
Beyond visual and auditory stimuli, videogames rarely use other forms of sensory
input. Physical sensation is significant in the way we experience architecture in real
space. As we walk through a building we are aware of its surface quality through our
feet, noticing whether the floor is hard or soft. Simon Unwin draws our attention to
how textural changes in flooring materials signal transitions within architectural
spaces, particularly the transition between inside and outside29. Physical sensation
also includes warmth and coldness, humidity, the sensation and quality of air
movement, and the sense of gravity, all of which are integral to our experience of
architecture in real space but are not available in videogames. The sense of touch,
our haptic sense, is missing from gamespace. The dissociation of physical sensation
creates haptically sterile games environments.
Player‘s are engaged in physical acts when playing videogames. Players physically
use input devices in real space to enact changes in the game. A correspondence
occurs between the player‘s actions in real space and actions in gamespace, via the
input device and the ‗game ego‘. But whether the player initiates actions with a
keyboard or a Wii-mote these movements do not provide tactile and sensory
information about the game environment. The sense of touch is missing from the
25
A patch is a software fix or upgrade that modifies an existing game. Official patches created by the
original developer are distributed to fix bugs and crashes, to improve compatibility with operating
systems, and to add new content.
26
Mods require the original game to be loaded in order to run.
27
Curse.com. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/cartographer.aspx. Accessed 7
January 2009.
28
Kücklich, Julian. “Wallhacks and Aimbots: How Cheating Changes the Perception of Gamespace”.
In Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: The Next Level. Borries, F., Walz,
S. and Bottger, M. (Eds.). Basel: Birkhauser, 2007, p.118.
29
Unwin, Simon. Analysing Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2003, p.45.
majority of game environments. Games that employ tactile feedback devices tend to
be extremely limited in their haptic response, which commonly consists of a shock or
vibration imparted to the player through the handheld control. Adams notes that this
kind of tactile feedback is usually associated with game events rather than game
environments30.
Integration of tactile stimuli and gamespace rarely occurs, though there are
exceptions, such as in racing games that support aftermarket steering devices that
offer degrees of tactile resistance according to the racing surface. Until now most
market affordable haptic controllers have been limited to vibrational feedback but
controllers are emerging that, when playing games that support them, allow users to
feel the shape, size, weight and texture of game objects along with sensations of
force31. It is important to note that these effects need to be programmed by the
game designer and their incorporation would not benefit all games. Neither would
every game designer bother to code in a full range of sensory data.
Adams notes that activity in games is disassociated from the physical bodily
sensations that it engenders in real space. Notwithstanding the ergodic action
required to play a game, gamespace and architecture are dissociated from the
body‘s sense of touch, balance and proprioception32. Running and fighting in
gamespace does not make us tired, though it may simulate this affect on the
player‘s avatar. Neither are bodily sensations like pain, hunger and thirst directly
attributable to the game environment though the player may experience all of these
while playing videogames. High-speed collisions with architecture are exciting rather
than excruciating. Probably the only physical sensations that can be directly related
to the quality of the game environment are stress, vertigo and tension. While nearly
all input devices require some level of bodily movement, from keystrokes to
exaggerated Wii-mote actions, our proprioception of these movements is not
generally connected to, or in scale with, the game environment33.
30
September 2005.
31
Such as the Novint Falcon. http://home.novint.com/products/novint_falcon.php. Accessed 12
November 2007.
32
Proprioception refers to the sensing of the relative positions of body parts in relation to each
other.
33
The Wii encourages greater verisimilitude with the actions it simulates, where swinging the wii-
mote is like swinging a tennis racquet. However things that affect the physical sensation of playing
The sense of taste and smell is similarly ignored. While taste rarely figures in our
impressions of architecture in real space, smell contributes significantly in our
reactions to buildings. In real space a mouldy warehouse, an office space and a
bakery have very different smells, which contribute actively to our impressions of
that space34. For architectural academic Simon Unwin smell is one of the modifying
elements of architecture. He states, ―a place can be identified by its smell‖35. Lack of
olfactory input is not necessarily a bad thing. Game players are unlikely to want full
sensory input within a hygienically challenged troll‘s den. There are also issues with
complete sensory involvement and violence. Limited sensory input helps to stylise
and abstract brutality and bloodshed in videogames.
Architecture in real space is a sensorily rich experience. Architects like Peter

Zumthor emphasise the sensory experience of architecture, delving into a
phenomenological view of space. Phenomenology as a philosophical concept deals
with how we perceive the world36, phenomenology as an architectural concept deals
with how we experience building materials and their shaping as architecture37.
Phenomenological architecture is concerned with the sensory, physical and haptic
experience of architecture, what architect Juhani Pallasmaa calls ―an architecture of
the seven senses‖38. Architects concerned with phenomenology are concerned with
the quality of the user experience in an intimate manner. Evaluating gamic
architecture on phenomenological levels exposes game environments as
unsatisfying in terms of sensory experience. The lack of haptic data and the
reduction of sensory data to auditory and visual input results in game environments
that are to an extent phenomenologically sterile.
tennis, such as the court surface, wind movement and the feeling of the ball hitting different parts
of the racquet are not simulated. The designer could choose to model and reconstitute these
phenomena, but the point is they are dissociated.
34
Architectural odour can result from the materials and construction used (inadequate water
proofing and ventilation being a significant cause of mouldy smells) or from the activities that take
place there.
35
Unwin, Simon. Analysing Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2003, p.44.
36
Prominent phenomenologists include Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau Ponty.
37
Architects and architectural theoreticians concerned with phenomenology include Christian
Norberg-Schulz, Juhani Pallasmaa, Steven Holl and Peter Zumthor.
38
Pallasmaa, Juhani. “An Architecture of the Seven Senses”. In Questions of
Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. Steven H. and Pallasmaa, J. and Pérez-Gómez, A.
Tokyo: A + U Publishing. 1994.
In many games the phenomenological asceticism of gamespace does not matter –

actions and narrative make gamespace exciting. In games like Tomb Raider the
player must progress through gamespace in order to progress through the game, to
remain still in these spaces is to halt gameplay. Under those circumstances a
stripped down sensory palette is effective. The cute noises and cartoonish visuals of
Yoshi’s Island DS (Artoon 2006) mesh with the run and jump mechanics of
platformer gameplay to provide an engaging experience. Phenomenological
limitations in more expansive open worlds also results in a prioritisation of activity.
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is feted for its rich and detailed environment but players
value this for its ability to enhance exploration and multiple quest lines rather than as
a nice spot to relax in
Haptic and sensory limitation in online persistent-world games (where players may
exhaust the exploration of space early on in the game yet continue to play) results in
areas of the game world being rated on what activities and rewards they offer, rather
than on their sensual qualities. Guides on the zones in World of Warcraft, after a
brief descriptive section, focus on what quests, resources and inhabitants are
available to the player39. Galloway saw videogames as actions; equally we can see
gamespace as a space of actions. Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh brings up this
prioritisation of activity in his analysis of Shadow of the Colossus (Team Ico 2005),
suggesting that if ―one were to abandon the beasts and take off in the world in non-
violent exploration, what that world would offer to most players, unfortunately, is
boredom. In games, meaning and purpose come from acting, from fulfilling tasks
and progressing toward a preordained goal. Finding the best place to sit and look at
the skyline is not the experience most people expect from a PlayStation game‖40.
Game architecture is action-orientated rather than meditative and what you can do
within it as important as, if not more important than, the representation of space.
In their current technological form videogames are unlikely to ever be able to

reproduce a complete architectural experience. Yet the reduction in sensory range
and the appropriation of architectural forms for new uses results in an architectural
39
Including WoWWiki http://www.wowwiki.com, THOTTBOT: World of Warcraft database
http://thottbot.com/, and Allakhazam.com: World of Warcraft. http://wow.allakhazam.com/. Sites
accessed 2007.
40
Rössel Waugh, Eric-Jon. "Rock in His Pocket: Reading Shadow of the Colossus."
www.gamecareerguide.com. August 23, 2007. http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/407/
rock_in_his_pocket_reading_shadow_.php. Accessed 31 August 2007.
environment that has its own special and unique qualities. Architects Charles W.
Moore and Kent C. Bloomer point out that ―the feeling of buildings and our sense of
dwelling within them are more fundamental to our architectural experience than the
information they give us‖41. The technological limitations of videogames transpose
this aphorism; the information that the architectonic spaces of games supply is more
fundamental to the experience of gamespace than the sense of dwelling within
them. But games are also actions. As a consequence of sensory limitation
videogames emphasise information and actions in gamespace. Moore and
Bloomer‘s statement can be more accurately rewritten as: the information and
actions that the architecture of videogames supply is more fundamental to the
experience of game architecture than the sense of dwelling within them.
Sensory input is dissociated from architecture representation in videogames.

Videogames prioritise visual and auditory data, neglecting the full range of senses.
The discarding of haptic data results in a phenomenological sterility that both causes
and reinforces the prioritisation of gamespace as space of information and actions.
This is not necessarily a criticism of videogames42 - I still find gamespace to be a
fascinating and compelling place without full sensory integration. But it is important
to understand how gamespace operates differently to real space.
Architecture in videogames is not the same as in real space, it is a disjointed,

erratic, mutable reconstitution of architecture, placed further down the continuum
between representation and abstraction than its visual mimesis might suggest.
Gamespaces are often engaging and interesting places, but where architecture in
real space might rely on subtleties of sensory information to make a compelling
space videogame adopt actions to continue to engage the player. All videogames
distort the sensory relationship between people and architecture. Even pervasive
games, which overlay gamespace onto the physical environment, ignore most of the
sensual data available to players, primarily incorporating vision into the game.
Current virtual reality environments likewise place limits on the types of sensory
41
Bloomer, Kent and Moore, Charles. Body, Memory and Architecture. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1977, p.36.
41
Ibid, p.36.
42
Many other compelling and vital art forms, including film, could be equally described as
phenomenologically limited.
information they include43. A full sensory experience remains as Janet Murray‘s

dream of the holodeck44.
2.2 Material Dissociation

Videogame spaces are not corporeal spaces. The architecture of videogames is not
a physical construct, but is a representation of architecture. But to achieve the
representation of architecture videogames replicate a number of architecture‘s
physical properties, imitating the basic components or units of architecture. Yet in
the game environment these units function in a very different manner to the real
space, mediated by the limitations of the medium and the demands of gameplay.
The construction of architecture in gamespace is an imitative, rather than accurate,
process. Where the last section looked at dissociations between gamespace and
the player this section examines dissociation between architecture and its
properties, between gamespace and materiality.
Physical space is made up of atoms, which consist of an electron cloud surrounding

a nucleus of protons and neutrons. On a purely physical level architecture in real
space is a collection of atoms forming elements that congregate together in
particular densities to form visible matter that occupies space and has mass.
Videogames also exist in physical form, using atoms and matter to form gamespace.
Gamespace is stored on semi-conductors (made of atoms) which use electron flows
(between atoms) to store information as bytes or binary data, or stored on optical
discs as surface deformities (that distort a reflecting laser and are converted into
electron flows). The data is unpacked through the combined efforts of software and
hardware, made of atoms and powered by electron flows or electricity. We see
gamespace most often on a LCD screen, where an electronic stimulus twists crystal
molecules to allow or block light through layers of filters. We hear gamespace via
electro-acoustic transducers, where electronic signals are converted to sound waves
via a vibrating diaphragm. We effect changes on and tactilely connect to gamespace
through devices that convert our physical movements into electronic data.
43
For example an omni-directional treadmill allows a user to locomote inside a VR environment but
does not replicate the varied surface textures and levels of real space.
44
Referring to Janet Murray’s desire for games as competent as the Holodeck, the Star Trek vision of
a holographic room where participants are immersed in a sensorily believable and narratively
competent world (Murray, Janet. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace.
Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1997, chapter 1).
As Professor of Architecture, William J. Mitchell, puts it succinctly ―physical actions

invoke computational processes‖ and ―computational processes manifest
themselves physically‖45. Both gamespace and physical space are real in terms of
atomic structure. Gamespace occurs when binary information controls electron flows
which effect changes in predetermined compositions of matter, which put out
sensory information which we interpret as gamespace46. Physical space is us (made
of matter) surrounded by matter.
In real space architecture can be seen as a marking or enclosure of space in three

dimensions with material substances, but architectural solidity is only an illusion in
gamespace, a programmed representation of matter47. Games need not imitate
matter-based architectural elements to construct an enclosure but architecture in
gamespace pretends a materiality it does not have. Buildings profess to be made of
stone, wood, brick, steel and glass but the only building material used is digital and
algorithmic. Materiality is fundamental to how architecture is constructed and
devised in real space. Architectural academic Francis D. K. Ching notes that
architectural proportion is partially dictated by material property, where building
elements are determined by their response to the forces of physics48. Videogames
only impersonate the physical properties of building materials. The forces, such as
gravity, that shape architecture in real space are irrelevant to the construction of
architecture in gamespace49.
Where in real space architecture is constructed out of a multitude of components, in

videogames buildings are constructed out of digital objects, imitating the look of
building materials through shape, colour and texture. The appearance of an object in
real space is primarily determined by its exterior qualities, yet behind its façade a
regime of materiality exists. An object in gamespace can consist of only exterior
surfaces with no interior structure. Gamic architecture is often made out of polygons,
45
Mitchell, William J. E-Topia: "Urban Life, Jim-but Not as We Know It". Cambridge, Massachusetts:
MIT Press, 1999, pp.31-32.
46
As human beings we perceive the world around us through our senses, creating a mental construct
of space that is not the same as physical space. Equally gamespace is perceived through our senses
and mental constructs.
47
Notwithstanding that architects and artists in real space often play with illusion (such as the blur
building by Diller & Scofidio in Switzerland, which appears to be made of light and water), and that
solid materials can be penetrated with x-ray and thermal scanners etc.
48
Ching, Francis D. K. Architecture: Form, Space, and Order. Second Ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons
Inc. 1996, pp.279-281.
49
Unless specifically programmed to be relevant.
two-dimensional bounded planes that are coloured, shaded and textured. A polygon
is a matter of shade and colour on the screen surface; it has not intrinsic materiality
of its own. Architecture becomes a non-material polyhedral object, formed of
vertices, edges and faces. These shapes imitate solid matter, pretending solidity by
being unnavigable space. Architecture in gamespace is dissociated from materiality,
composed of geometry rather than physical matter. Similarly colour is not intrinsic to
material in videogame where every piece of architecture in gamespace has
surrendered to a paint job, veneered for effect. Marcos Novak discusses virtual
architecture as series of ―fluctuating relations between abstract elements‖50. What
he terms as ―the liquid architecture of cyberspace‖ is a dematerialized architecture
that goes beyond aspects of the real world.
Texture in game environments is limited to a visual representation of the tactile and

optical qualities of a surface, reduced to a pattern on the screen. Without haptic
feedback texture is limited to its optical component and has no accompanying
sensations of material roughness or smoothness. As a term texture is also used to
refer to the image wrapped over a polygon form, adding detail, colour and pattern to
its surface. Texture mapping can be used to pretend a level of three-dimensionality
on a flat surface, where architectural details are appliquéd onto the external planes
of a building. Videogame architecture often consists of a volume whose architectural
characteristics and detail is projected onto the surface of a hollow core. Unlike
texture in real space, texture in videogames is applied and not intrinsic. Texture is
dissociated from materiality. Buildings in gamespace have an architectural look with
none of the substance, a radical façadism51 where only the surface of architecture is
preserved.
Any material substance to architecture must be coded in. Buildings in gamespace

impersonate the physical properties of building materials in real space. Even the
basic attribution of a stone or timber wall as a solid material that we cannot walk
through must be coded into gamespace. Buildings in gamespace are coded to deny
movement through their walls, acknowledging architecture‘s basic property of
enclosure. Other properties such as compressive and tensile strength, flammability,
50
Marcos Novak, “Liquid Architectures in Cyberspace”. Cyberspace: First Steps, 1991. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1991. www.surfacenoise.info/367/readings/novak.pdf. Accessed18
September 2009.
51
Façadism refers to the practice of renovating old buildings grafting on a new interior and leaving
only the façade intact and original.
porosity, thermal and acoustic performance, durability, density, and electrical

conductivity are more selectively implemented. Until recently most games made no
attempt to directly simulate material properties, desired effects (like being breakable
or flammable) were scripted into code as pre-rendered events.
Early videogames were notorious for inconsistencies in the material behaviour of

architecture. The thatched roofs in Morrowind are invulnerable to fire and wooden
fences in Call of Duty (Infinity Ward 2003) safe from grenades. Only through the
inclusion of real-time physics engines and physics cards are games beginning to
approach a more credible, though necessarily simplified, mimesis of the physical
properties of building materials. But even though every object, every digital molecule
can theoretically be programmed to react realistically to stimuli their programming
could equally force them to respond unrealistically. The links between architecture,
materiality and physics are optional in videogames, dissociated and reconstituted at
will by the game designer.
The dissociation of architecture from materiality in videogames leads to another

significant act of dissociation in gamespace, the disengagement of structure. In real
space materiality fundamentally affects the process of building. Unlike gamic
architecture structures in real space are dependent on material science, where
compressive and tensile strengths dictate things like span, thickness and type of
structure used. A wooden roof beam in real space must be of certain thickness or
else it will break under the pressure of supporting the roof. In gamespace a wooden
roof beam is of a particular size because it imitates the architecture of real space, or
because the game designer thought it looked good, or because a wide beam
signifies something that the player can jump safely onto. The beam in gamespace
supports nothing but gameplay.
Where architecture in real space is architectonic (related to its construction), William

J. Mitchell notes that virtual architecture is anti-tectonic. Because there is no gravity
―weights and loads do not create a rationale for member sizes, shapes and
proportions. Ideas of structural expression and honesty lose all meaning‖52. Without
materiality, and without the effects of gravity on those materials, structure is only
ever an imitative detail in videogames. Gamic architecture is also divorced from
52
Mitchell, William J. “Antitectonics: The Poetics of Virtuality”. In The Virtual Dimension. Beckmann,
J. (Ed.). New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998, pp.205-217.
effects of time and weather on materiality. Buildings in real space gradually decay
without intervention, their roofs fall into disrepair and eventually collapse allowing
plants to colonise their interiors. A ruin in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is not the result
of material and structural deterioration; it only imitates the result of these actions.
Game architecture is never unduly subject to the vagaries of weather, gravity and
the laws of physics, or susceptible to entropy or explosives. These properties have
to be coded in to occur. There is no materiality or gravity in gamespace, only a
simulation of them. Buildings in gamespace do not fall down because of material
failure or the effects of gravity, but are demolished through code.
Figure 4
Architecture is
reduced in size in
Heroes of Might and
Magic V compared
to the rider. More a
cubby house than
farmhouse.
Material dissociation allows the manipulation of other architectural aspects. Scale is

significant in real space, where an anthropometric relationship occurs between
building and inhabitant. In videogames the size relationships between architecture,
landscape objects and inhabitants are often disproportionate. Andrew Rollings and
Ernest Adams note that distortions in scale between people and architecture are
relatively common53. Architecture in Heroes of Might and Magic V (Nival Interactive
2006) is diminutive in comparison to the citizens of the land (Fig. 4). Other games
outsize architecture, increasing internal volumes in relation to the player‘s avatar in
order to counteract the claustrophobia engendered by the reduced field of vision.
53
Rollings, Andrew and Adams, Ernest. Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design.
Indianapolis, Indiana: New Riders, 2003, p.63.
High ceiling heights and vast vaulted chambers dominate buildings in multi-player
environments where large numbers of avatars interfere with lines of sight.
Architectural scale is further warped by the constraints of technology. Manovich

notes the screen ―has a scale different from the scale of our normal space‖54. A
screen-mediated world reduces architectural size in comparison to our true field of
vision and our bodily context55. A true-to-life scaling of gamespace would severely
restrict the player‘s view, allowing only a tiny window into the game. When
evaluated against real space both the tiny screens of the Nintendo DS and the
larger screens available for console and PC are miniature. Captured on the screen
the monolithic Sith temple in Knights of the Old Republic (Bioware 2003) is as cutely
small as a suburban house in The Sims. Giant monuments of architecture are
rendered small enough to fit in our pockets and in our living rooms.
Because game architecture is dissociated from material and structural concerns it is

also dissociated from a number of economic factors. While architecture in
videogames is subject to other expenses, such as the time it takes to construct a
game environment, the cost of the game engine and staffing factors, things like
material cost become irrelevant. There is no economic difference between digital
buildings made of wood or made of gold56. Once one item is digitally constructed it
can be used again and again, a kind of self-replenishing resource. The same inn,
with only minor cosmetic changes, is seen again and again within World of Warcraft,
a fake vernacular that represents the civilisation of men.
On the other hand the landscape in which architecture is constructed does not exist
as a priori; it has to be built as part of gamespace. Creating the game world is a
significant cost in game production. Land value takes on a whole new meaning in
videogames, as the cost of its creation. Where architecture in real space must
respond or prevail against the topographic characteristics and the existing cultural
heritage, game architecture constructs its own genius loci57. William J. Mitchell
notes, ―A virtual space, unlike a material construction, does not transform a specific
54
p.95.
55
Other screen-based technologies, like film, also alter notions of scale.
56
Though there may be difference in the amount of computing power required to render them.
57
Genius Loci refers to the identity of a specific location or its “spirit of place”.
site‖58 instead substituting an electronically constructed site. Instead of changing

existent space videogames are dissociated from the constraints of site, creating that
space along with the architecture.
The dissociation from material setting is also evident in the effects of illumination.
Light operates as one of what Unwin calls the ―modifying elements of architecture‖59,
moderating its basic form. The rhythms of daylight and artificial lighting dramatically
affect how we experience architecture. In gamespace all light is artificial, arising not
from seasonal and diurnal rhythms but created for specific purposes. As in real
space lighting serves to highlight and reveal areas of importance in architecture. In
Tomb Raider 2 (Core Design 1997) lighting effects often operate as a clue to
navigation and important locations. Videogames can also impose a kind of temporal
stagnation of illumination, where the light never changes. Yoshi’s Island DS is
always a brightly lit and eternally sunny. The opposite often happens in games
where diurnal patterns are instigated but sped up, where a brief night follows a short
day in a display of temporal velocity. Lighting can also be player directed, Simon
Niedenthal discusses how the gloom of Silent Hill 2 (Konami 2001) is both relieved
and heightened by the use of a torch, which serves to help players read maps but
also contrasts the dark and attracts monsters60.
Divorced from the turning of the earth, light becomes a manipulable substance, a
dissociated unit to be used in the game. Playing with illumination Thief: Deadly
Shadows (Ion Storm 2004) constructs darkness as a resource. In the city it is always
night, the medieval architecture is lit by moonlight and torchlight. The games
protagonist, master thief Garret, is invisible to his foes when hidden in shadow. Each
building operates as a patchwork of levels of visibility. Every patch of light must be
carefully negotiated around when in the presence of enemies; to enter the light is to
risk discovery and death. Players can knock out light sources, dynamically altering
their experience in that section of building (Fig. 5). The weaving of light into
gameplay heightens the architectural experience. Thé Chinh Ngo in discussing Tom
Clancy’s Splinter Cell (Ubisoft 2002) talks of the opposition between light and
58
Mitchell, William J. “Antitectonics: The Poetics of Virtuality”. In The Virtual Dimension. Beckmann,
J. (Ed.) New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998, p.207.
59
Unwin, Simon. Analysing Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2003, pp.37-48.
60
Niedenthal, Simon. "Shadowplay: Simulated Illumination in Game Worlds". Changing Views -
shadow as defining ―non-spaces‖ within gamic architecture, creating hierarchies of

light and dark space61.
Figure 5
From light to dark –

extinguishing a torch
in Thief: Deadly
Shadows
The dissociation of materiality affects the architectural units of assigned qualities

and player agency, particularly in the navigation of gamespace. The very notion of a
quality being assigned to architecture rather than inherent to architecture (through
its structure and materials) is in itself an act of dissociation. Navigation of
architecture in real space is a negotiation between person and material, where
slope, structure, surface quality and layout unite to affect movement. The
experience of moving across a level floor is different to negotiating steps, polished
floors feel different to gravel walkways, and labyrinthine corridors reduce speed.
61
Thé Chinh Ngo. “Splinter Cell: On the Dark Side of Gameplay”. In Space Time Play: Computer
Games, Architecture and Urbanism: The Next Level. Borries, F. von, Walz, S. and Böttger M. (Eds.).
Basel: Birkhauser, 2007, pp.84-85.
Bloomer and Moore write, ―All architecture functions as a potential stimulus for
movement, real and imagined‖62.
Figure 6
Slippery pathways in
American McGee’s
Alice require careful
movement lest Alice
plunge to her death
in the surrounding
chasm
Movement in gamespace is in part a facet of player agency, where basic qualities of

movement are assigned to the player‘s avatar. Each avatar can be given specific
characteristics: baby Peach in Yoshi’s Island DS can fly, baby Mario cannot. The
player‘s ability to navigate gamespace is in part determined by the ability of their
agent in gamespace. Movement is also affected by the assigned qualities of
gamespace, where each space or surface can affect player movement differently.
Navigating through deep water reduces movement speed in World of Warcraft.
Movement modifiers can be applied to all of gamespace, to a substantial region of
gamespace and to specific objects and surfaces. Gamespace can alter the player‘s
speed and direction of movement and affect their surety of movement. Architecture
can be afflicted with perilous qualities. In the American McGee’s Alice players may
confront slippery surfaces, tilting and breaking pathways or surfaces with lethal
qualities fatal to the ‗game ego‘ (Fig. 6). Both ice and lava environments are
common in platform games are exaggerations of the affect of surface quality on
movement, where an excess or cessation of movement can result in avatar death.
62
Bloomer, Kent and Moore, Charles. Body, Memory and Architecture. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1977, p. 59.
Videogames can also deny player movement, where architectural surfaces that
appear to be negotiable are impassable. However most videogames adopt
customary usage patterns in their architecture, coding floors as navigable, roofs as
sometimes navigable and walls as unnavigable. Movement modifiers can be applied
to any part of the game environment but their usage is usually diegetically sensible
or marked in some manner, so that the player can clearly understand the rules of
engagement with that space. In Tomb Raider 2, climbable walls, moveable blocks
and breaking floors have a different appearance to similar non-actionable sections
of the environment.
However not all architectural surfaces affect movement, in World of Warcraft all
buildings afford a constant speed, there is no discernable difference in movement
when encountering ramps or stairs, smooth or rough surfaces. This is
commensurate with our expectations of the way in which architecture in real space
tries to facilitate, not hinder, movement. Most videogames adopt this approach,
simplifying movement, particularly in exterior environments. David Browning and
fellow authors note that ―in the physical world, people need to be constantly aware
of the nature of the terrain, simple to maintain their preferred position in relation to
it‖63. Despite its hazards gamespace rarely demands this level of attention.
A different kind of coded architectural response occurs in the avatorial responses

that the player‘s avatar or agent makes in relation to interactions with the game
environment. When Lara from Tomb Raider runs into a wall she rebounds with a
spastic jerk and an exclamation, while an impact from a great height results in
death. Because neither avatars nor buildings are material any interaction between
the two is mutable. Responses can be coded for realism or fashioned as an
inaccurate exaggeration of our organic strength. Other games mark no response
between inhabitant and architecture. In World of Warcraft running at a wall will result
in the avatar marking time on the spot, forever unable to engage with the
architecture. Architectural responses to avatorial action can be equally
disconcerting. When Lara pulls a lever in Tomb Raider she needs only be in the
general proximity of the mechanism for it to work.
63
Browning, David, et al. "Emplacing Experience". CyberGames 2006: Proceedings of the 2006
International Conference on Game research and Development. Fremantle, WA, 2006, pp.96-103.
Both the structure and material of architecture and setting are imitated to create a
believable spatial setting. But, unlike architecture in real space, the construction of
gamespace is constituted of simulated units whose links, inherent in real space, are
dissociated. From its immateriality, to the ways in which we interact with it, gamic
architecture is an act of dissociation. The most fundamental dissociation occurs
between gamespace and materiality. From this follows dissociation from the laws of
physics, dissociation from the weather, dissociations between buildings and
movement and so on. It is the act of dissociation that allows games to adapt and
recreate architecture for the different purposes of game worlds, tweaking and
amplifying architectural characteristics. Dissociation from materiality allows
gamespace to be mutable.
Jesper Juul points out games are ―half–real‖, they consist of real rules with a
fictional world64. Using Juul‘s concept gamespace is half-real, a fictional space that
operates under set of real rules. But architecture in videogames can also be seen as
half-real in a different sense. Videogames borrow the forms of ‗real‘ architectural
structures and imitate ‗real‘ architectural materials to create their fictional worlds, but
remain forever divorced from the physical actuality of those components.
2.3 Reconstituting Function

Architecture in gamespace, while imitating architecture in real space, is formed for
the particular purposes of gameplay. For Ernest Adams the ―primary function of
architecture is to support gameplay‖65. Architectural objects are part of the
construction of gameplay. Game worlds are formed or constructed according to the
types of activities that take place within them. Because gamic architecture is
dissociated into separate units the act of building in gamespace is an act of
reconstitution. To reconstitute is to reconstruct, reorganise and reform. In
gamespace architecture and architectural function is reconstituted for the purposes
of gameplay.
64
65
In the process of examining the role of architecture in videogames Adams lists a

number of real world functions for architecture, including climatic protection, privacy,
the organisation and hosting of activity, concealment and protection of goods,
defence, commemoration and decoration. Of these Adams argues that only
decorative and militaristic purposes translate directly into game function. But without
materiality even militaristic function is dissociated from architectural form. A building
in real space might use machicolations and crenellations to enhance its defensive
capability, but a building in gamespace, undergoing a digital attack, has no need for
these structures. The form and function paradigms of real space are dissociated.
Dissociation in gamic architecture allows games to reconstitute the functions of

architecture in real space as part of the motive forces of gameplay. Protection from
the weather or climatic moderation is not a necessity in games but can be
programmed into gameplay. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom 2006)
postulates a frigid environment on an ice-bound planet where heat becomes a vital
resource for the player. Assigned qualities of thermal radiation each building acts as
a thermal source that impacts on the game ego, signifying protection against heat
loss in the external environment. Harsh weather acts as an impetus to quickly transit
exterior areas, reworking physical survival into gameplay statistics. The real space
functioning of architecture as a protective sleeve is reconstructed as a spatial
challenge that adds difficulty to the contest occurring between player and ice world
monsters.
Adams asserts that architecture is not the most efficient way of organising collective
human activity in games. But Adams also notes that architecture is often a useful
icon. Buildings offer a ―convenient game-world metaphor for the functions of a shop‖
and act as a metaphor for ―storage, concealment and protection‖66. Videogames
translate the real space functionality of buildings into an architectural metaphor,
where architecture is a convenient icon but not a necessity. Architecture acts as a
symbol, standing in for the activities and concepts associated with it in real space.
This act of architectural substitution operates as a kind of virtual synecdoche, where
part of a thing is substituted for the whole. The image of a building takes the place of
the complex whole of a building in real space.
66
September 2005.
But to act as metaphor architecture must be identifiable. Videogames must

reconstitute the form, or type, of architecture associated with a particular function in
order for players to understand and use the architectural metaphor. Architectural
type is what Donlyn Lyndon and Charles Moore describe as ―clusters of elements
that, when arranged in certain ways, tell us that it is one kind of place or another: a
castle or a church, a dwelling or a warehouse, a highway or a promenade‖67.
Identification of architectural type serves to support both metaphor and atmosphere.
The identification of type becomes a function of gamic architecture that is directly
translated from, and hence dependent on, real space.
Figure 7
Differentiating
factions in Battle for
Middle Earth 2 -
Humans and the
forces of Mordor
adopt different
architectural styles
67
Lyndon, Donlyn and Moore, Charles. Chambers for a Memory Palace. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
The MIT Press, 1997, p.219.
A diversity of types is used to differentiate different areas of gamespace, different

levels of play and different factions within play. Architectural diversity becomes a
way of distinguishing different subsets within a game. Battle for Middle Earth II uses
architectural differentiation to clearly differentiate between opposing forces (Fig. 7).
There is a marked difference between the architecture of the dark forces of Mordor,
who enjoy the use of black pointy features in their buildings, and members of the
opposing side, the men and elves, who in contrast use classical elements.
Distinctive styles become the signposts by which we recognise elements of the
game, where each race is defined within its coalition by their own peculiarities of
architectural form. This is architecture to make gameplay legible.
Other people discuss gamespace using Kevin Lynch‘s analysis of urban spaces,
where the image of a city consists of paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks.
Paths are navigational channels; landmarks are external points of reference that
help people orient themselves in space; edges are boundaries; districts are sections
of a city with a common identifying character, and nodes are strategic points or foci,
places where activity occurs. Brian Upton notes the failure of many games to
understand these relationships, citing pitfalls in level design such as ―the same
68
damn corridor‖ where an overuse of paths and a lack of landmarks results in
repetitive tedium. Adams and Lynch both focus on the role of architecture in hosting
activity and manipulating navigation through combinations of their units. In
videogames architecture situates and control gameplay by situating and controlling
activity and navigation.
Architecture in gamespace functions as a place for gameplay. Architecture is both

the setting for gameplay and a spatial order that in part controls gameplay.
According to Adams architecture supports gameplay by helping to define the
challenges presented and actions available to the player in four major ways: as an
obstacle testing player skill, as a place to explore, through constraint or setting
limits, and through concealment, which is about strategic revealment of hidden or
68
Upton, Brian "Narrative Landscapes: Shaping Player Expectation through World Geometry". Game
Developers Conference 2007. San Francisco, 2007. http://www.gdconf.com. Accessed 27 June
2007.
Rössel Waugh, Eric-Jon. "Post–GDC: Rainbow Six's Upton Talks Landscaping Game Worlds".
Gamasutra. 14 March 2007. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13120.
Accessed 16 March 2007.
obscured elements69. Edges or constraints, for example, operate both to support the
narrative and limit play. Boundary conditions are always interesting in game worlds.
Adams notes that constraint establishes boundaries to the game world and limits
freedom of movement70. Lynch talks of edges as one of the components of cities, as
linear elements that most often act as a boundary between two different areas71.
Edges can act as barriers, operating as breaks in continuity and they can act as
seams, joining different areas and allowing commerce between them. World of
Warcraft compartmentalises levels of danger within discrete zones, benefiting from
well-defined edges that clearly demarcate changes in operation. The edges range
from massive mountains to sharp changes in vegetal character, marking a shift from
one region to another.
The most significant boundary in gamespace is the edge that marks the end of
gamespace. This edge acts as a border between the finite realm of navigable
gamespace and the non-game nothingness that surrounds it. Early games offered
space as a single screen, at times extending space by allowing players to access
contiguous screens, while other games wrapped space so that a player leaving the
screen on one side would return on the other side. Scrolling games offer a form of
continuous space, where player can only move in the horizontal plane, book-ending
space between the start and finish. Clara Fernandez-Vara notes that on the finite
plane of the screen, gamespace can be constructed as discrete or continuous72.
Discrete spaces are fragmented views of space that the player accesses one at a
time, while continuous spaces allow the player to scroll freely across space.
Videogames that construct continuous spaces inevitably create a conflict in

describing the border to gamespace. Designers have come up with many ways to
describe and disguise this edge. For the most part these subterfuges break down
into two main categories. In the first of these the player cannot reach the border and
in the second the player can reach, but not breach, the border. In World of Warcraft
the game plays out on two main continents and on a small number of islands girt by
sea. The player is free to swim out into the ocean but shortly after doing so is
69
70
Ibid.
71
Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1960, p.62.
72
afflicted by fatigue. To continue to swim out from the shore results in death by
drowning. The finiteness of gamespace is protected from exposure by avatorial
weakness. Unreachable edges in contrast are often described by a breakdown in
navigability, where the player can still see parts of gamespace but is unable to
explore there. In Fable the edges of the world are always visually distant; the player
is contained within a limited set of paths and clearings and cannot approach or
explore the boundaries to the gamespace.
Figure 8
A dungeon in Titan
Quest surrounded
by a black abyss of
nothingness
Edges mark the most critical transition, the border between gamespace and the
unconstructed space beyond. Curiously enough gamers often describe the void
beyond gamespace as spatial, as if the visual solidity of gamespaces contextualises
the nothing beyond. Non-space becomes an abyss of endless space, an empty
universe surrounding gamespace. In Titan Quest the beautifully rendered passages
of an underground dungeon are surrounded by impenetrable blackness (Fig. 8).
Players are unable to break out of the confines of rendered space, where the
neighbouring black nothingness is given the contextual solidity of rock.
Architecture in gamespace is reinvented by breakdowns in its functional operations

and responses to the player. Just as Andrew Hutchison finds dysfunctional gaps in
avatar manifestation73, impairments to function are evident in videogame
architecture. Architecture in real space works not as an inert object, the still singular
image of architecture shown in a magazine shoot, but as an operational entity that is
manipulated to control our environment. We expect a degree of control over
architecture, so that when we find doors that cannot open, cupboards that cannot be
filled and lights that will not turn on or off, we are reminded that game architecture is
an architectural illusion, a trompe l’oeil of dissociated elements.
Figure 9
Bravado in
architectural
dysfunction – doors
that don‘t open in
Call of Duty
Gamespace often contradicts our expectations of space. Staffan Björk and Jussi
Holopainen describe levels of consistency within the game world as ―consistent
reality logic‖74 . Players expect a degree of consistency with real space, where stairs
should be climbable and passageways passable. Players can equally be disrupted
by internal contradictions within gamespace, where ―if the player can blow up a
crate, the player should be able to blow up all other similar crates‖75. Steven Poole
73
Hutchison, Andrew. "Where Are My Legs? Embodiment Gaps in Avatars". CyberGames 2006:
Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Game research and Development. Fremantle
WA, 2006, pp.104-111.
74
Björk, Staffan, and Holopainen, Jussi. Patterns in Game Design. Hingham, Massachusetts: Charles
River Media, 2005, pp.64-67.
75
Ibid, p.5.
notes that incoherence can apply to causality, function or space76. Spatial

incoherence relates to how we expect to use gamespace based on our experiences
in real space and in other games. Games can be unequivocal in rendering
architectural dysfunction. Call of Duty states baldly at the first inoperable door ―This
door cannot be opened. You never need to try to open closed doors‖77 (Fig. 9). In
reconstituting dysfunctional doors Call of Duty explicitly reveals the dissociation of
function from architecture. Most games attempt to disguise these breakdowns of
functionality, where inoperable doors masquerade as locked doors.
Dysfunctions of architecture also occur as the result of glitches and coding errors.
Technological malfunctions are part of the mutability of gamespace. Avatars sit
within supposedly solid walls of buildings and get trapped swimming in floor
surfaces, merging with the architecture in an uncanny assimilation. Buildings flicker
in and out of existence. Simply entering an area can cause the entire game to freeze
and crash. Architecture gets reduced to a wire frame or disappears entirely in a
conflagration of screen static, reduced to its digital constituents and betraying its
coded heritage. Technological dysfunction interrupts the reconstitution of
architecture from code, reinventing space as mutable.
Functionality can also be examined in relation to notions of affordance, a concept

proposed by James J. Gibson78. Joanna McGrenere and Wayne Ho describe an
affordance as ―an action possibility available in the environment to an individual
independent of the individual‘s ability to perceive this possibility‖79. Affordances are
actions latent in the environment, but are also dependent on the individual‘s ability to
perform those actions; hence affordances for a child and an Olympic athlete would
vary. While affordance theory has been critiqued for not taking into account cultural
bias or learnt behaviour, it offers a useful way of looking at gamespace80. Dan
Pinchbeck notes that affordances are valuable in analysing videogames because
digital game environments are ―vastly reduced artificial systems, whose affordances
76
Poole, Steven. Trigger Happy: Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution. Web Download
Edition, 2007, p.95. http://stevenpoole.net.
77
On screen message in Call of Duty (Infinity Ward 2003).
78
Gibson, James J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.
79
McGrenere, Joanna and Ho, Wayne. "Affordances: Clarifying and Evolving a Concept". Graphics
Interface 2000, http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~joanna/papers/GI2000_McGrenere_Affordances.pdf.
Accessed 5 October 2006.
80
Oliver, M. "The Problem with Affordance". E-Learning. Volume 2, No. 4, 2005, pp.402-413.
are, by definition, non-accidental‖81. Affordances have to be deliberately coded into

the virtual environment; they are not intrinsic qualities of gamespace.
William Gaver maintains that affordances can be ―existent‖ and ―non-existent‖.

Gaver goes on to note that affordances can be either obscured or revealed by their
perceptible information82. Combining affordances with their perceptual information
results in four categories of actions possibilities (Fig. 10). Existent affordances can
be perceptible, where perceptual information and the affordance match, or hidden,
where an affordance exists but the perceptual information to indicate its presence is
missing or incorrect. Nonexistent affordances can be separated into false
affordances, where there is no affordance but perceptual information pretends there
is, and correct rejections, where the environment contains no affordance and no
perceptual information exists to indicate an affordance.
Figure 10
False Perceptible
Perceptual Yes Affordance Affordance
The separation of
Information Affordance from
Perceptual
Correct Hidden Information by
No Rejection Affordance William Gaver
No Yes
Affordance
If gamespace is based on real space then affordances in gamespace have a

correspondence with affordances of real space. As Bernadette Flynn notes
gamespace is indebted to spatial practices in real space. Affordances in
videogames refer to what actions it is possible to do in gamespace. Videogames
clearly offer perceptible affordances, mimicking the spatial characteristics and
actions of physical space. World of Warcraft primarily exhibits perceptible
affordances of customary architectural and spatial use in its buildings, creating a
81
Pinchbeck, Dan. "Counting Barrels in Quake 4: Affordances and Homodiegetic Structures in FPS
Worlds". Situated Play: Proceeding of the DiGRA 2007 Conference. Tokyo, 2007, pp.8-14.
82
Gaver, William. "Technology Affordances." Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors
in computing systems: Reaching through technology. New Orleans, Louisiana, 1991, pp.79-84.
congruity between what players think they can do in gamespace and the activities
players are able to perform in gamespace.
The overwhelming majority of games also exhibit correct rejections based on the
practices of real space. In World of Warcraft it is impossible to walk through walls.
World of Warcraft also exhibits false affordances, where a player might expect to
perform an action based on their experiences in real space but are unable to do so.
Players become familiar with the false affordance presented by an inoperable door.
Other games present hidden affordances, where the game environment offers more
than it shows. Secret entries to segments of Doom space look like inoperable
sections of wall.
Videogames also offer discontinuities in terms of spatial usage. A building in Battle

for Middle Earth II exhibits a false affordance of conventional architectural/spatial
use in the way it mimics the visual properties of buildings in real space but denies
any physical exploration of their interior space. Players can circumnavigate a
building but never enter it, discombobulating their expectations. Videogames also
offer unrealistic actions not possible in real space. Giant stone blocks can be
moved by the player in Tomb Raider. These actions garner digital affordances
peculiar to videogames where architecture signifies the potential for certain actions.
In Tomb Raider giant stone blocks are signalled as moveable by their enhanced
colouration and lighting. Game specific perceptible affordances can exist at odds
with the affordances of real space. While the space-time continuum prevents
instantaneous travel in real space many games allow players to instantaneously
teleport through space (through teleportation portals indicated by swirls of colour. A
videogame is perfectly capable of subverting our perceptions of space.
Pinchbeck defines ludic83 affordances, or play affordances as ―those that enable a

direct play action to take place‖84. Ludic affordances may have congruence with real
space but equally they may not, primarily because material and sensory dissociation
allow games to construct space in new ways. Games like Prey use a diegetic
suspension of disbelief to play with our understanding of space. Using the pretence
of alien technologies that allow the manipulation of gravity, Prey allows users to walk
83
Ludic as in pertaining to ludus, from the Latin word for play
84
Pinchbeck, Dan. "Counting Barrels in Quake 4: Affordances and Homodiegetic Structures in FPS
Worlds". Situated Play: Proceeding of the DiGRA 2007 Conference. Tokyo, 2007, p.9.
on walls and ceilings. Switches change the direction of gravity, large rocks generate
their own gravity and gravity becomes a weapon.
Hidden ludic affordances exist where game-specific actions are possible, but no
perceptual information informs the player of this. Within Battle for Middle Earth II
players create soldiers using a menu contained within a barracks building. The
creation of soldiers is a possible action of the building. However no perceptual
information reveals this architectural program. The building must be clicked on,
acted upon by the player, to reveal its concealed menu. Battle for Middle Earth relies
on the gameplay manual and knowledge of established traditions in real-time
strategy games to indicate to the player the hidden function of the building. Because
the architecture of Battle for Middle Earth II represents something other than itself it
replaces customary spatial usages with usages that have meaning only within
gameplay. The affordance of a building in real-time strategy game is an example of
a specifically ludic affordance that has arisen through gameplay conventions.
The screen-based digital environment has its own set of digital affordances, such as
the mouse-over highlighting of actionable items to indicate a possible action.
Gamespace blends real and digital affordances, amalgamating digital practices with
our experiences garnered in real space. A discontinuity or opposition between
architectural affordances and digital affordances can exist. Buildings in Battle for
Middle Earth II operate as a digital icon and as architecture, but only offer a limited
range of the affordances possible compared to architecture in real space. The
buildings are operable digitally as menus, but not spatially as buildings, displacing
spatial practice for computing practice.
Affordances in gamic architecture differ from the affordances offered by architecture

in real space. Through dissociation and reconstitution game architecture can both
deny, and expand on, the range of actions available in real space. Games offer new
expectations of possible actions and create a new lexicon of gamic affordances.
Videogames also exhibit false affordances in their negation of spatial values
expected in real space. Given that gamespaces are extrapolations of inherent
actions and attitudes from real space, rather than precise copies, it makes sense to
argue that games exhibit affordance extension, making more possible in
architecture. Videogame architecture then merge affordances from real space,
(signalling commensurate actions with architecture in real space) with gamic
affordances (which offer gamic specific actions) and with digital affordances (specific
algorithmic actions such as menu access). By dissociating affordances from their
physical containers and by selectively using customary architectural, gamic and
computing affordances videogames reinvent spatial perceptions and practices.
2.4 Reconstituting & Reinventing Space

Videogames do more than attempt to replicate our environment and its architecture:
they also embellish and enhance spatial characteristics. The ability of virtual space
to do away with the demands of material science, gravity, and the laws of physics
allows architecture to venture into new realms of imagination. By disassociating the
relationships between its units, videogame architecture rebuilds long-held standards
of architectural practice. Some games take an imaginative leap in creating multi-
dimensional constructs; others replicate a more mundane architecture. Yet even the
most quotidian gamespace enhances the architectural experience.
Point-of-view85 in gamespace is dissociated from the player‘s physical body. We

view architecture in gamespace through the virtual camera, which either operates as
the viewpoint of the player‘s agent or as a detached view into gamespace. As
Stockberger notes, the game camera is the conceptual entity that frames and
―delivers the discrete visual elements of the simulated world witnessed by the
observer/player‖86. The virtual camera can be coded into predetermined positions
that present particular vistas of space, or can operate under the direction of the
player. With control of the virtual camera the player can swing, tilt, raise, lower and
zoom point-of-view, enabling them to scope out space and architecture in ways that
are unrelated to the embodied view of architecture performed in real space. Like
architectural CAD programs, that can visualise buildings from vantage points that
are impossible to replicate in real space, buildings in gamespace can be seen from
angles and positions improbable in real space. Mike Jones contends that the ―virtual
camera is not an extension of the physical camera but presents a fundamental shift
in viewer experience, perception and spatial awareness‖87. The ability to manipulate
point-of-view augments the architectural experience.
85
Point-of-view as the point from which something is seen.
86
87
Jones, Mike. Vanishing Point: Spatial Composition and the Virtual Camera. Seminar Presentation at
the University of NSW, School of Media, Film and Theatre. 18th October 2006. Podcast with PDF
Slides at http://screensoundspace.wordpress.com/podcasts/. Accessed 18 December 2008.
This augmentation of view is most notable in third-person games where the player‘s
agent is encapsulated in gamespace as an avatar, extending the player‘s ability to
make choices about navigating space. Laurie Taylor notes that ―third-person games
allow for the representation of other-than-visual perception, like being able to sense
entities behind and beside one‘s body and being able to see straight ahead, to the
periphery, and down all at the same instance‖88. Similarly, games which have an
external viewpoint, such as ―god-games‖, allow players to move the virtual camera
freely over the totality of the game environment. In contrast first-person games ties
player agency to the screen (where the screen pretends to be the viewpoint of the
player‘s character) limiting the camera moves allowed. The ability to manipulate
viewpoint is a facet of player agency, part of the ‗game ego‘, which allows the player
to not only view but also move through architecture in gamespace in different ways.
Games also extend viewing options when they introduce other sources of data in
space, where the player has access to imagery and information about sections of
gamespace at a remove from the player‘s agent in the game. Aylish Wood also
recognises the multiple construction of gamespace noting, ―other spaces also make
up the architecture of the game‖, including what he refers to as ―info-space‖89. These
additional points-of-view might be diegetically sensible, where a player taps into the
security system of a building or views directional data in a HUD disguised as a
helmet feed, but supplementary viewpoints also occur outside the diegesis as maps
and overlays, accessed through gamic and digital conventions.
Architects understand and analyse architecture through abstract representations, in

particular plans, elevations and sections. Like maps, plans abstract spatial
relationships, simplifying visual information and emphasising particular sorts of
spatial information. Plans and maps are integrated into the architectural experience
within videogames to an unprecedented degree. Small maps often appear
concurrently with the view of gamespace, in effect introducing another point-of-view
that operates simultaneously with the ‗game ego‘s viewpoint. This type of map,
commonly known as the mini-map, contains directional information that helps to
orientate the player within gamespace, and information about what is available in
that space. In World of Warcraft roads and buildings are represented in plan on the
88
89
mini-map, while icons indicate nearby quest reward locations, point to the nearest
city and locate the player‘s dead body in case of avatar death (Fig. 11). Players can
activate certain information overlays on the map depending on the character build of
their avatar, for example a herbalist character can choose to highlight the nearby
locations of herbs. Players navigate World of Warcraft playing attention to both the
map information and the main screen.
Figure 11
The mini-map and

its default position
on the main screen
in World of Warcraft
Other games present plans and maps as alternate screens to where gameplay
happens, portraying an unnavigable view of space that orientates the player within
the extent of gamespace. They range from the simplistic to the sophisticated, from
the crude map of Thief: Deadly Shadows to the incredible density of the star-map in
Eve Online (CCP Games 2003). Useful information that would interfere with or
intrude upon the presentation of a representational world is offered to the player in a
historically and socially acceptable form, as an annotated map. The map screen can
also offer the player the ability to navigate gamespace. In Titan Quest the map
screen allows the player to teleport between main towns, collapsing intermediate
space. By conditionally revealing gamespace maps hint at the player‘s progress and
provide information about goals. Stockberger claims that maps that provide the
player with a dynamic reference to their position within gamespace are part of the
framing act by the game camera90. This implies that both alternate map screens and
mini-maps not only offer a different view of gamespace but also form part of
90
Doctoral Thesis, University of the Arts, London, 2006, pp.155-156.
gamespace itself. Videogames conflate the abstract and the representational by

reconstituting architecture as both space and map. Cartography is the ultimate
codified space.
Maps are part of, or often called up through the head-up display (HUD) in
gamespace. In videogames the HUD both presents information and allows players
to access in-game resources. Information presented in the HUD often includes
avatar health and capabilities, including their available spells and weapons, and the
mini map. The HUD can range from the minimal to the overt. Despite the customary
practice of displaying gamespace in screenshots without the HUD present (many
games offer a mapped key that removes the HUD primarily for this purpose) most
games are literally unplayable without the HUD‘s wherewithal. In many games the
player cannot act upon gamespace without the HUD, in its absence players are
effectively reduced to acts of spatial tourism.
Figure 12
Viewing EVE Online

without the HUD
and with the HUD
Looking at videogame architecture without the HUD present allows the viewer to
concentrate on the appearance of architecture. However studying gamespace
without the appearance and actions enabled by the HUD limits the understanding of
the ludic experience of architecture in those games that are reliant on the HUD.
While removing the HUD in EVE Online presents a more cinematic experience little
can be done without it (Fig.12). The HUD operates as a filter through which the
player experiences architecture and gamespace. More importantly the HUD can act
as an essential part of player agency, enabling actions and navigation within
gamespace. The HUD is then part of the ‗game ego‘, a point that Ulf Wilhelmsson
concurs with91.
Some games display no HUD, instead embedding the information usually displayed
in the HUD into gamespace. Games like Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
(Headfirst Productions, Bethseda Softworks 2006) attempt to minimise or do away
with the HUD. Call of Cthulhu indicates health loss sustained by the player‘s
character by splashing blood on the screen when the character is hurt and by slowly
draining the colour out of the world as the character loses blood. A different kind of
filter is imposed on architecture when player actions affect the perception of
gamespace. Call of Cthulhu links the status of the player‘s avatar to gamespace by
responding to game events with auditory and visual hallucinations. As the main
character, Jack, goes slowly insane the screen starts to blur and distort. Even
games with extensive HUD set-ups can adjust the experience of gamespace
according to player status. Drinking alcoholic beverages in World of Warcraft affects
both the presentation and navigation of gamespace – get your avatar drunk and
they cannot walk straight, while the screen dissolves into a slowly undulating fuzzy
mass of blur. Gamic architecture can potentially be altered by any aspect or
condition of the player‘s avatar, from their health to their fashion.
In-game amendments to architecture can be effected using data external to the

game. EA Sports plans to sync game environments with real-time weather
conditions by uploading data from the internet Weather Channel and using it to
configure environmental conditions in their games92. Gamic architecture can also be
enhanced by the use of biofeedback or Biocontrolled Unconventional Human
91
Personal communication with Ulf Wilhelmsson. 15 October 2008.
92
Zarda, Brett. “EA Games to Incorporate Real-Time Weather”. Wired.com. 17 August 2007.
http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2007/08/madden. Accessed 15 April 2008.
Computer Interfaces (UHCI), which present the possibility of adapting the game
environment according to how the player reacts to game events. In a study of
gameplay enhancement Andrew Dekker and Eric Champion altered environmental
characteristics using the player‘s biological data93. The speed at which an avatar
traversed the environment was mediated by the player‘s heart rate. Controlled
reactions rendered the environment semi-transparent allowing the player to see
through walls. By incorporating the player‘s physical reactions into gameplay as a
feedback device videogames can manipulate and reconfigure the relationships
between player and architecture. Games can be activated and changed by any
external data, from the semi-involuntary reactions of the player to the vagaries of
their environment, further blurring the line between real and digital space.
Beyond the HUD, gamespace can offer players the ability to access information
about objects and architecture within the actual representation of gamespace.
Information about an object is collated and appended to it as an adjunct. Using the
mouse as a roving tool in EVE Online, separate to the directional movement of the
player‘s agent (rendered as the player‘s spaceship), player‘s can access data about
objects in local space. For every space station in EVE Online a range of information
is readily available, including its name, its affiliation and the range of services it
offers. Information is provided as an assigned quality of gamic architecture. The
player is effectively equipped with two ways of interacting with gamespace, where
the spaceship is used for combat and navigation, while the mouse pointer provides
a long reaching information retrieval tool.
A player may interact with a building using their avatar but they can also interact
with a building at a considerable distance from their avatar using the mouse pointer.
Equally a player can initiate actions that affect gamespace with the HUD. Björk and
Holopainen term this type of multiplicity of interaction points as Focus Loci, or the
locations of the focus94. They note that the game elements through which players
can affect game states include the obvious avatorial representations but also include
mouse cursors. Hacks and cheats can also be viewed as a different kind of Focus
Loci, where the player can act upon gamespace by entering cheat codes and
93
Decker, Andrew and Champion, Eric. "Please Biofeed the Zombies: Enhancing the Gameplay and
Display of a Horror Game Using Biofeedback". Situated Play: Proceeding of the DiGRA 2007
Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 2007, pp.550-558.
94
Björk, Staffan and Holopainen, Jussi. Patterns in Game Design. Hingham, Massachusetts: Charles
River Media, 2005, p.169.
modifying the original program. Players can speed up time and change the weather
upon command in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar 2004) using cheat
codes. A player can then act upon gamespace through a number of different Focus
Loci, including diegetic components of the game world and standard or illicit
computational devices. The embedding of information in architecture and the actions
on architecture at a remove reconstitute and extend the architectural experience,
In real space architecture is not something that is viewed or experienced statically.

Michael Nitsche observes that events take place in both time and space. Nitsche
connects time and architecture, where ―time is connected to the experience of
space, to the effect of the body in space, and how it moves through it‖95. Nitsche
notes that in videogames time can be conceptualised independently from physical
embodiments. In effect time is dissociated from architecture in videogames. As a
result time becomes more malleable, reconstituted as a flexible concept that can be
compressed, extended, disconnected and rejoined. Occurrences that take months
or years to enact in real space are compacted into minutes or hours. Jesper Juul
sees time in games as a relationship between play time, or the time used by the
player to play the game, and event time, the time taken in the play world96. In an
action game event time usually approximates play time but strategy games often
profoundly manipulate the flow of time, where 2 minutes of game times might equal
two years of event time.
Architecture as a process is essentially temporal in nature. Architecture exists and

changes over long periods of time. Videogames can make a spectacle out of the
temporal aspects of architecture, highlighting the building process and architectural
transformations over time. Presenting architectural processes as part of gamespace
emphasises the procedural and developmental aspects of architecture that are often
minimised and ignored in traditional media depictions of architecture. Construction
is a chronological process, which games abstract and condense. In Warcraft III the
buildings erupt from the ground in a flurry of dust; the construction process is
speeded up and the building is erected in under a minute. In strategy games this is a
time of vulnerability, where buildings have not yet acquired the defensive or
95
Nitsche, Michael. "Mapping Time in Video Games". Situated Play: Proceeding of the DiGRA 2007
Conference. Tokyo, 2007, p.147.
96
Juul, Jesper. "Introduction to Game Time". First Person: New Media as Story, Performance and
Game. Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Pat Harrigan (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2004,
pp. 131-142.
offensive capabilities that come with completion. This expeditious construction

occurs out of phase with other slower game events, a peon walking past the building
site operates in a different time stream. Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams mark
this as anomalous time, occurring at different speeds in different parts of the
game97. In other games construction is cordoned off as a separate module of play,
where players can erect and decorate without ludic pressure. In The Sims, the
activity of house design is overture and intermission between episodes of sim play
As a contiguous result to time compression, videogames also alter ratios of

distances. Movement between buildings and within architectural spaces can be
shortened or extended and the temporal process of proceeding through a building
modified. Videogames can further complicate the flow of time, in the process altering
our experiences with architecture in gamespace. Nitsche notes that the ability to
reverse time and return to former events in Prince of Persia allows players to
―interact with a certain game state knowing its immediate future conditions‖. Save
games also allow players to return to earlier events with prior knowledge of
upcoming conditions. Nitsche suggests that spatial continuity places a large role in
allowing players to understand complicated temporal condition, arguing that we
―understand complicated temporal constructions in video games because we
understand their spatial relationships‖98.
As well as depicting architecture as a process of assembly, videogames allow

players to become the architects of this process. The construction process is never
as laborious and time consuming as in real space; in videogames the act of creating
buildings in gamespace is abstracted and simplified. The construction process is
rarely part of goal conditions in videogames. The portrayal of the construction
process is aesthetic rather than operational. For the most part players do not have
to worry about structural integrity, material tolerances, council permission or building
regulations99. But most games do not offer an unrestricted building experience,
instead supplying the player with a set menu of architectural elements, in effect
offering a set of building blocks and decorative appliqués. In The Sims construction
97
98
Nitsche, Michael. "Mapping Time in Video Games". Situated Play: Proceeding of the DiGRA 2007
Conference. Tokyo, 2007, p.149.
99
Though games like Pontifex (Chronic Logic), in which players build and test bridge structures, are
specifically about modelling structural integrity.
is reduced to series of choices about size, shape and stylistic details, from a limited
palette. Ultima Online (Origin Systems 1997) reduces architectural endeavour to a
medieval mix and match approach to housing. This recombinatory architecture is not
about the true process of design and reduces architectural design into playing with
building blocks. Mix and match architecture in videogames is the ultimate pattern
book. Here though, instead of attempts to enforce architectural standards of beauty
and usefulness, it offers a pragmatic approach to player fallibility and a recipe for
technological ease.
A particularly interesting reconstitution of architecture occurs through the procedural

generation of space, where gamespace is created by the computer, according to a
set of algorithms, rather than designed and detailed by an artist. Calvin Ashmore
and Micheal Nitsche note that there are two main approaches to procedural
generation100. One creates open spaces or maps, such as the planets in Spore
(Maxis, 2008). The other sets out constrained spaces on the fly, using random level
generators in games like Diablo 2 (Blizzard Entertainment, 2002) to combine
objects, entities and sections of space into a wide range of different permutations,
which Nitsche notes raises the game‘s replayability101.
Procedurally generating space helps to minimise the cost of content creation and
presents the tantalising possibility of infinite new spaces. Chris Delay from
Introvision has been developing a system that can generate a city with over a million
polygons in couple of minutes (Fig. 13)102. But there are considerable difficulties in
procedurally generating complex spaces, including issues with navigability,
connectivity, environmental believability and more significantly, problems in
managing the active and narrative content of space. As Nitsche notes, creating
100
Ashmore, Calvin and Nitsche, Michael “The Quest in a Generated World”. Situated Play:
Proceedings of the Third International Conference of the Digital Games Research Association. Baba,
Akira (Ed.).Tokyo, 2007, pp.503-510.
101
Nitsche, Michael and Calvin Ashmore, Will Hankinson, Rob Fitzpatrick, John Kelly, and Kurt
Margenau. “Designing Procedural Game Spaces: A Case Study”. Proceedings of FuturePlay. Ontario
2006. http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~nitsche/download/Nitsche_DesigningProcedural_06.pdf.
102
Delay, Chris. It's all in your head, Part 12. Introversion Blog, The Introversion Forums. Last edited
3 January 2009. http://forums.introversion.co.uk/introversion/viewtopic.php?t=1837. Accessed 22
September 2009.
procedural content is relatively easy, but creating meaningful content considerably

more difficult103.
Figure 13
Procedural
generation of a city
by Introvision
In SimCity 3000 (Maxis 1999) it is not the construction of buildings that is significant
but the process of decay. Entire neighbourhoods appear to rust and decompose.
SimCIty 3000 operates as a continual battle against the process of entropy, where
architecture is presented as subject to attrition. Many games make a cult of the
decaying, the decrepit and the dilapidated. The display of temporally induced
processes of decay is the polar opposite to conceptualisations of the shiny modern
dream house displayed in architectural magazines. Most depictions of decay in
videogames are static but some games implement change as a result of player
activity, or mimic the natural results of time passing on architecture. More immediate
depictions of architectural destruction are offered in gamespace as part of gameplay
or as part of the narrative. Some strategy games offer offensive capabilities to
destroy buildings, animating their architectural destruction with fireballs, palls of
smoke and sundered pieces of architecture. Buildings crumble on the screen
leaving no trace of what once stood on that site. Destruction operates both as a play
mechanism and what Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska term as the ―spectacle of
audio-visual effects‖104.
103
Proceedings of the Third International Conference of the Digital Games Research Association. Baba,
Akira (Ed.).Tokyo, 2007, pp.503-510.
104
King, Geoff and Krzywinska, Tanya. Tomb Raiders and Space Invaders: Videogame Forms and
Contexts. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2006. p.152.
Other games represent architecture as a living artefact or as a semi-autonomous

sentient unit. Some buildings are created of living organisms, while other buildings
have their own health status, mimicking organic concepts of wellbeing. In Starcraft
the architecture of the Zerg is alive, pulsating and biological, but the technological
artificial Terran buildings are equally alive in the sense that they are provided with
their own health bar. Other buildings direct their own development, taking over a
degree of control from the player or acting without the player‘s input. In SimCity
3000, buildings materialise on the screen when the player creates favourable
conditions for city development. It is easy to forget the narrative that the well-
serviced city will encourage inhabitants to move in and construct places, and see
the buildings as the actual colonisers. Architecture in gamespace may thus appear
as an organic construct, imitate the characteristics of biological units or act on its
own accord, pretending an intelligence of its own.
Some of these reconstitutions are commonplace; others are rare, yet each points to
the ability of gamespace to embellish the architectural experience. Videogames
establish different ways of seeing architecture and different modes of interaction
with architecture, beyond the visual permutations of buildings constructed without
materiality. Architecture is embellished when videogames go beyond static
representations of architecture. The myriad of ways in which architecture can be
reconstituted are bound only by the designer‘s imagination. More importantly games
have the capacity to reconstitute the ways in which we use and interact with
architecture.
2.5 Reconstituting Architectural Form

Architectural form is spectacularly diverse in videogames. Being free of the material
limitations of real space and dissociated from teachings of architectural theorists
videogames are free to plunder the world‘s treasury of architectural form. Each new
game tries to differentiate itself from its peers by creating new environments, partly
through the style and socio-cultural references of its architecture. Henry Jenkins,
discussing the pleasure gained from viewing spatial spectacle, notes that the sheer
variety of architectural and spatial environments in videogames constitutes a form of
―visual excess‖ and a ―conspicuous consumption of space‖105. In response Mary

Fuller remarks that it seems as if ―not only space but culture is being consumed and
also used up as local cultures from India to Las Vegas shrink into a precession of
ornamental images‖.
Borrowing from architectural history is a popular way of differentiating gamespace.

Rollings and Adams take note of architectural movements as a valuable source of
inspiration for game worlds106. The appropriation of architectural forms from history
can be implemented piecemeal or pervade an entire game or level. Yet the majority
of videogames misremember architectural history, reconstituting architecture as
distorted replicas of historical buildings. In part this is due to gameplay demands,
where staid antique buildings are adapted as playgrounds or invaded by combat.
The demands of gameplay are different to the demands placed on architecture in
real space. But architecture in videogames is also dissociated from the realities of
economic force, material availability, social history and local climate which informed
the shape and character of vernacular architecture in real space. Architecture in
videogames may approximate the vernacular look but is always constructed and
operates in a vastly different manner to the architecture it copies from history. Video
games a form of façadism, where a historical façade fronts a new functional entity.
Adams suggests that where architecture refers to real buildings and architectural
styles in games this is to take advantage of the ideas and emotions associated with
them. He delineates two levels of functionality in ludic architecture, separating out
interpretive functions from functions that dynamically support gameplay.
Interpretative functions provide atmospheric support and connotative allusion, where
architecture is used to ―inform and entertain in its own right‖107. The dominant
secondary role of architecture is to provide an atmosphere or a pervading tone to
gamespace. Ian Bogost notes how videogames frequently recreate major cities from
real space, providing a built-in context to gameplay that helps set player
105
Jenkins, Henry and Fuller, Mary. "Nintendo and New World Travel Writing: A Dialogue". In
Cybersociety: Computer Mediated Communication and Community. Steven G. J. (Ed.), London: Sage
Publications, 1995, p.62.
106
107
September 2005.
expectations108. Architecture helps set a mood or illustrates a context and is a

primary component in the at once celebrated and maligned ‗eye-candy‘ (the visual
spectacle). The game environment is narrative setting, site, scenery and situation.
Adams refers to a number of connotative roles for architecture in gamespace,
wherein architecture can be invested with additional meanings or fulfil a more
affective function, creating atmosphere or a sense of comedy, novelty, surrealism,
mystery or unfamiliarity. Through their illustrative style, associations and symbology
gamespaces affect the feel and tone of a game.
Videogames use familiar and unfamiliar architectural forms to inform the player.
Nikos Salingaros notes that ―the human mind readily recognizes and seeks out
coherent information in our surroundings (the material world). Meaning extracted
from raw information from the built environment helps to tell us whether a place is
healthy and nourishing, or deleterious and dangerous‖109. This is equally true for
videogames where the designer reconstitutes architecture for specific purposes,
setting up deliberate layers of information and meaning. Adams notes ―familiar
locations offer cues to a place‘s function and the events that are likely to occur
there‖110 while unfamiliar spaces reduce the player‘s frame of reference. Like
science fiction novels, where architecture is ―used to further the believability of the
story or to extend the narrative beyond the known into the unfamiliar‖111,
videogames use architectural familiarity and difference to either enlighten or confuse
the reader.
With material dissociation and the reconstitution of function videogames are free to
replicate, exaggerate, embellish and abridge architectural history. Every era is fair
game, historical verisimilitude is optional and accuracy not essential. Architecture
theorist Charles Jencks‘ comment on Ludwig II‘s Bavarian castle is equally
appropriate to the appropriation of architecture in videogames: ―It is a copy of a
108
Bogost, Ian. “Persuasive Games: The Reverence of Resistance”. Gamasutra. 10 September 2007.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1689/persuasive_games_the_reverence_of_.php.
109
Salingaros, Nick and Marsden II, K. "Restructuring 21st-Century Architecture through Human
Intelligence". Archnet-International Journal of Architectural Research. Volume 1, Issue 1, 2007,
p.37.
110
September 2005.
111
McGregor, Georgia. Alien Architecture: The Building/s of Extra-Terrestrial Species – Pre-Twentieth
Century. Honours Thesis: BA Architecture, University of Technology, Sydney, 2004, p.66.
pastiche of a replica of a fantasy which might not even have existed in the first
place‖112. From the sheer average ordinariness of the houses in The Sims to the
impossibly elaborate pseudo-scientific installations of Half-Life videogames are free
to use the idioms of architecture and culture ad hoc. Emancipated from the actuality
of the environment the developers of Call of Duty based their first game on what ―the
team thought Europe was like‖113.
Videogames also borrow heavily from existing media works, plundering the coffers
of film and literature. Mark Rowell Wallin notes how videogame adaptations of Lord
of the Rings make use of both Tolkien‘s literary legacy and Peter Jackson‘s
cinematic interpretation114. Henry Jenkins describes this borrowing of spatial setting
as a form of environmental storytelling115 – where videogames, like those set in the
Star Wars Universe, create an evocative space that builds on our expectations and
memories of an existing narrative. As well as adopting existing narrative franchises,
videogames exploit established genre structures. King and Krzywinska note that
many videogames exploit iconographies from film genres, particularly the visual
motifs of science fiction, horror and fantasy116. Videogames also allude and refer
directly to other games, repeating the conventions of earlier games, in the process
establishing their own iconographies. King and Krzywinska cite the ubiquitous crate
found scattered around spaces in FPS games as an example of a gamic
iconography117. Architectural clichés in videogames include the enigmatic scientific
installation and the medieval village.
Games can produce spectacular architecture – the underwater vistas of Bioshock

(2K Games 2007) – but equally Norman Klein‘s image of buildings as denture
implants, filling in gaps on a downtown street anywhere118 might have been coined
to describe how reconstitution in videogames can produce the most banal and
112
Jencks, Charles. Bizarre Architecture. London: Academy Editions, 1979, p.11.
113
Fordham, Anthony. “Call of Duty 2”. PC PowerPlay, Issue 111, Next Publishing, Sydney, 2005, p.41.
114
Rowell Wallin, Mark. "Myths, Monsters and Markets: Ethos, Identification, and the Video Games
Adaptations of the Lord of the Rings". Game Studies, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2006.
http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/wallin. Accessed 10 September 2007.
115
Performance and Game. Wardrip-Fruin Noah and Harrigan, Pat. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts:
The MIT Press, 2004, pp.123-124.
116
King, Geoff and Krzywinska, Tanya. “Film Studies and Digital Games”. In Understanding Digital
Games. Rutter, Jason and Bryce, Jo (Eds.). 2006, p.119.
117
Ibid, p.119.
118
Klein, Norman N. The Vatican to Vegas: A History of Special Effects. New York: The New Press,
2004, p.296.
cursory architecture. Many buildings in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are boring
caricatures, existing merely to define the streetscape. Browning and others note that
―although rendered in attractive detail, the space between the places where
gameplay activities occur is, for all intents and purposes, empty‖119,120. A huge
variation in architectural merit exists in videogames, just as in real space.
King and Krzywinska have observed that ―the great majority of games draw on some
kind of basic real-world human or socio-cultural context, reproducing some version
of a recognisable world within which gameplay proceeds‖121. Inside gamespace we
can own copies of famous, ancient and modern buildings, perusing them at our
leisure and then returning them to the potentiality of digital memory. Gamespace is a
parallel world that misremembers space as a kind of doll‘s house, a bijou world that
offers an expansive but compact space to play in. Within this diminutive space
tyrannies of distance are rendered impotent, scale is compacted and architecture
made available as an effortless commodity.
2.6 Dissociation & Reconstitution

Gamespace is different to real space. Gamespace is a digital, algorithmic, screen-
mediated environment constructed for play. Gamespace is constructed out of
electron flows, binary information and electrical apparatus. Players are not
physically present in gamespace, which dissociates sensory data from the
environment and selectively reconstitutes sensory constituents. In comparison to
real space gamespace is haptically and phenomenologically sterile. Materiality is
dissociated from architecture. Each physical and material attribute must be coded in.
Gravity does not exist except as a coded attribute. Structural considerations are
inconsequential. Each element of the world is constructed, piece by piece, anew.
Videogames borrow architectural forms from real space but reinvent them with new
functionality as part of gameplay. Gamespace merges affordances from real space
with digital and gamic affordances, combining spatial and technological practices.
Gamespace reframes spatial practices; augmenting viewpoint, adding information
overlays, offering players the ability to act on space through a range of ‗game ego‘
119
Browning, D, et al. "Emplacing Experience". CyberGames 2006: Proceedings of the 2006
International Conference on Game research and Development. Fremantle, WA, 2006, p.97.
120
While true when referring to active gameplay this statement, however, deemphasises the role of
gamespace in creating atmosphere and the sense of journey in a spatial narrative.
121
King, Geoff and Krzywinska, Tanya. “Film Studies and Digital Games”. In Understanding Digital
Games. Rutter, Jason and Bryce, Jo (Eds.). London: Sage Publications, 2006, p.73.
points and creating buildings as living things. Processes that occur over time can be
compressed. Spatial relationships can be altered. Gamespace extends on physical
space.
This chapter introduced the idea of façadism in gamic architecture. Material

dissociation allows gamespace to create architecture as visual façades, as surfaces
with no material substance. Architecture operates as a façade that fronts a range of
concepts and activities, acting as metaphor and synecdoche. Architecture in
gamespace copies historical and vernacular forms but adapts them for play, creating
architectural façades that front a new functional entity. Architecture in gamespace
demonstrates what we can call a ludic-façadism.
Part of the difference between real space and gamespace resides in the medium of
videogames. As Bogost notes technology asserts an expressive power.
Videogames are algorithmically mediated; their production of space is inextricably
tied to the technology that generates them. Hardware influences software and
software influences content. The type of platform and game engine used regulate
the content of videogames, determining what kind of gameplay is possible. Bogost
notes that the use of game engines ―dramatically increases the scope of unit-based
abstraction compared to other forms of cultural production‖122. Game engines
influence the creation process, shaping what interactions are possible between the
player and machine. Technology also asserts an influence at the point of play,
where hardware and different configurations of equipment change how the player
experiences gamespace. Players alter gamespace through mods, cheats and add-
ons. Enabled by dissociation, gamespace is a mutable space.
The dissociation of architectural elements confirms Ian Bogost‘s view of videogames

as unit operations, where discrete interlocking units of meaning work together in a
complex relational network. Bogost notes that game engines as software ―take
advantage of the componentisation of object technology‖123, where programming
uses discrete reusable cooperative units. The dissociation of architectural elements
occurs as a result of their abstraction into discrete object-based components in
software. Their reconstitution as architecture results in larger units of representation,
122
Bogost, Ian. Unit Operations an Approach to Videogame Criticism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The
MIT Press, 2006, p.55.
123
Ibid, p.55.
assigned qualities, player agency and interpretation. The similarities and differences
of gamic architecture to architecture in real space are the result of which units are
combined and the means of their assembly.
Because there is dissociation there is choice. This is made abundantly clear in

Arena, JODI‘s art mod of the classic FPS game Quake124. In Arena visual
backgrounds have been eliminated, only sound and interface remain, leaving player
and enemy fighting somewhere in a blindingly white screen (Fig. 14). Player agency
remains unaffected; the player can still navigate the unseen corridors. The assigned
qualities of its architecture remain equally intact; walls still block movement. Here
representation is stripped back, where even vision can be dissociated from
architecture by the technological mediation of gamespace.
Figure 14
The absence of
visual action in
Jodi‘s Quake
Mod: Arena
Dissociation and reconstitution happens in all aspects of videogames, not just in

space and architecture. The way in which fighting skills are dissociated from the
physical body and reapplied to an avatar is another example of dissociation and
reconstitution. This thesis concentrates on spatial issues but the concept of
dissociation and reconstitution could apply to many aspects of videogames.
124
JODI. Untitled game. 2002. www.untitled-game.org/download.html. Accessed 21 October 2007.
Videogame architecture is based on architecture in real space but the links that bind
together the elements of architecture in real space are dissociated. The causal
relationships that occur in architecture in real space are disrupted through
technological mediation. While advances in technology may change how
videogames represent space, dissociation allows any element of architecture or
space to be reconstituted at will – used or ignored, altered and enhanced. Bogost
notes ―meaning in videogames is constructed not through a re-creation of the world,
but through selectively modelling appropriate elements of that world‖125.
Dissociation is the instrument that allows gamespace to deviate from real space.
Dissociation allows videogames to reconstitute space, to abstract and transform
space. Gamic architecture is literally constructed from pieces of architecture. Acts of
dissociation and reconstitution underlie the construction of gamespace and hence
underlie the relationships between gamespace and gameplay.
125
Chapter 3 Spaces and Objects
Representation & Abstraction in Gamespace
Gamespace is different to real space. In the previous chapter I argued that this
difference occurs as a result of acts of dissociation and reconstitution. James
Newman notes of videogames that it is the “deviations from the patterns of ‟real
space‟ that enables them to function as games”1. Each game portrays space but
must alter it in comparison to real space. Each game makes choices about what to
represent and how to represent. This chapter goes on to look at the process of
reconstituting space as acts of representation, abstraction, simulation and
transformation. This allows us to understand how gamespace is different to real
space by examining some of the underlying processes involved in the creation of
space in videogames.
This chapter examines architectural representation in gamespace, observing that

processes of representation, abstraction, simulation and transformation result in two
very different ways of manifesting architecture in videogames, where buildings are
produced as spaces or objects. By tracking the division between architecture-as-
space and architecture-as-object through two different games this chapter examines
how games construct space according to the demands of gameplay. Each type of
architectural representation is connected to a different form of gameplay. This
chapter begins to connect the form of gamespace with the type of play that takes
place within that space, examining how space functions in hosting play and
exploring how the construction of space is driven by gameplay.
This chapter moves from looking at architecture in gamespace to looking at the

game environment as an architectural construct, extending the discussion on
architecture-as-space and architecture-as-object to identify two major types of
gamespace; experiential and symbolic space. Identifying experiential and symbolic
space and examining how gameplay drives their formation, reveals the
interconnected nature of play and space in videogames. This chapter examines both
the structure and function of gamespace.
1
Newman, James. Videogames. Routledge Introductions to Media and Communications. New York:
Routledge, 2004, p.122.
Spaces & Objects 111
3.1 Representation, Abstraction, Simulation & Transformation

An act of representation depicts things as they are. When something is
representational it presents an image or likeness of something. According to Mark J.
P. Wolf representation seeks to resemble and reproduce something, while to
abstract something is to simplify and reduce it2. The process of abstraction is one of
abbreviation. Jesper Juul defines abstract videogames in relation to representation,
where “an abstract game is a game that does not in its entirety or in its individual
pieces represent something else”3, citing Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov 1985) as a classic
example of abstraction. To be abstract then is to be free of representational
elements. But Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman contend that all games are
simulations, where “a simulation is a procedural representation of aspects of
reality”4. They point out that by this definition even apparently abstract videogames
can be seen as simulations of real space, where Tetris is a simulation of the forces
of gravity. Videogames then always represent something. Mark J. P. Wolf notes that
despite technological limitation “even the earliest games claimed to represent
something, from space battles to ping-pong games”5.
Games always represent something, but many games offer spaces that are not
considered representational. A videogame environment is commonly considered as
abstract when it does not produce a visual likeness of our physical world, keeping in
mind that each user may define these things in different ways. We recognise the
space that surrounds us in the physical world as architecture and landscape. We are
familiar with the regions of space beyond the earth‟s atmosphere, the outer-
spacescapes of the moon, black holes and nebulae that form another type of natural
scenery or landscape. In short we have expectations of what real space looks like.
When we recognise architecture or landscape in gamespace it becomes a
representational environment.
2
Wolf. Mark J. P. “Abstraction in the Video Game”. In The Video Game Theory Reader. Perron, B.
and Wolf, M. (Eds.). New York; London: Routledge, 2003, p.48.
3
Juul, Jesper. Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. Cambridge,
4
Salen, Katie and Zimmerman, Eric. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge,
5
Wolf, Mark J. P. “Abstraction in the Video Game”. In The Video Game Theory Reader. Perron, B.
Games like Tetris (Alexey Pazhitnov 1985) and Bejewelled (PopCap Games 2001),
though still dealing with Cartesian axis and representing a form of space, have no
tangible sense of a representational environment (Fig. 1). In them we can recognise
lines, surfaces and solid planes but not buildings. These games are an abstraction
of space in which spatial referents are reduced to basic geometric associations.
Computer text adventures and multi-user domains (MUD‟s) by the same means are
abstractions of space rendered in writing. Though they refer to spatial constructs
based on real space, the worlds they present are filtered through an abstract system
of symbols. Their worlds are constructed of words.
Figure 1
The abstract
spaces of Tetris
and Bejewelled
Other games like Pac-Man (Namco 1979) seem to lie in an uneasy state between
the abstract and the representational (Fig. 2). The maze is a pattern that we find
replicated in landscape and architecture, yet Pac-Man‘s environment consists of no
more than lines on a dark screen, a two-dimensional concept of maze without
reference to materiality or depth, that looks more like an electrical circuit diagram
than architecture. It uses some of the language of architectural drawing (the
graphical language of architectural design), creating its maze by the use of parallel
walls in plan, without ever quite materialising into an environment that we could
identify with. The ability to navigate Pac-Man’s maze becomes an essential part of
reading it as a locality, moving around the maze converts the abstract plan into a
more tangible space. The abstracted space of Pac-Man is appropriate housing for
an inhabitant comprised of a circle with a pie-piece mouth.
Figure 2
The abstract space of

Pac-Man is contextualised
as representational
through the inhabitation
of the maze by the
ghosts and Pac-man
Unlike Pac-Man‟s rudimentary proto-environment Warren Robinett‟s early console

game Adventure (Atari 1978) presents a more representational space (Fig. 3). The
castle in the starting screen is instantly recognisable despite being constructed from
the most rudimentary blocks of colour. Each half of the screen contains only
rectangular forms and is a mirror image of the other due to the technical limitations
of the Atari 2600 console. The castle relies heavily on stereotypic features for its
recognition, adopting a portcullis and crenellations across the towers. Rather than
the single navigable screen upon which Pac-Man played out, Adventure plays on a
series of single screens. The border to the screen reads as a courtyard6 surrounding
the castle and doors become portals that lead off into new screen spaces.
Figure 3
The castle from

Adventure and the
maze from
Adventure
Much of the rest of Adventure, as in Pac-Man, takes place in a minimalist maze.

Unlike the castle façade, which is presented in elevation, the courtyard and the
maze read in plan. Given context by the more representational castle the courtyard
6
The area surrounding a castle within its outer walls is more correctly called a ward or a bailey.
walls and maze translate as an extension of structure, the player reads solidity and
atmosphere into the abstract lines only as a result of their proximity to the castle.
The walls of the maze follow on from the walls of the castle courtyard while the open
space of the plaza bleeds into the corridors of the adjacent screens. The further you
are from the castle the more the maze appears as abstract space. The castle is
crude and two-dimensional, but identifies with its real world antecedent. While
heavily abstracted, Adventure does contain a recognisable environment. Where
Pac-Man used some of the language of architectural transcription to create an
elementary space, combining parallel and perpendicular walls in plan, Adventure
uses that language to create buildings, transcribing an iconic and easily recognised
form of architecture into gamespace.
Figure 4
A representational
castle in The Elder
Scrolls: Morrowind
In contrast to Adventure and Pac-Man a more representational approach to

architecture is presented in The Elder Scrolls Morrowind (Bethseda Softworks
2002). Morrowind’s castle is a three-dimensional construct with an elaborate interior
to match its outward show of architectural solidity (Fig. 4). Like Adventure it relies on
a series of formulaic castle elements, such as flanking towers, crenellations and
embrasures, to identify its building type. The building looks like an authentic castle.
The game imitates the structural and textural quality of real architecture. Walls look
like they are made from stone blocks and squat towers sit convincingly on the earth.
Both the castle and its surrounds replicate attributes we expect to find in real space.
Presenting a detailed rendition of architecture and landscape Morrowind is clearly

representational.
Yet as a spatial simulation every videogame is in some manner an abstraction,

where to abstract is to abridge, extract and summarise elements of real space.
Salen and Zimmerman point out that all simulations are necessarily simplifications of
reality, with a limited representation of detail7. Through dissociation and
reconstitution videogames abstract units of architecture; the very act of producing
gamespace is an abstraction of real space. The castle from Morrowind may be more
realistic than the castle from Adventure but it is still an abridged architecture,
abstracting material and sensory qualities. The player cannot remove stone blocks
from the castle and reuse them to build a farmhouse; neither can the player scale
the walls using the simulated cracks between the stones. Wolf notes videogames
can be “abstract in both appearance and behaviour”8. Abstraction occurs not only in
the visual mimesis of architecture but must also occur in its assigned qualities and
within the realm of player agency.
Representation and abstraction are not mutually exclusive. Representation is not the
same as realism, which aims for fidelity in representation. Realism in gamespace
describes a type of representation with a close visual and operational resemblance
to real space9. Even the most realistic games in the current market must abstract
much of what architecture is in real space. Each representational gamespace
negotiates a compromise between realism and abstraction. Ernest Adams notes that
“games, whether computerised or not, may be thought of as lying along a continuum
between abstract and representational”10. On one end of the scale a game would
create spaces that are entirely abstract, a purely conceptual space. On the other
end of the scale a game would simulate the appearance and characteristics of our
world in a way that would replicate our experiences in and experiences of real space
exactly. The environments of most games exist in a grey area between the two
7
Salen, Katie. and Zimmerman, Eric. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge,
Massachusetts, The MIT Press, 2004, p.439.
8
Wolf, Mark J. P. “Abstraction in the Video Game”. In The Video Game Theory Reader. Perron, B.
9
In reviews on videogames a game is most commonly said to be realistic where the graphics quality
approaches that of film and where player agency enables similar values to real space.
10
September 2005.
poles, simultaneously abstracting some elements of architecture and replicating

others as faithfully as technology will allow. Jesper Juul notes there is no hard
distinction between games that project fictional worlds and abstract games11. Rather
than a definitive separation of realistic and abstract spaces, we can understand
videogames as operating on a sliding scale that moves from the figurative to the
literal.
Because space and architecture is not a static construct, abstraction also occurs in
the procedural aspects of gamespace. Salen and Zimmerman refer to simulation as
being based on reality and built out of procedural representations (where a
procedural representation is a process driven by rules of execution, something
computers are conspicuously good at)12. Simulation is the act of representing
actions, events and connections. Gonzalo Frasca refines a computational definition
of simulation into something workable for ludological studies. “To simulate is to
model a (source) system through a different system which maintains (for somebody)
some of the behaviours of the original system”13. A simulation then represents both
the system and its behaviour. Games like The Sims and SimCity3000 are called
simulations because they model systems. Simulations need not be representational
in their graphics; mathematical models are simulations. Building on both Frasca and
Salen and Zimmerman‟s model, simulation can be seen as a special form of
representation that represents systems through procedural acts.
Salen and Zimmerman‟s definition of simulation as a procedural representation of

aspects of reality is all-encompassing. According to their definition every gamespace
is a simulation because every videogame is procedural, as Janet Murray noted14.
Every gamespace has links to real space through its connection to embodied spatial
practices. For Salen and Zimmerman Tetris is a simulation of the forces of gravity,
albeit an simplifies and somewhat inaccurate simulation15. But applying Frasca‟s
stricter definition of simulation Tetris is no longer a simulation of the forces of
11
Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005, pp.130-133.
12
13
Frasca, Gonzalo. “Simulation versus Narrative”. In The Video Game Theory Reader. Perron, B. and
Wolf, M. (Eds.). New York; London: Routledge, 2003, p.223.
14
Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1997, pp.71-74.
15
gravity, which occurs as an attraction of mass, simply because Tetris does not
model gravity as part of a system. Rather Tetris represents the effects of gravity as
falling blocks, an image that owes as much to conventions of page navigation (i.e.
from top to bottom) as it does to the phenomenon of gravity. Adopting Frasca‟s
definition allows us to distinguish between videogames that mimic the results of a
system and those that model the underlying relationships between things.
Fares Kayali and Peter Purgathofer adapt Scott McCloud‟s taxonomy of comic
styles16 for videogames. Instead of a duality between representation and abstraction
they construct videogames as real, abstracted and transformed17. Abstraction
simplifies whereas transformation alters the original, retaining theme, meaning or
function but little else. Transformation and abstraction can occur in many aspects of
videogames, from graphic presentation to gameplay. Kayali and Purgathofer note
that Pong (Atari 1972) almost completely transforms the original control system of
bat on ball to turning a knob18. Spatial transformations include the alteration of
physics to allow gravity-defying stunts and the collapsing of time. Videogames can
retain a visual fidelity with architecture in real space, but transform architectural
functionality and materiality. Architectural transformations mentioned by Kayali and
Purgathofer include the rounding off of all wall and ground intersections in Skate (EA
Black Box 2007) and the substantial increase in the amount of ramps, rails and
other features on the mountain in SSX 3 (EA Canada 2003).
Where Janet Murray posits transformation as an experiential quality (the pleasure of

becoming someone else, going somewhere different and of acting differently to
normal life)19 Kayali and Purgathofer‟s use of transformation refers to a remapping
of characteristics. The act of producing gamespace is also a transformation. The
last chapter noted how gamespace is different to real space, how it dissociates
sensory data and materiality, how it is haptically sterile, how it reinvents and
augments architectural and spatial practices. Videogames reconstitute real space as
gamespace and transform spatial practices from real space into digital, gamic
16
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: A Kitchen Sink book for Harper
Perennial, 1994
17
Kayali, Fares and Purgathofer, Peter. "Two Halves of Play: Simulation versus Abstraction and
Transformation in Sports Videogames Design". Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture.
Volume 2. No. 1, 2008, pp.105-127.
18
Ibid, p.123.
19
Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1997, Chapter 6.
practices. Other transformations occur through the mutable nature of gamespace,

where technological glitches transform alter the intended space.
There is no clear division between abstract and representational games. There are
games that are commonly recognised as abstract, games like Tetris and Lumines (Q
Entertainment 2004) but the majority of videogames are spatially representational in
some manner. Yet representation does not necessarily strive for realism. The
buildings of World of Warcraft are both representational and cartoonish caricatures
of architecture in real space. Game developers will always need to make choices
about what aspects of space and architecture to represent, where each choice has
implications for gameplay. Why choose to imitate the molecular strength of a
building material if gameplay forces the player to run past the building at speed?
Videogames can be seen as a negotiation not only between representation and
abstraction, but also between simulation and transformation. Videogames can
reconstitute real space as simplified or abstract, create an accurate mimesis or
simulation of real space, and through dissociation transform or alter the qualities of
real space.
Simply by containing architecture, as a likeness or image of a tangible thing, a game

becomes more than abstract, though it may still abstract elements of that
architecture. By recognising architecture or landscape in gamespace we
acknowledge that it represents our world. An architectural study of gamespace is
potentially more beneficial in analysing representational games, games that
represent the world in more than abstract terms. But each game produces that
representation differently, investing gamespace with varying levels of
representation, simulation, transformation and abstraction. Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf
Fortress (Tarn Adams 2006) represents a massive and complex world using only
ASCII characters20 but is unequivocally a representation based on our world that
involves a very deep simulation of environmental characteristics rarely implemented
in other games, including active weather systems and fluid dynamics (Fig. 5).
20
ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
Figure 5
Rendering of
landscape in ASCII
characters in
Dwarf Fortress
Representational gamespaces are concerned with a tangible representation of

physical space or lived in space. They refer to our world. Game world is a term that
is frequently used in descriptions of videogames to reference the spatial
environment and its contents. Using world rather than space or environment as a
descriptor suggests a world that is representational, implies a state of complexity
and a certain amount of autonomy or self-containment. Gamespaces often have
worldhood, the quality or condition of being a world. Game-world as a figure of
speech is used by Aarseth as one of the three components to games in virtual
environments, where it refers to both fictional contents and spatial construction21. In
its general assumed usage, game world refers to the sum total of simulated
environment, back-story and enforced cultural attributes. Game world can thus refer
to character costumes, an illusionary history and the topographic space.
Lisbeth Klastrup analyses world within the context of virtual worlds but her
breakdown of world is also useful in analysing gamespace. Four of Klastrup‟s
concepts are relevant here; one remains pertinent only to the notion of virtual
worlds. Klastrup notes that the world functions as an interpretive framework or a
“fictional universe that we take as a reference point for the understanding of our
actions within the world”22. The world is a representation or prop, where props are
objects that we perform or pretend with. The world is a simulation of space or an
imitation of our physical world, noting that each world has their own set of
conceptual laws and physics. Finally Klastrup explores the world as a gamic
21
22
Klastrup, Lisbeth. "A Poetics of Virtual Worlds". Melbourne DAC: The Fifth International Digital Arts
and Culture Conference. RMIT, Melbourne, 2003, p.102.
construct, functioning under a suite of rules and goals. Klastrup‟s construction of

world takes in notions of virtual space as complex, interpretable, fictional zones, and
as digital constructs that are representative of physical space.
A representational environment depicts tangible things, creating an image or

likeness of reality. To qualify as representational gamespace must represent the
material universe or any specified part of that universe, from celestial bodies to the
Earth and its identifiable corporeal subsets. Gamespace must then refer to,
represent or simulate the physical universe in a recognisable manner. While an
abstract game may refer to the underlying rules that generate our world (what we
could call the metalanguage of physics) a representational gamespace generates a
simulation of the world that we live in or an extrapolation of it. As Salen and
Zimmerman note “we know something is a simulation, in part, because we are
familiar with the thing that it is simulating”23.
A representational gamespace uses the language of the physical environment to

create its space. The castle in Adventure is crude but instantly recognisable, as are
the wire-frame mountains in Battlezone (Fig. 6). Architecture and landscape can
also be recognised in games through their elements or components. Placing a
representation of a tree onto a green background contextualises an abstract plane
into a field of grass. Games like Morrowind convincingly create architecture through
the visual and applied qualities, such as form, texture and impenetrability. Even the
abstract spaces of games like Pac-Man mimic patterns in real space, echoing the
grid of Manhattan and the maze in the gardens of Hampton Court.
23
Figure 6
Wireframe
mountains in
Battlezone
Recognition of a representational environment is dependent on user identification,

with no sharp division between the abstract and the representational. Space in Pong
is heavily abstracted, while another ping-pong simulator, Table Tennis (Rockstar
Games 2006), is clearly representational (Fig. 7). Yet Pong is partly contextualised
as a table-tennis style game by the rebound of the ball, through its crude simulation
of service and return. Procedural processes play a part in identifying gamespace.
Table Tennis drives realism further not only by recreating the table surface and
courtside context but by accurately simulating the interactions of racket, ball and
table surface.
Figure 7
A wide discrepancy
in representation in
two different table
tennis simulators,
Pong and Table-
Tennis
Another way of recognising representational space is to recognise the potential for

dwelling in that space, the possibility of habitation. A representational space is in
some manner habitable or recognisable as a habitat, where we can extrapolate
inhabitation by a human or by some being or body or robot or anthropomorphised
thing. For Heidegger architecture is deeply entwined with the notion of dwelling in
space, where to build is to dwell24. Notions of habitation and habitability refer to a
sense of dwelling or being in space. Flynn argues that we experience gamespaces
according to how we habitually experience space in real space; where “the players
lived in bodily experience as well as the player‟s subjective viewpoint”25 merge in
gameplay. To see gamespace as habitable infers gamespace as a space in which
the player‟s „game ego‟ or beings outside the player‟s control (as other players or as
non-player characters) might inhabit.
In contrast we comprehend abstract spaces as uninhabitable. Tetris space is

inimical to life; it reads as mathematical and geometric, in part because the pieces
that move in it are inanimate. Gamespace is partially contextualised as
representational by its inhabitants or by our ability to imagine habitation within it.
Pac-Man may be lacking in its depiction of a representational environment but the
inhabitation of the maze by Pac-Man and the ghosts transforms its space into
something we can imagine being within. A representational space is something we
can imagine inhabiting bodily or being inhabited. Abstract spaces can be
contextualised as representational by inhabitation. Rez (United Game Artists 2001)
simulates a purely abstract space, namely the interior of a computer network but the
game is spatially contextualised by the avatar, clearly recognisable as a human
body despite being comprised of stacked squares (Fig. 8). A version of Tetris that
changed its inanimate bricks to living organisms would transfigure spatial
manipulation into navigation. Gameplay would not be altered but our interpretation
of its space would.
24
Heidegger, Martin. “Building, Dwelling, Thinking”. In Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in
Architectural Theory. Leach, Neil (Ed.). London: Routledge, 1997, pp.100-109.
25
Figure 8
The body
recontextualises
the abstract space
of Rez as
representational
through inhabitation
Inhabitation is yoked to ideas of navigation and player agency. Videogames are not
only spaces but actions. Galloway describes two modes of action that the player can
perform, “move acts” and “expressive acts”26. Actions have a significant role in
defining spatiality. Expressive acts embedded in the environment allow the player to
interact with gamespace. Expressive acts can also occur as non-spatial acts, for
example initiating conversations with game characters. Move acts, however, are
expressly concerned with spatial operations. Through control of the „game ego‟ and
the virtual camera, move acts allow the player to travel and traverse space.
Navigation is integral to the notion of being in or inhabiting space, to move through
space is to occupy and negotiate space. Without the ability to navigate or act upon
gamespace the environment remains static. Building on Gibson‟s understanding of
environment as inseparable from the organisms that live in it 27, we can infer
gamespace as inseparably linked to the game ego that navigates and acts upon it.
Without the ability to act upon space, without player agency, we no longer have
gamespace. By investing player agency in space all videogames simulate, in
varying degrees, our ability to interact with space.
26
27
Gibson, James J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979,
p.8.
The act of navigation is primarily a spatial act. A game like Neopets (Neopets Inc
1999), a virtual pet website, sets navigation as a non-spatial act. Neopets contains
a representational space but hosts this environment within a web page or browser
format, so that activities and areas are accessed through hyperlinks rather than
spatially navigated (Fig. 9). The world of Neopia is fractured into a jumble of
disconnected spaces. The world map can be rotated but the only „game ego‟ point
with which the player can interact with the world is the mouse cursor. The screen in
which you view your character is non-navigable. The customisable homes can be
furnished but not lived in. A plethora of mini-games, each encased in their own
window, operate as separate navigable spaces. Neopet’s spatiality is incoherent.
Figure 9
Home page and

world map from
Neopets
Lev Manovich notes that two types of computer programming logic transcode media
into computer data, as data structures (databases) or as algorithms28. Neopets
operates as a database, which Manovich describes as a collection of individual
items on which the user is able to perform a variety of operations29. He notes that
computer games are not experienced as databases but as narratives in which the
28
p.45, pp.222-223.
29
Ibid, pp.218-219.
player must learn to understand the underlying logic or the game‟s algorithms to
progress. Manovich argues that data structures and algorithms work in an inverse
relationship where the complexity of one results in an increased simplicity of the
other30. Neopets overriding organisation is more database, less algorithm, despite
the more algorithmic mini-games. The navigationally fragmented and database-
linked Neopets is more concerned with negotiation of data than navigation of
spaces.
A representational gamespace is a navigable and inhabitable construct that

represents a recognisable physical universe. We identify gamespace as
representational by recognising elements of our world within it or by understanding it
as inhabitable. Abstract games are in contrast uninhabitable or uninhabited spaces
that do not depict a recognisable environment. Abstract gamespaces include
geometry puzzles and to an extent text-based MUDs (which are visually abstract but
operate as navigable interactive spaces). By dissociating spatial and architectural
elements into discrete units, videogames can reconstitute each element and
attribute of space and architecture in a variety of ways. Dissociation and
reconstitution are the processes that allow videogames to selectively represent,
simulate and abstract space, transforming the qualities of real space.
Videogames are always a representation of space in that they depict a set of spatial
dimensions. All videogames abstract space in some manner, even when they are
aiming for realism; the technology dictates this. Videogames are always a simulation
of space in that they offer player agency in space and hence simulate our physical
ability to interact with space. Videogames may or may not simulate other aspects of
space but they are always limited in the complexity of what they choose to simulate.
Finally videogames have the ability to transform qualities of real space, to
manipulate and distort the ways in which we interact with space. The very act of
producing gamespace on the screen is a transformation of the way in which we
encounter space. Gamespace thus operates as a blend of representation,
simulation, abstraction and transformation.
30
p.45, pp.222-223.
3.2 Spaces & Objects

While abstract and representational games represent a major divide in the
representation of space it is possible to identify a further significant division in
representational gamespaces. Looking at videogames with an architectural eye
reveals a curious division in how they portray architecture. Some videogame
buildings we can enter, walk through and interact with in ways that approximate their
physical usage in real space. Other buildings are enigmatic objects that sit on the
landscape like hotels on a Monopoly board, objects that remain inaccessible, taking
on the form of architecture but not the practice. In one game you can occupy the
architecture and its simulation of space, in another the buildings are constructed so
that you can never enter or engage with them spatially. This architectural
differentiation occurs across different genres, appears in different forms of spatial
geometry and occurs throughout the history of videogames.
We can follow this architectural clue, investigating its manifestation in two

representational games that clearly illustrate the divergent approaches. World of
Warcraft and Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 (BFME II) are games that
share a number of commonalities yet epitomise this fundamental divide in the way
videogames represent and use architecture and hence space. Both games share a
common basis in fantasy, one inspired by the Tolkien universe, the other set in the
world of Azeroth that features in the Warcraft series of games. Both feature fighting
as their core activity and contain staple elements of the fantasy genre including orcs,
dragons, elves and dwarves.
Figure 10
The transitable
space of
Ironforge City in
World of Warcraft
Figure 11
An un-enterable
Dwarven fortress in
Lord of the Rings:
Battle for Middle
Earth 2
World of Warcraft and BFME II depict their fantasy world in three-dimensional detail,
rendering environments from snowy mountains to sea shores, from ruins to fortified
citadels. BFME II is a strategy game, World of Warcraft a massive multiplayer online
role-playing game (MMORPG), yet both games are remarkably similar in their visual
representation of architecture. There are similarities to their architectural styles with
both games using an archaic architecture that the modern world has left behind; an
architecture of castles, fortresses, medieval villages and walled cities. Other
similarities occur in the architectural details and forms favoured by particular races,
so that in both games dwarves prefer the same heavy stone architecture incised
with geometric patterns. Despite these similarities the two games depict architecture
in very different ways. Contrast the dwarf built city of Ironforge in World of Warcraft
with the dwarven fortress in BFME II (Fig 10 & 11). In the former architecture is a
vivid transitable space, a three-dimensional construct whose volume we can enter
into, inscribe trajectories across and explore. In the latter architecture is produced
and built as an object, a solid entity that we cannot enter, cannot explore and cannot
transit through.
World of Warcraft privileges architecture as a spatial experience. Concerned with

the ability to move through space it constructs architecture as a series of solids and
voids. Players move through the building, alternately channelled and impeded by its
perceptible openness and solidity. Positioned within the architecture we use the
buildings as we would in real life. The architecture encompasses us, organising our
activities into discrete zones. In Ironforge I go to the bank to deposit items for
safekeeping, the auction house to trade and the inn to buy food. The architecture
has what architects call “program”, so that Ironforge can be divided into circulation
space and activity space, mimicking the ways in which we use architecture as
containers for specific activity in real space. This is space that works on a personal
level, an intimate experience, where we guide our avatar through the intricacies of
the game world looking through its eyes.
Conversely BFME II is not concerned with architectural spatiality. Though the

buildings are three-dimensional you cannot enter them31. You can view a building
from any angle but not from within. The buildings have no interior, only exterior; their
façade is a deceptive front. BFME II abstracts its simulation of space to exclude
interior space. Architecture is created as an object, more akin to a monument or
statue than a functional building. The architecture of BFME II does not function as a
space but contains a symbolic association with the functions and activities that
architecture houses in real space. A barracks building becomes not a place to house
soldiers but an object that creates soldiers. A marketplace is not a space to sell
goods but creates the economic effects that are associated with trade. These are
objects that have all the appearance of architecture but none of its associated
31
While World of Warcraft also contains houses that you cannot enter it does contain many you can
enter, unlike BFME II where all the buildings are un-enterable.
habitable function. The architecture of BFME II operates as a spatial metaphor that

contains and locates concepts in gamespace. Despite BFME II clearly presenting
buildings as objects with no interior space, the game moves beyond a static view of
architecture, where architecture acts as a symbol for the many activities and
interactions that take place within it. In essence architecture is a symbol of itself,
representing the web of allied effects that architecture has in real space, here made
concrete and attainable.
The representation of architecture as either space or symbol is further clarified by

the way in which the architecture of World of Warcraft is reticent in simulating
materiality beyond appearance. There is no inherent difference between a castle
and a cottage, be it simulated wood or simulated stone. Beyond allowing or denying
us movement, the architecture has no affect upon us. In essence the building is only
comprised of appearance and space, an inert pixelated building that harks back to
the eighteenth century concept of architecture as volume and void32 (or solid and
void), where space is contained within contra-indicated volumes. BFME II in contrast
takes on an abstracted materiality; each building has its own “health” and can
withstand a certain amount of punishment before it is razed to the ground in a cloud
of dust. A dwarven fortress can be made stronger with the addition of dwarven
stonework and gain offensive capabilities with the addition of an axe tower. BFME II
offers a conceptual view of strength that echoes the defensive capacity that
buildings materials afford in real space, without simulating the actual physical
properties of building materials. Similarly a dwarven mine in BFME II operates as an
object that symbolises the productive capacity of a mine. BFME II transforms
architecture into an emblem of itself.
The architecture in World of Warcraft highlights the spatial organisational

characteristics of architecture, while the architecture in BFME II emphasises the
productive/defensive capacity of architecture in real space. World of Warcraft has
containers, BFME II coded objects. World of Warcraft contains experiential
architecture, BFME II symbolic architecture. But each game equally constructs its
landscape as symbolic or experiential. BFME II‟s buildings are situated within a
larger landscape across which the player‟s armies rampage. But that space is
32
Terms that Adrian Forty notes were used by architects before the word space was picked up by
architects after the 1890’s (Forty, Adrian. Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern
Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000, p.256).
flattened and compressed. We look down on a world in which the only good terrain
for an army is a level terrain. Hills and rivers operate as walls, creating no-go zones
and dividing the map into distinct and sharply separated areas of access and denial.
A river can only be crossed at a ford (Fig. 12). A landscape which appears as a
gentler gradient is as inaccessible as the steeper terrain next to it. Landscape
features appear as rivers and as mountains yet do not function as such spatially,
instead they operate as a visual code for inaccessible terrain. Like the buildings of
BFME II, which operated as a symbol representing the allied effects of architecture
in real space, the mountains and rivers operate as symbols for the impenetrable
nature of topographical boundaries in warfare. The environment looks like natural
landscape but plays as a map.
Figure 12
Unnavigable zones
in the landscape -
Lord of the Rings:
Battle for Middle
Earth 2
The land is a maze or an arena, snow covered or grassy green, barren wasteland or
seaside port, yet it always appears as a blank slate waiting for armies to write their
stories of destruction upon it. But even the chaos of war leaves the land untouched,
destroyed buildings collapse amidst clouds of dust into piles of rubble that are
smoothly absorbed back into the land leaving it once again bare and clean. The
exploitation of the land by resource gathering buildings reinforces this passivity. For
efficient production one only needs clear ground on which to place a resource-
producing structure, a simple matter of available space. The gathering itself is a
function of the building, which also provides access to information about the
process. The land is inert and submissive in comparison to the player-controlled

architecture.
The landscape of BFME II is a disputed space, where you race against your
opponent to utilise the resources and protect your investments. A space to be
conquered consumed and controlled. Landforms function as barriers and obstacles,
allowing or denying access. A map where topology creates a limited number of
approaches to a player‟s stronghold plays differently to an open map where enemies
can appear from any angle. The map is the territory where campaigns are fought on
limited sections of world surrounded by impenetrable blackness. The lands of BFME
II are comparable to the map that Jorge Luis Borges proposed in On Exactitude in
Science, a map that physically covered the entire territory that it purported to
represent on a one to one scale33. The landscape of BFME II functions as a map in
its appropriation of symbolic rather than experiential function. The space is
somehow planar, a monopoly board world that might be viewed more as a three-
dimensional map, a spiritual descendant of the papier-mâché territories across
which legions of tin soldiers fought. Like those models and like war-gaming boards
BFME II’s space is essentially symbolic, despite its detailed visual realism.
In World of Warcraft the landscape operates in a similar fashion to the architecture,

presenting an immersive spatial experience. Players weave and manoeuvre their
way around trees, across hills, dales, dunes and dells, through streams and lakes
into underwater terrains, down into caves and up mountain ranges. Ocean
surrounds the continents; only avatar fatigue prevents the player from swimming
endlessly into the sea, delineating a border to the game world in which death occurs
before a player can reach the edge. Unlike BFME II all terrain in World of Warcraft is
enterable. Usability of terrain is expressed to the player as a simulation of physical
properties, such as steepness of the land where players slip downwards as if forced
by gravity. Rather than inaccessible mountains World of Warcraft has slippery
mountains that still form part of the playing field even if they act as impenetrable
barriers. Players will jump off un-traversable cliffs for shortcuts and for fun, while
other players devote hours to mapping out paths afforded by the junctions of
geometry within supposedly impassable terrains.
33
Borges, Jorge Luis and Casares, Adolfo Bioy. On Exactitude in Science. English translation quoted
from A Universal History of Infamy, J. L. Borges, Penguin Books, London, 1975.
http://www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/bu/people/bs/borges.html. Accessed 8 June 2006.
Landscape in World of Warcraft functions like its architecture; acting as a container

for different types of activity. Each zone is divided up into named areas, each with
their own inhabitants and distinct appearance (Fig. 13). The mountains and
landforms are walls, the named areas rooms and the paths circulation space.
Contained within each room are thematically grouped sets of opponents or allies.
The landscape collates quests within each zone and houses them in well-defined
areas. The same structure is repeated on a macro-level in the zones and continents
of World of Warcraft. Each zone is endowed with and distinguished by its own
character, habitat and assigned level of difficulty. Each zone has limited entrances,
forcing players into circulation patterns. These passageways in combination with
flight paths form an elaborate interconnecting system within a continent that the
player slowly learns to negotiate. If the areas within a zone were rooms, each zone
would be a house and the continent a suburb.
Figure 13
Thematic zones in
the province of Dun
Morogh within
World of Warcraft
BFME II produces architecture as an object and landscape as a map. World of

Warcraft produces architecture and landscape as an immersive space. Both games
adopt their approach as a consequence of their differing modes of gameplay.
BFME II is a real time strategy game where gameplay consists of combat on a

collective scale, creating and defending a base, attacking the opponents. In BFME II
the architecture is a vital part of the gameplay, forming part of the player‟s army, as
necessary a part of the militia as any soldier or hero. Architecture functions as an
object in a symbolic role, becoming an emblem of a complex range of
interconnected effects that in some way tangibly relate to architecture in real life.
Architecture acts as a simplifier that reduces these effects to a comprehensible and
localised icon. A limited spatiality supports this simplification and allows the player to
focus on the gameplay. To participate spatially with the building on a personal level
would nullify this simplification. The architecture also functions as a shortcut
compressing the years of birthing, training and equipping that goes into the making
of every soldier. Thus BFME II packs complex interactions into a convenient
package that builds on an association of place with the activities that happen there.
Player interaction with the landscape in BFME II is simplified into go or no go zones,

reducing complexity. The landscape then looks detailed but plays simply. The player
quickly learns to understand the game landscape as an edited interpretation of
terrain and to ignore superfluous detail on a tactical level. The mini-map facilitates
this by showing only the gross landforms and landmarks. The abridged landscape
focuses army interaction and reduces the opportunity to use landforms to a
manageable and simplified level. The planar landscape reminds us that this is a
map to be fought over, that the strategy of war is more important than the
individual‟s relationship to space. Salen and Zimmerman note that war-games need
to represent and simplify geography in ways that are meaningful to players and
relate to the end use of the map34. The landscape functions as an object to be
conquered and used, not a space to be experienced.
Figure 14
External viewpoint of
battle scene in Battle
for Middle Earth 2
34
BFME II depends on a macro-view point. Players can zoom in to see their soldiers
and heroes carrying out their orders and fighting opponents but cannot fight the war
on that level. BFME II requires you to build and organise armies as an overseer, not
as a direct participant. A high wide viewpoint is a necessity, allowing supervision
and management of a large number of operatives (Fig. 14). The camera can be
moved by the player to concentrate on relevant sections of the map, easily switching
from conflict hot spots to managing base operations. The player is above the
landscape and external to the space in which the action is happening, watching and
directing the action. Buildings are objects from this height. Gameplay focuses on
decision making: should I put my resources into making more elven archers or
should I upgrade my defences? The codified space and the external viewpoint
support this tactical gameplay, reducing distraction and allowing a meta-view of
manoeuvres.
World of Warcraft is a MMORPG; the main objective of gameplay is to develop a

character‟s equipment and skills, through combat, crafting and trade. Players fight
monsters, collect loot and gain experience. Sometimes they fight other players and
gain experience. They sell loot, craft loot and find loot. They go on quests and gain
experience. As they gain experience they move up levels, from 1 to 6035. Each level
of experience opens up new possibilities, new skills and enables the player to tackle
more difficult enemies. Levelling allows players to enter areas that were previously
too dangerous to travel in. Higher levels can fight in more difficult dungeons and find
better loot. The reward of new terrain lures the player on36. The quests may be alike
and the combatants similar, but the disproportionate variety of World of Warcraft’s
landscapes confers an intricacy and richness to gameplay.
The environment adds complexity, providing a subtext of way-finding and

exploration. Architecture and landscape act as a structural system in which spatial
complexity can be understood (where architecture hosts particular activities, where
distinctive landmarks direct the player and where a diversity of ecology marks the
transition between different zones and different activities). Players are immersed in
gamespace in World of Warcraft. The camera is tied to the player‟s avatar following
35
There were 60 levels in the original release of World of Warcraft, with further levels offered with
the release of each expansion pack.
36
Games like World of Warcraft continually release new content, places and levels as part of the bid
to keep players engaged. The release of new lands to stimulate exploration helps to combat the
phenomenological sterility of online places.
or preceding it according to the player‟s predilection. This personal viewpoint is

crucial to the experiential environment. If terrain changes intimately affect the
player‟s movement then the player must be in a position to observe and act on these
changes (Fig. 15). Experiential space, combined with an individual viewpoint,
personalises the game and supports the intimate relationship the player has with his
or her avatar. The gameplay of individual exploration and combat is well served by
the designer‟s choice of experiential space.
Figure 15
Internal viewpoint
helps with navigation
of obstacles in World
of Warcraft
World of Warcraft and Battle for Middle Earth 2 clearly express a representational
division in videogames, where architecture is produced as a space or as an object
and where the surrounding landscape is either an immersive construct or a map.
Both games adopt the production of architecture-as-spaces or architecture-as-object
in order to facilitate different styles of gameplay. In Battle for Middle Earth 2 objects
and maps simplify complexity, facilitating the macro-management of multiple „game
ego‟ points and supporting a gameplay focused on decision making and tactics.
Producing architecture and the landscape as immersive spatial constructs in World
of Warcraft adds complexity, increasing navigational challenges, and supports the
intimate relationship the player has with their character. The construction of space
is connected to the type of play intended in that space.
3.3 Experiential Space & Symbolic Space

World of Warcraft and BFME II display a fundamental difference in the production of
architecture and space. On one hand in World of Warcraft we have a game that
represents architecture and landscape as accessible and spatial, that is
characterised by an embodiment in and a personal view of space, that prioritises a
visceral movement through that space and that simulates a physical (though
primarily visual) experience of space. On the other in BFME II we have a game that
produces architecture as an object and landscape as a map, transforming
architecture to represent intangible concepts, simplifying the landscape and
favouring an external viewpoint, presenting a conceptual view of space in which
codified relationships are more important than physical characteristics, favouring
metaphor over corporeal experience. World of Warcraft is concerned with
representing an experiential space, BFME II with what we might term as a symbolic
space (in that spatial representation operates on a more symbolic level, and space
acts as symbol representing other phenomena).
Experiential space and symbolic space detail a major duality in spatial

representation. Concerned with the type of spatial experience the player
encounters, experiential and symbolic spaces define an interaction between the
representational qualities of a game and player agency, or a relationship between
the construction of gamespace and the game ego. Gameplay drives the production
of space but equally spatial production has a strong influence on gameplay, directly
affecting the playability of gamespace. (Appendix 1 lists a number of games and
describes them as experiential or symbolic).
Experiential space is about experiencing space, building on our bodily experiences

of living in space. Intrinsic to a corporeal and physical understanding of space is the
concept of movement in that space. Experiential space is dominated by an
understanding of space as something through which we move, where we negotiate
the physical relationship of objects in space. Symbolic space conversely is less
concerned with the relationship of the human body to space and more concerned
with symbolic relationships that humans apply to space. Both experiential and
symbolic modes of space contain movement. But where experiential games produce
movement as embedded in and deeply connected to the representation of space
symbolic space produces movement as external or peripheral to the landscape
In a symbolic space the player is detached from the terrain. Troops and tanks move
across the terrain in Starcraft in a manner that is significantly disconnected from the
quality of the landscape. We control troop movements with the disinterested passion
of a general poring over a topographic map of the battlefield arena, aware of but not
experiencing the terrain. In contrast in an experiential representation of warfare we
are part of that arena. Players in Unreal Tournament (Epic Games 2004) are inside
the sphere of action, manoeuvring through its surrounds in a visceral fashion. In
symbolic games we watch what occurs in the gamespace, in experiential games we
are participating in that space. Experiential space offers a more in-depth simulation
of our bodily experiences of space than symbolic space, which abstracts and
transforms how we interact with space to a greater degree37.
Figure 16
Interior space is
symbolic in Ultima VII
Symbolic space is not a rejection of interior architectural space. While many strategy
games like BFME II produce buildings as solid objects other games produce internal
space as symbolic. In Ultima VII (Origin 1992) houses are constructs that contain
other game objects. Walls clip the characters, providing a sense that the buildings
have some solidity and enclosure. Yet that interior space is unconvincing as a
dimensional spatial encounter; we do not truly read it as experiential (Fig. 16). Roofs
conveniently disappear when characters walk into a building, allowing the player to
see inside. The walls of each building operate as barriers but not as dimensional
containers. Rooms function as two-dimensional constructs in which walls become
fences. Like its landscape the interiors of Ultima VII function as a map over which
the foreshortened avatars travel. The buildings contain the character but not the
player.
37
Ulf Wilhelmsson notes that Lakoff and Johnson’s work on experientialist cognitive theory might be
applicable here
Experiential space is concerned with a sensory, corporeal, physical understanding

of space. Space is produced as a dimensional construct in which we are
submerged. Experiential space emphasises space and architecture as a container,
overtly aware of the way in which buildings and landforms enclose space. The
space encompasses and contains things, the physical relationships of bodies and
objects in space are accentuated. Symbolic space is less concerned with our
physical relationship with space and more concerned with using space and
architecture to represent intangible concepts, expressing the intellectual relationship
between things rather than their physical relationships. Symbolic space emphasises
the non-physical relationships between things, constructing architecture as an object
that represents, rather than presents, architectural function. Symbolic space in
videogames adopts a metaphoric and conceptual understanding of space.
In symbolic modes of spatial production space is subservient to the symbol. Space

is a context for the symbolic representation of concepts, where the symbolic object
is contained within a spatial realm. In Warcraft III the player uses the non-enterable
buildings as access points to the configurative act of building an army. Architecture
does not house a spatial functionality in the traditional sense but instead houses
concepts. In Sim City 3000 (Maxis 2000) the player marks the land with zones,
converting the terra nullius of greensward into economic and residential sectors. The
landscape itself can be viewed in a series of overlays, detailing zoning and
substructure. Information is privileged over spatial relations and space is valued
more for what it represents than what can be done in it. The rationale of gameplay
uses the symbolic capacity of architecture and landscape to reduce and manage
complexity.
The two modes of space are not mutually exclusive. Any building contains symbolic
content in the designer‟s choice of material, form, decoration and size. Geoffrey
Broadbent writes that all buildings “inevitably carry meaning”38, a similar claim can
be made for representations of architecture and landscape. Modes of interpretation,
culturally ascribed ideas of status and meaning, overlay the basic physical structure.
Experiential space also uses spatial symbology but embeds these symbolic
associations within an emphasis on spatial relations. Similarly symbolic space also
38
Broadbent, Geoffrey. “A Plain Mans Guide to the Theory of Signs in Architecture”. In Theorizing a
New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965 - 1995. Nesbitt, K. (Ed.).
New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996, p.133.
contains spatial relationships but de-emphasises our relationship with them. Each
mode presents an array of overlapping information where experiential space
privileges spatial information and symbolic space privileges non-spatial information.
Each mode presents spatially accessed information, experiential modes prioritise
information about being in space, symbolic modes privilege the implanting of
information in space.
Lev Manovich defines representation in opposition to information, referring to two

opposing goals of new media – between “immersing users in an imaginary fictional
universe” and supplying users with an efficient information access39. Symbolic space
and experiential space express this divide, polarised between prioritising spatial
fidelity and using space to represent other kinds of information. Experiential and
symbolic space can also be understood as relating to the two logics of “immediacy”
and “hypermediacy” proposed by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin. Where
immediacy seeks to make the medium disappear, hypermediacy works to remind
the user of the medium. Immediacy is ascendant when games eschew all but the
pure experience of space, experiential space demonstrates immediacy while
symbolic space leans toward qualities of hypermediacy. Bolter and Grusin note that
some computer games appear to work towards transparency while others do not 40.
Experiential space is primarily about the relationship we, as human beings, have to
space. Experiential space is then concerned with what architect Bernard Tschumi
calls the pleasure of space, a intangible indefinable concept that he notes is a form
of experience, partly a matter of “symmetries and dissymmetries emphasising the
spatial proportions of my body: right and left, up and down”41. The architectural
converse for Tschumi is the pleasure of geometry or the pleasure of order, which he
interprets as the pleasure of concepts. In architectural form this conceptual delight is
traditionally concerned with proportions and geometry, yet as an intellectual idea
extends to include symbolic space. Tschumi argues that architecture is composed of
both the pleasure of space and concepts. Where real space must always blend
Tschumi‟s two modes of geometry and order, videogames (delicately dissecting
reality through dissociation and reconstitution) extract and produce the two
39
p.17.
40
Bolter, Jay. and Grusin, Richard. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge,
41
Tschumi, Bernard. Questions of Space. Text 5, Architecture Association, 1995, pp.49-50.
pleasures in significantly different proportions. Games that privilege experiential

space and games that privilege symbolic space widen and formalise the division
between the pleasure of space and the pleasure of concepts.
Experiential space and symbolic space resemble Henri Lefebvre‟s conceptualisation

of space. Lefebvre proposed a triad of space consisting of (1) spatial practice, which
relates to empirically observed space or space as it is perceived, (2) representations
of space, which refers to conscious codifications of space where space is abstracted
and intellectualised, and (3) representational spaces which are the spaces of the
imagination and symbols42. Lefebvre‟s triad of space overlaps with the two modes of
experiential and symbolic space. Experiential space is concerned primarily with
replicating the empirical nature of space and movement within that space and is
therefore most concerned with how we perceive space or spatial practice. Symbolic
space on the other hand is more concerned with extending space as an intellectual
conceptual representation through spatial symbols and shares a special relationship
with representations of space. Both experiential and symbolic spaces contain
representational space in the social cultural meanings of architecture.
In mapping Lefebvre‟s work onto videogames other researchers have indicated that
all of his spatial triad is implicated in videogames. Aarseth notes that videogames
are representations of space based on the fact that games are a formal system of
relations and that all game worlds use symbolism and are therefore representational
spaces43. Axel Stockberger asserts that spatial rules are abstractions of space and
thus he identifies videogames as a representation of space. For Bernadette Flynn
virtual experiences of navigation or “material interventions into screen geography
and screen agency”44 are also related to spatial practices, in that the player brings
their physical bodily experiences to bear upon, and to understand, the game world.
Even symbolic space is concerned with spatial practice. By implicating social
42
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. 1991 Edition. Oxford UK:
Blackwell Publishing, 1974, p.33.
43
Aarseth notes that mapping Lefebvre’ work directly onto videogames is problematic because
videogames as a specific media form were unknown to Lefebvre (Aarseth, Espen. "Allegories of
Space - the Question of Spatiality in Computer Games". In Cybertext Yearbook 2000. Eskelinen, M.
and Koskimaa, R. (Eds.) University of Jyväskylä: Research Centre for Contemporary Culture, 2001,
p.163).
44
practices in videogames Flynn also implicates representational spaces in all

games45.
Experiential and symbolic space therefore contain all of Lefebvre‟s triad. Rather than
sole proprietors of Lefebvre‟s triad of space, symbolic and experiential space offer
different mixes of the same things. Experiential space emphasises spatial practice
while symbolic space emphasises representations of space. Each part of the triad
informs the others and as Lefebvre and Flynn‟s work shows, neither is isolated from
how we live in space.
Stockberger indicates that videogames are a result of dynamic interplay between

Lefebvre‟s three types of space, where representations of space and
representational space form a foundation through which the play process emerges
as a coherent spatial practice46. As artificial constructs of space videogames are a
representation of space whose designers and users bring spatial practices into both
the construction and use of that space. Building on Edward Soja‟s re-reading of
Lefebvre‟s‟ triad47, Stockberger claims that “the spatial practice emerging from
videogames has to be regarded as a hybrid between physical and imagined
spaces”48. That videogames develop space as either experiential or symbolic
indicates that videogames play with this hybridity, reconstructing both our
conceptions of, and experiences with, space.
Like the division between representation and abstraction, the division between
experiential space and symbolic space operates on a dynamic sliding scale.
Videogames can replicate our experiences in space or reduce them, abstracting
environment and agency. To go far in one direction precludes expressing the
opposite in a profound way. Experiential and symbolic spaces are then closely
related to a continuum between abstraction and realism. The compromise between
45
Social space can be understood as an overlay of representational space over physical space. Social
space is also placed by other writers, including Stockberger, as a spatial practice – where common
habitual actions in a society, based on how the members of that society perceive space, create
spatial practices.
46
Doctoral Thesis, University of the Arts, London, 2006.
47
Stockberger discusses Soja’s scheme: Firstspace relates to the physicality of material space or what
this thesis termed as real space. Secondspace relates to the production of spatial knowledge in
representations of space, or the imagined. Thirdspace is an open-ended hybrid reworking of both
the real and the imaginary.
48
realism and abstraction is played out in gamespace in part as a preference for

producing architecture-as-space or producing architecture-as-object, between
experiential space and symbolic space. Constructing an understanding of games as
competing elements Aylish Wood articulates a similar tension in the competition
between what he terms as “avatar space” and “info space”49, distinguishing between
spaces in which the player‟s character dwells and informative non-navigable spaces
(such as game maps and inventories), without recognising that the same
competition also occurs in avatar space. Experiential and symbolic spaces are
concerned with promoting either a physical or a conceptual relationship with space.
They represent a division in spatial practice in videogames, between space as a
physical construct with which we interact as corporeal beings and space as a
conceptual construct where we codify and intellectualise space.
Experiential and symbolic spaces have particular spatial characteristics, notably a

relationship between the construction of space and the player‟s view of that space
occurs. In her historic analysis of spatial configuration in videogames, Clara
Fernandez-Vara defines a limited array of spatial freedom available to the player50.
Referring to the freedom of movement given to a player as “cardinality of gameplay”,
she uses Cartesian coordinates to define the possible variations. Movement can
occur vertically, horizontally and on a forward axis into the screen. Movement can
then take place along a single axis, or through two axes or through all three axes.
Rather than being defined by freedom of movement through the axes, experiential
space and symbolic space are characterised by a relationship between the player‟s
viewpoint and the vertical axis.
Symbolic modes of space often emphasise space as planar by flattening spatial

relationships, partially eliminating or condensing spatial information. In particular
symbolic spaces tend to reduce the vertical axis (Fig. 17). As a consequence scale
is foreshortened or distorted. Typical productions of space in videogames that alter
space and height relationships include top-down games, isometric games and three-
dimensional games which benefit from the in-game camera operating in a high or
god viewpoint. Isometric games maintain all three axes but delete perspective.
Bernadette Flynn notes that isometric spaces imply a large planar space that
49
Wood, Aylish. Digital Encounters. New York: Routledge, 2007, p.111, 129, 131.
50
extends limitlessly. Isometric spaces make it “easier for the player to see spatial
relationships between buildings and objects”51. Some games eliminate the vertical
axis altogether, such as in the earliest version of SimCity (Maxis 1989) and in Dune
II (Westwood Studios 1992). The space in these games is analogous to maps and
plans. Other games deemphasise the vertical axis by situating the camera away
from the action. Heroes of Might and Magic V, despite being rendered in three
dimensions, is best explored from a bird‟s-eye viewpoint.
Figure 17
The vertical axis is

compressed in top-down,
isometric and three-
dimensional games
viewed from above
In contrast experiential games tend to preserve the vertical dimension, maintaining

the vertical axis in proportion to the horizontal axis (Fig. 18). Side-scrolling games,
first-person games and third-person games in both two-dimensional and three-
dimensional constructions of space adopt a point-of-view that acknowledges our
physical existence in space, where body is coupled to viewpoint. A videogame
designed by a being with a different relationship to space (such as a bird) might
have a quantifiably different attitude towards axial domination. Games like Grim
Fandango (LucasArts 1998), where the player operates within a two-dimensional
pre-rendered background and where spatial depth is represented by a reduction in
character size as they move into the background, are still concerned with the
experience of moving through space. Grim Fandango is experiential despite
technological limitation and crudity in perspective operations.
Figure 18
The vertical axis is

maintained in two and
three-dimensional games
viewed from the side and in
side-scrolling games
51
While the reduction of the vertical axis is found in many symbolic games it is not a
defining feature of symbolic space. Games like IL-2 Sturmovik (1C, 2001) are
experiential, despite reducing much of the planetary surface to a map viewed from
above, where forests are rendered as layered bitmaps and surface depth is an
illusion (Fig. 19). Flight games are concerned with the player‟s movement through
the atmosphere, situating that movement in an aerial perspective in relation to the
ground. Rather than a relationship between viewpoint and planetary surface,
symbolic space and experiential space express a relationship between the virtual
camera and the player‟s agent within the game environment. A negotiation occurs
between the virtual camera, the player‟s agent and the construction of space. A
relationship between viewpoint and „game ego‟ characterises, but does not define,
each spatial mode.
Figure 19
Game-ego situated
above the landscape
in IL-2 Sturmovik
Symbolic games typically adopt an external or removed viewpoint, distancing the

player from the inhabitants of the game. In BFME II the viewpoint is situated above
the action allowing players to examine the whole field of play. The „game ego‟ is
more likely to be diffuse, where the player can interact with gamespace through
many points. Laurie Taylor notes that “when controlling multiple player-characters as
undifferentiated groups, the player functions as a force that acts on the game as a
system of structured rules and potentialities: instead of within the gamespace”52. In
52
Taylor, Laurie N. "Video Games: Perspective, Point of View and Immersion". Master’s Thesis,
BFME II player agency is meditated through an army of architecture and personnel,

where the player can act upon the environment through many points of being. The
virtual camera is disconnected from the army or „game ego‟, where the player can
move viewpoint independently across gamespace. In BFME II the player can
visually rove across the entire map, including places where they may have no army
or buildings present,
Experiential games typically adopt a personal or attached viewpoint, focusing on a

singular „game ego‟ point. In World of Warcraft the player operates only one
character at a time, with a dominant point of being in the environment53. Experiential
games tend to tie the virtual camera to a singular agent in gamespace, where the
camera either tracks the player‟s agent or remains relative to that agent‟s position in
space. The player‟s experience of moving through and acting on gamespace is
mediated through the agent‟s movement. In World of Warcraft the virtual camera is
centred on an avatar controlled by the player. Players have a limited ability to
manipulate the camera within a range circumscribed by the position of their avatar.
Experiential and symbolic modes of spatial production have a close relationship
between player embodiment, viewpoint and camera.
Yet some games adopt a particular spatial mode within spaces that go against these
tendencies. In Lemmings (DMA Design 1991) the „game ego‟ is diffused amongst
many lemmings and the virtual camera external to the environment. Yet the game is
indisputably experiential in its emphasis on the lemmings‟ physical interactions with
the environment. Neither does the technical production of space determine which
mode a game will employ. The two-dimensional gamespace of Myst was recreated
as a three-dimensional space in real Myst: Interactive 3D Edition (Cyan, Sunsoft
2000). In Myst the player navigates through a series of two-dimensional interactive
slides, seeing gamespace as a series of snapshots. In realMyst, however, the player
can freely walk through a three-dimensional construct. But changing the
dimensionality of Myst does not dramatically affect gameplay. Beyond introducing a
freedom of movement between puzzles (adding exploration to play) the game
remains essentially the same, with the same puzzles. Both games retain the vertical
axis, a single personal viewpoint and are about the experiencing of space as a

53
Some character classes in World of Warcraft can operate with a satellite unit or pet, however they
are closely tied to, and dependant on, the original avatar.
physical construct. Both forms of Myst are experiential. The relationships between
axial manipulation, viewpoint and „game ego‟ manifestation are typical of, but not
fundamental to, the division between experiential and symbolic space.
As technology allows more sophisticated constructions of space the trend is towards

introducing an experiential viewpoint in games that are traditionally played in
symbolic mode, particularly strategy games. Games like Rome: Total War (Creative
Assembly 2004) allows the player to play with an external viewpoint and then zoom
in on the action. The player then goes from looking down on the countryside,
watching the battle, to being inside the battle. Players can watch Carthaginian war
elephants decimate helpless infantry from ground level. Yet playing the game in this
experiential mode becomes extremely difficult. It is easy to lose track of the evolving
battle and become swamped in a frenzy of fighting. To effectively manipulate the
legions of soldiers necessitates the use of a symbolic viewpoint. Experiential space
in Rome: Total War operates as spatial voyeurism, where playability is sacrificed for
more visceral pleasure. If gameplay cannot occur or becomes difficult in an alternate
experiential mode then gamespace remains symbolic. Within the alternate
experiential rendering of space players become complicit in an act of spatial tourism.
Acts of spatial tourism are acts where gameplay cannot occur or where gameplay
becomes difficult as a result of a change in spatial mode. Recognising acts of spatial
tourism is important, because active gameplay ceases during these spatial
experiences. Moments of spatial tourism can also occur without changes in spatial
mode. Play always occurs in experiential space in World of Warcraft, but riding a
non-interactive flying mount between towns operates as time out of gameplay.
Players cannot control their mount or attack passing monsters, the only possible
activity is enjoyment of the scenery. Spatial tourism occurs in World of Warcraft
through a reduction in player agency within a particular spatial act.
Some games offer a hybrid spatial experience but gameplay functions more
effectively in one mode of space. In Zoo Tycoon 2 (Blue Fang Games 2004) most of
the game is undertaken in symbolic mode, but the game offers an experiential mode
as part of its three-dimensional environment. In the experiential mode a small
number of tasks, such as cleaning up dung, feeding the lions and grooming the
animals, can be undertaken. These tasks are essential to the wellbeing of the
animals and the overall success or winning conditions for the simulated zoo but they
can be more efficiently fulfilled in symbolic mode. The experiential mode within Zoo
Tycoon 2 is only loosely tied to the ludic goals of the game, a sightseeing tour where
the players can mingle with the animals. Acts of spatial tourism, even when tightly
meshed with the rest of the game, always reduce gameplay options.
A smaller number of games, often categorised as genre hybrids, are true hybrids in
spatial mode, allowing the player to manage gameplay on a strategic level in a
symbolic space and fight within an experiential mode. The player can choose to
access either an experiential or symbolic set of spatial information, in which neither
array of information is privileged. A true hybrid occurs when both sets of information
are necessary or desired to complete gameplay. Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War
(Stainless Steel Studios/Midway Games 2006) crosses RTS gameplay and action,
swapping between empire building in symbolic space and joining the battle as a
hero in experiential mode. The game bifurcates into two styles of gameplay and two
modes of gamespace.
Each spatial mode is used by game designer because they are relevant to the
demands of gameplay. Neither spatial mode is intrinsically better that the other, but
each mode benefits different forms of gameplay. Experiential and symbolic spaces
are used because they suit different forms and aims of gameplay. Fighting games,
FPS and shooters, racing games and action/adventure games that focus on player
interaction with the environment are dominated by experiential space. Conversely
strategy and sim games that contain complex data-sets and a multitude of units to
control are overwhelmingly associated with symbolic space. Some role-playing
games (RPG) are experiential, immersing the „game ego‟ in the fictional world;
others adopt symbolic presentations of space, eschewing visceral sensation for
statistic building. (See appendix 2 for list of experiential and symbolic games by
genre).
Videogames are increasingly producing gamespace as three-dimensional, offering

the player a range of embodiment options (wherein the player can choose between
external, first-person and third-person viewpoints). Rather than using terms which
refer to the technological mediation of gamespace we can understand games as
experiential or symbolic. This has the advantage of being relevant to all productions
of space, to all game engines, and to both early and contemporary games.
3.4 Presence & Spatial Mode

Experiential and symbolic spaces are connected with a sense of being present in
gamespace. Alison McMahan‟s essay on the use of the words “presence” and
“immersion” in analysing videogames (terms borrowed from virtual reality critiques)
suggests that presence has come to refer to the player‟s sense of being present in
the virtual environment and is often used interchangeably with the term immersion.
McMahan suggests that immersion deals also with the non-diegetic aspects of
gameplay such as strategy and competition54. To be immersed in a game is to be
engrossed by the game. Presence is not the same as virtual-presence, which more
commonly refers to virtual reality environments, and is distinct from telepresence,
which refers to a user interacting with, or effecting change in, a separate real place,
though Laurie Taylor argues that videogames exhibit telepresence in that the player
exists in multiple conceptual domains55.
Defining presence as the “perceptual illusion of nonmediation”, Matthew Lombard

and Theresa Ditton note that, among other conceptualisations, presence can be
conceptualised as realism and transportation56. Presence-as-realism deals with the
degree to which a medium can accurately represent objects, events, and people
while presence-as-transportation relates to the sense that the user is there, the
sense that other users are there and the sense that the media has brought
something to the users locality. Lombard and Ditton describe a number of factors
that impinge on presence, including issues of representation (such as visual display
characteristics, number and type of sensory output, the proportion of visual field or
viewing angle, camera techniques, perspective and aural presentation) and issues
of player agency (where the responsiveness of the media, the level of control over
the virtual environment and the nature of activity being undertaken affect presence).
Equally the medium itself can affect presence, where knowledge of and prior
experience with the medium reduce the obtrusiveness of medium, and where size
54
McMahan, Alison. “Immersion, Engagement and Presence: A Method for Analysing Videogames”.
The Video Game Theory Reader. Perron, B, and Wolf, M. (Eds.). London and New York: Routledge,
2003, p.71-86.
55
Taylor, Laurie N. "When Seams Fall Apart, Video Game Space and the Player". Game Studies: The
International Journal of Computer Game Research. Volume 3, Issue 2, 2003.
http://www.gamestudies.org/0302/taylor/. Accessed 31 July 2007.
56
Lombard, Matthew and Ditton, Theresa. "At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence." Journal
of Computer-Mediated Communication. Volume 3, No.2, 1997.
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue2/lombard.html. Accessed 30 June 2008.
and quality of media influences perception. Lombard and Ditton show that spatial
presentation is only one of the things that affect presence.
Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska note a number of ways in which videogames
disrupt presence, including character independent camera movement57. More
importantly they find that inconsistency in game environments disrupts presence
while a sense of agency or the ability to affect the game world can create feelings of
presence. If a character in Oblivion can pickup objects in a competent manner, the
fact that the same character is spastically incapable of putting the object down and
can only let it drop is jarring to the player‟s sense of presence. Andrew Hutchison
also takes the first person viewpoint to task noting that embodiment gaps in avatar
manifestations, such as looking down in Half-life and not being able to see your
legs, compromise the player‟s experience in the virtual environment58. Player
agency and consistency act as significant factors in maintaining presence.
Clive Fencott also contends that the content of virtual environments affects
presence59. Fencott argues that as well as sensory information virtual environments
make use of movement and interaction to sustain presence. More important to
spatial readings of presence Fencott argues that other details in the virtual
environment are important, describing these attributes as sureties, shocks and
surprises60. Sureties are mundane predictable objects, usages and sounds that
follow conventions of real space and make space seem more ordinary. Sureties
allow us to relate to the virtual environment on a more instinctive level. Shocks are
disruptions in virtual environments such as latency and polygon leaks, by-products
of the construction process. Surprises are emphasises in the virtual world, attractors
which draw users to areas of interest, connectors, which can be summed up as
navigational controls, and retainers, interactive bits or activities that keep people in a
particular place. McMahan notes that where sureties and surprises help with
57
King, Geoff and Krzywinska, Tanya. "Gamescapes: Exploration and Virtual Presence in Game
Worlds”. Level Up Conference Proceedings: DiGRA 2003. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2003, pp.108-
119.
58
Hutchison, Andrew. "Where Are My Legs? Embodiment Gaps in Avatars". CyberGames 2006:
Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Game research and Development. Fremantle
WA, 2006, pp.104-111.
59
Fencott, Clive. "Presence and the Content of Virtual Environments". 2nd International Workshop
on Presence, University of Essex, 1999. http://web.onyxnet.co.uk/Fencott-
onyxnet.co.uk/pres99/pres99.htm. Accessed 30 June 2008.
60
Fencott, Clive. Perceptual Opportunities: A Practical Content Model for Virtual Environment Design.
2000. http://www.scm.tees.ac.uk/p.c.fencott/research/ijhcs'00/FENCOTT.htm. Accessed 30 June
2008.
presence, shocks reduce presence by disrupting realism61. Shocks will also affect
presence by disrupting consistency and player agency.
Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska state that “distinctions between degrees of
presence are closely correlated with differences in the visual perspective provided
on the game world62”. The player can be distinct from the game world or given a
point of being within gamespace. King and Krzywinska argue that games that use
an external aerial perspective or disembodied viewpoint (such as isometric
presentations of space) are the most distancing. Within these games “players have
a high degree of agency – an ability to affect events in the game-world – but little
sense of occupation of the fictional world itself”63. King and Krzywinska note that
even when these games allow the player to zoom in on the action with extreme
close-ups “the view is still disembodied, however, rather than creating any sense of
presence on the ground64”.
In that experiential space and symbolic space share a close relationship with
viewpoint, King and Krzywinska‟s work indicates there should be a correspondence
between spatial mode and presence, particularly in the sense of presence-as-
transportation. Because it is concerned with a sensory, corporeal experience of
space, experiential space should have a greater sense of personal transportation
than symbolic space. Symbolic presentations of space, which privilege the
presentation of information, overwhelmingly situate the player as external to
gamespace, reducing opportunities for transportation as “being there”. Yet
experiential games can adopt other modes of spatial perspective, for instance the
external side view of Lemmings, suggesting that the relationship between spatial
mode and presence is mutable and can be instantiated in varying degrees.
King and Krzywinska argue that the greatest sense of presence usually comes from
those games that use a first-person perspective, where the game world appears to
revolve around the player. However King and Krzywinska focus only on presence as
a sense of „being there‟, while Lombard and Ditton see presence as additionally
61
McMahan, Alison. “Immersion, Engagement and Presence: A Method for Analysing Videogames”.
The Video Game Theory Reader. Perron, B, and Wolf, M. (Eds.). London and New York: Routledge,
2003, p.71-86.
62
King, Geoff and Krzywinska, Tanya. "Gamescapes: Exploration and Virtual Presence in Game
Worlds”. Level Up Conference Proceedings: DiGRA 2003. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2003, p.113.
63
Ibid, p.113.
64
Ibid, p.114.
instituted in levels of realism and in the bringing of something to the user. Third-
person games can be understood as substantiating presence-as-realism because
the player reads a sense of scale and proportion between the avatar and the
environment. These proportional relations are obfuscated to a degree in first-person
games by the dislocation between the player‟s body and the translation of their
viewpoint to a screen. Taylor notes the third-person viewpoint includes the physical
relationship between character and gamespace and this contextualised presence
offers the player an experience of embodied space that is “more complex and closer
to the corresponding encounter with the extra-gaming world” than the first-person
point-of-view65. Equally presence-as-transportation can still be occasioned in third-
person games by bringing navigable space to the user‟s locality.
Lombard and Ditton, and Fencott demonstrate that presence is more complex than
readings that focus only on the sense of „being there‟. The production of space is not
the only factor that affects presence. Presence in both experiential and symbolic
space equally relies on not disrupting expectations in player agency and movement.
Many games, predominantly symbolic games, are not concerned with creating a
sense of physical presence (as transportation) and to critique them on these
grounds is pointless, but games that are deeply concerned with creating a sense of
transportation must adopt experiential modes of space.
3.5 Modes of Gamespace

Within gamespace a series of choices about representation are made by the
designer on every level, from purely visual characteristics to procedural aspects.
The most fundament choice is between abstraction and representation, whether to
aim for spatial realism or a less literal depiction of space. There is no clear
distinction or dividing line between representational and abstract games, but
representational games construct space as navigable and habitable, recognisably
representing our psychical universe.
Every element of real space is optional in a game world, including our fundamental
physical relationship with space. Within gamespace, enabled by dissociation and
reconstitution, a second level of choice exists, where every element of space can be
65
Taylor, Laurie N. "Video Games: Perspective, Point of View and Immersion". Master’s Thesis,
abstracted, simulated, represented or transformed. Representation, abstraction,

simulation and transformation are the tools by which designers create space as a
game. Representation, abstraction, simulation and transformation are operations
through which gamespace can be reconstituted, becoming something different from
real space. The technological production of space by a videogame is in itself a
transformation of space.
A further choice in representation is evident in gamespace as a division between

architecture-as-object and architecture-as-space. Dissociation allows space to be
reconstituted as either symbolic or experiential. World of Warcraft produces
architecture as a spatial construct that surrounds the player‟s „game ego‟, while
BFME II produces architecture as an object. World of Warcraft produces space as
experiential, BFME II as symbolic. Experiential space conceptualises space as a
dimensional immersive construct based on our sensory and physical experiences of
space. Symbolic space conceptualises space as codified, where videogames
privilege symbolic rather than lived experiences of space. Symbolic space privileges
conceptual information over spatial relationships. Experiential space is connected to
greater feelings of presence than symbolic space.
Experiential space and symbolic space describe a fundamental division in how

videogames conceptualise and produce space. Each mode of space, symbolic or
experiential, serves gameplay differently. For different forms of gameplay different
constructions of space are appropriate, so that strategy games tend to adopt
symbolic modes of space in order to help manage complexity, while first-person
shooters are closely bound to issues of spatial immersion and hence adopt
experiential space. Each videogame is weighted towards one or the other mode of
spatial production; there are very few true hybrids. Importantly we can recognise
many games that appear to offer both forms of space as instead presenting acts of
spatial tourism, where gameplay takes a backseat to spatial voyeurism. Gamespace
is constructed as symbolic or experiential for the purposes of gameplay. The
construction of space is connected to play, where the intended function of the game
drives spatial production. From here we can look in more detail at the connections
between space and play.
Chapter 4 Situations of Play
Gamespace is architectural, a digitally constructed spatial structure, but gamespace

is also a structure constructed for specific gamic purposes. It is constructed for
gameplay. If form follows function, as many architects have acknowledged1, then
the resultant gamic environments should be in some way indebted to their intended
usage. The gameplay that occurs in videogames and the construction of gamespace
should express underlying relationships or patterns, where a pattern is an
arrangement or order that is discernable in objects, actions, ideas and situations2.
This chapter looks at game environments as architectural constructs that express
recurrent patterns of spatial use. It identifies common patterns of spatial use in
videogames. Each pattern expresses an interaction between the construction of
space and the type of play offered in the game. A pattern of spatial use then
describes a construction of space that determines or affects how gameplay takes
place3. Given that gameplay is a negotiation between game and player4, the
patterns describe both space and what takes place in it.
1
The most well known iteration of this concept occurred when Louis Sullivan declared “form ever
follows function” in 1896 (Sullivan, L. H. “The tall office building artistically considered”, Lipincott's
Magazine, 1896). According to J. Mordaunt Crook, the “form follows function” principle can be
traced back to A. W. N. Pugin (1812-1852) and to the Neo-Classical Rationalists of the eighteenth
century (Mordaunt Crook, J. The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the
Post-Modern. London: John Murray, 1987, p.51.). More recently “form follows function” was
hijacked to a degree by the modernists to infer that useless ornamentation was dead. However
more inclusive understandings allow that function is multifarious and includes such things as
ornament for wayfinding. While strict deterministic readings of built environment are generally
rejected in architectural discourse, it is acknowledged that there is considerable interplay between
cultural behaviour, usage patterns and architectural form.
2
The Shorter Oxford Dictionary. Fifth Edition on CD-ROM version 2.0. Oxford University Press, 2002.
3
As such the patterns of spatial use are different to the pattern language developed by Christopher
Alexander, which describes patterns of building observed in real space that architects and planners
could use and combine to generate attractive and harmonious built environments. Alexander,
Christopher, et al. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1977.
4
Taking Gunnar Liestol’s definition of gameplay as encompassing both computer actions and player
activity, referring to both the computer generated ‘game’ and the player’s ‘play’ experience.
Revisited: Theoretical and Conceptual Innovation in Digital Domains. Liestol, G., Andrew Morrison,
A. and Rasmussen, T. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2003, pp.389-411.
Situations of Play 154
Professor of Architecture Yehuda Kalay notes that much of our behaviour is

organised around elements of the physical world5. Taking its cue from patterns of
usage in real space each gamespace pattern articulates a fundamental way of
relating to space. The patterns of spatial use are evident in real space but are made
explicit in videogames through the processes of dissociation and reconstitution that
occur in the construction of gamespace. These gamic patterns show how games
use space to create and support gameplay. Each pattern expresses a different
relationship between space and play.
Where the last chapter looked at a dichotomy in the construction of space in

videogames, this chapter examines what happens within the constructed space,
examining the function of gamespace. By identifying the patterns we can tease out a
series of underlying relationships between gamespace and gameplay. The patterns
of spatial use show ways in which space creates and manipulates gameplay,
shaping the relationship between player and gamespace. By defining a series of
common patterns in the ways games use space, I argue that videogames express a
series of primary relationships between space and play.
4.1 Patterns in Gamespace

Space and architecture in real space express simple patterns of use, patterns which
underlie a range of sophisticated activities that occur there. Architect Robert Venturi
observes that “the activities of people in cities and buildings can be seen as
patterns”6. A children‟s playground is a spatial challenge; to negotiate their spaces is
to go up, over, under and through extraordinary configurations of multi-coloured
components. A cricket pitch is a contested space on which a ritualised battle is
played out, a competition that adheres to a set of spatial rules. A domestic house is
a set of socially coherent nodes, where function is set out in the familiar spatial
arrangements of kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.
To create or change a building is another form of activity, encompassing design,

construction, decoration and demolition. Other forms of architecture carry symbolic
patterns. A corporate skyscraper is a codified space that signifies the status and
5
Kalay, Yehuda. “Architecture in Virtual Worlds”. State of Play III – Social Revolutions, New York,
2005. www.nyls.edu/pages/3903.asp. Accessed 20 July 2008.
6
Venturi, Robert and Scott Brown, Denise. Architecture as Signs and Systems: For a Mannerist Time.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press: Harvard University Press, 2004, p.120.
aspirations of a company. Yet other buildings appear as backdrops. Never entered

or explored they function as elaborate stage sets, an involuntary mise-en-scène. In
this chapter I argue that the spatial challenges, contests, nodes, creations,
codifications and backdrops seen in real space are also present in videogames.
Real space is the physical envelope in which we live. Gamespace in contrast is a

fabricated representation of space. As simulations of space, videogames do not
endlessly reinvent patterns of spatial use but are continuously reusing, reapplying
and restructuring basic patterns of usage that occur in reality. These patterns are
not tightly scripted events but are loose formations that have arisen with civilisation.
They are social constructs that will diverge within different societies. They are
patterns of what we do in the environment. Within each spatial pattern architecture
can guide and suggest, afford or impede activity and as such architecture shares a
relationship with the patterns.
Examining architectural and spatial diversity in gamespace reveals a number of

dominant recurrent spatial patterns in videogames. The prevalent patterns of spatial
use are7:
Challenge Space: where gamespace directly challenges the player.
Contested Space: where gamespace is a setting for contests between
entities.
Nodal Space: where social patterns of spatial usage are imposed on
gamespace to add structure and readability to the game.
Codified Space: where elements of gamespace represent non-spatial
information.
Creation Space: where players alter gamespace as part of gameplay.
Backdrops: where players cannot directly interact with gamespace.
The same patterns of spatial use are present in real space, but remain unnoticed
and unremarked within their quotidian context. In videogames these patterns are
emphasised and repeated.
7
This is not an exhaustive list and other patterns exist. Section 4.8 in this chapter discusses this
point further.
The patterns of spatial use discussed here are different from Roger Caillois‟
typology of games8, which are patterns of play rather than patterns that consider the
spaces in which games are played. Caillois puts forward four categories of play –
agôn or games of competition, alea or games of chance, mimicry or games of
simulation and ilinx or games of vertigo. There are correlations between Caillois‟
typology and the patterns of spatial use in videogames. Contested space clearly has
a direct relationship with agon or games of competition. Chris Bateman finds agon in
videogames appearing as fighting games, FPS games and strategy games, but also
asserts that player desire to defeat the challenge of gameplay can also be
agonistic9. We might then find agon in challenge space, where the computer
generated space is a virtual opponent that the player competes against. To explore
fully the overlap between Caillois patterns of play and the patterns of spatial use is
beyond the scope of this thesis but in intersecting they remind us that videogames
are both play and a space to play in10.
Ulf Wilhelmsson suggests that there is a strong relationship between where we play
and what we play, that game environments constrict and afford what it is possible to
do11. Through the representation and interpretation of space, through assigned
qualities and through levels of player agency videogames dictate how the player can
interact with gamespace and what gameplay is possible. The patterns are solidified
in videogames through a series of spatial rules that dictate what can or cannot be
done in gamespace. As Jesper Juul points out “a game is a set of rules as well as a
8
Caillois, Roger. Man, Play and Games, London: Thames and Hudson, 1962.
9
Bateman, Chris. The Challenge of Agon. 2006,
http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2006/03/the_challenge_o.html. Accessed 6
February 2007.
10
Steffen Walz, working from an earlier conference paper on the patterns of spatial use (McGregor,
G. “Situations of Play: Patterns of Spatial Use in Videogames”. Situated Play: Proceeding of the
DiGRA 2007 Conference. 2007) states that the patterns serve mainly to spatialise Caillois’ basic
model, with the exception of codified space and backdrops, which extend beyond Caillois’ model
(Walz, S. Toward a Ludic Architecture: Framing the Space of Play and Games. Doctoral Thesis, 2008,
p.94.). Yet the relationships between are Caillois’ patterns and the patterns of spatial use are not
clear. For example creation space can be part of mimicry (simulating house decoration in The Sims)
but can equally be a part of agon or competition (as in base building in strategy games). Nor is the
correlation between the patterns of spatial use and alea, or games of chance, clear. Rather than
spatialising Caillois basic model, the patterns of spatial use detail a series of ways in which space is
used to support and create play.
11
pp.62-68.
fictional world”12. Because gamespace is dissociated and reconstituted, videogames

are able to exaggerate, manipulate and alter patterns found in real space.
Edvin Babic notes that games use spatial representation as “a mechanism to set
rules and guide human (inter) action”13. Rules give the game a range of possibilities
of play, but how players actually use gamespace can vary from what the designer
anticipated. Just as real spaces can be used differently from their intended purpose
patterns of gamespace can change through emergent gameplay. In real space
skateboarders turn the safety of the shopping center into a challenge space, in
virtual space players of Battlefield 2 (Digital Illusions CE 2005) can ignore the
fighting for the sheer spatial thrill of base-jumping. The patterns of spatial use
describe how space determines or affects gameplay, but can be circumvented by
player acts.
The patterns of spatial use exist alongside other architectural and spatial qualities
including the architectural capacity to enclose, to act as a barrier, to impart meaning
and evoke atmosphere. The patterns of spatial use cross boundaries of spatial
production and disregard technical differences, occurring in two-dimensional, three-
dimensional, isometric and side-scrolling games alike. The presence of one pattern
does not preclude the use of other patterns. They are not mutually exclusive. Each
videogame implements the patterns in different combinations, as major and minor
components of gameplay. While many games express a dominant pattern nearly all
games use a combination of different patterns.
Unlike Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen‟s Patterns of Game Design14, which focus
on gameplay and describe commonly recurring specific elements in games, the
patterns of spatial use look at how gamespace and gameplay interact, describing
overarching configurations of space and play. These are not patterns based on play
types, but patterns of space present in videogames that are used to support play15.
12
13
Babic, E. "On the Liberation of Space in Computer Games". Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game
Culture. Volume1. No. 1, 2007. http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/view/4/21.
14
Björk, Staffan. & Holopainen, Jussi. Patterns in Game Design. Hingham, Massachusetts: Charles
River Media, 2005.
15
These categories were not formed to create distinctions between different sorts of play activity.
Steffen P. Walz discusses codified space in his PhD thesis as a ‘playspace’, but more correctly
The patterns arose in reality but have been refined and formalised in videogame
environments. This chapter will look at challenge space, contested space, nodal
space, codified space, creation space and backdrops as patterns embedded in real
space that manifest as archetypes of spatial use in gamespace.
4.2 Challenge Space

Overt challenge spaces are present in our urban environment, yet, for practical and
safety reasons, are isolated from everyday spaces. Discrete units like playgrounds,
obstacle courses and racetracks are specifically designed for physical challenge.
Games like Tomb Raider take this type of physical challenge and exaggerate it,
assimilating it into traditionally more staid architectural spaces. A room becomes a
series of discontinuous platforms across which the inimitable heroine Lara must
jump. Spouts of flame erupt in a barrel-vaulted chamber (Fig. 1). The player faces
physical challenges of co-ordination and timing, a virtual commando course. These
violent executory spaces directly challenge the player‟s skill and reflexes, and form
an integral part of gameplay.
Figure 1
Architectural
challenge in
Tomb Raider
codified space is a spatial pattern that is used to support play activity (Walz, S. Toward a Ludic
Architecture: Framing the Space of Play and Games. Doctoral Thesis, 2008, p.95). Codified space is
not a play type but expresses a relationship between space and play.
In challenge space architecture is an adversary and the landscape an opponent.

Moving through gamespace is a contest between player and space. To remove the
architectural elements from Tomb Raider would negate most of the challenges faced
by the player. Challenge space shares a direct relationship with gameplay – the
environment holds elements that form the core of gameplay. The elements that form
gamespace play a fundamental and direct role in forming gameplay. Challenge
space then actively forms gameplay.
Challenge spaces can test intellectual prowess, demanding inventiveness and logic
from the player. Games like Tomb Raider and Myst implement architecture as a
cerebral challenge16. The player must determine sequential movements of
mechanical apparatus to open a door or progress in the game. Challenge space as
environmental puzzle is common in videogames yet rarely present in ordinary
architecture. Where the real world tries to minimise architectural confusion
videogames revel in architectural complexity, resulting in improbable and bizarre
buildings. Unlike architecture in real space the primary role of gamic architecture is
not to assist or shelter the user but to confront and test the player. Games that
implement challenge space as a primary game mechanic will readily distort
architectural veracity to facilitate gameplay. Architectural form is subservient to the
gameplay in challenge spaces.
Challenge spaces are also present within the everyday environment in more subtle
ways. A city presents navigational challenges for which countless aids, maps, street
directories and GPS systems abound. Similarly complex environments in
gamespace often result in videogames offering the same kind of assistance. World
of Warcraft features a continually visible mini-map and a full-screen map option.
Navigation and wayfinding are a type of environmental challenge that occurs in
many games. Multiple paths, open landscapes and convoluted layouts require the
player to negotiate and remember spatial configurations. Challenge space then
operates in both an active and passive role, from the overt spatial challenges of
Tomb Raider to the secondary navigational challenge inherent in World of Warcraft’s
massive environment.
16
In that they both set up architectural challenges in opposition to the player that require an
intellectual response. Tomb Raider also requires the player to achieve mastery over Lara’s
movement to defeat the challenges, while Myst’s solutions are purely cerebral.
Challenge spaces may or may not contain mobile opponents. In Tomb Raider
adversaries pepper the game, a gun-toting rival here, a vicious beast there, but they
form only a small component of gameplay. Fighting is part of the game, but operates
in a supportive role, an additional challenge within the environment that heightens
tension. Wayfinding is made more complicated under the pressure of combat. Each
new space has a limited number of baddies, the player approaches with
apprehension and cannot freely explore or solve architectural challenges until she
has dealt with the enemy. If you removed the mobile assailants from Tomb Raider
the gameplay would remain relatively intact, but replace the architectural intricacies
with simplistic spaces (thus removing any architectural challenges) and gameplay
would be irrevocably damaged.
So deeply are they tied to location the mobile adversaries of Tomb Raider at times
almost seem part of the architecture. In some platform games the adversaries are
embedded in the environment and cannot be considered in isolation from their
surrounding space. Aggressive plants and static humanoids operate like a gun
emplacement on a defensive structure in Yoshi’s Island DS. The more restricted in
movement an antagonist is within an environment the more the inclusion of the
antagonist relates to the architecture of that space and its environmental conditions.
A completely stationary adversary ultimately fulfils the same role as an architectural
hazard.
Figure 2
Insane architect? Or
architectural puzzle?
Lara Croft must
jump from platform
to platform in order
to proceed in
Tomb Raider
Players are commonly asked to suspend architectural disbelief. At times the only
purpose of an in-game building is to frustrate and challenge the player, resulting in
improbable architectural spaces. A vertically orientated room where circulation is
dependent on jumping between haphazardly placed platforms is not the work of an
insane architect but a difficult puzzle in Tomb Raider (Fig 2). Other buildings are
turned into labyrinthine puzzles where wayfinding challenges are exaggerated with
torturous pathways and made more complicated with the implementation of
threshold puzzles. In Tomb Raider finding a locked door indicates that a key is
present somewhere, conversely finding a key indicates that the player must now
search for a door.
Challenge spaces often draw on the pleasure of dangerous environments; they

allow us to access parts of the urban environment that are out of bounds to
everyday experience and let us traverse ridiculously hazardous spaces. A rooftop
panorama presents an illicit urban challenge that when transmuted into gamespace
becomes safe to explore. Other games draw on the impossibility of an encounter
with dangerous environments, where the player can move from contending with
scorching lava flows to inhospitable subterranean dungeons. Lava and ice
environments and other forms of environmental excess have evolved into game
clichés along with the ubiquitous exploding barrel.
Not all challenge spaces deviate from architectural and environmental norms. The
tracks in Toca Race Driver 3 present a familiar form of challenge space, replicating
what is in reality a purpose built environment constructed for a specific challenge.
Rfactor (Image Space Incorporated 2005), marketed as a racing simulator, attempts
to transcend the limitations of virtual space with environment fidelity, seeking to
replicate the same environmental factors that occur in real space, including
aerodynamics, track temperature changes and physics. The simulated racetrack
operates as a virtual true to scale version of a real challenge space.
If a videogame presents active environmental challenges as its primary gameplay

mechanic then it has a vested interest in guiding players through or to those spaces.
Direct spatial challenges make no gameplay sense if the player can easily
circumvent or avoid them. In games like Tomb Raider and Ratchet and Clank
(Insomniac Games 2002) this results in a linear or directed quality to gamespace,
where a series of smaller open areas are connected by bottlenecks. Gamespaces
that offer physical challenges or architectural puzzles are often what Jesper Juul
calls “games of progression”17, where the player must complete predefined tasks to
finish the game, often in a predefined order. Conversely to be a navigational
challenge the space must be open or contain multiple pathways, where choices in
direction must be made. Linear environments offer only limited navigational
challenges. An open environment can also contain active, physical and architectural
challenges but will use motivational forces, such as the presence of desirable
resources, to prompt a player to engage with spatial challenges instead of using
limitations to spatial freedom.
A number of games use the pattern of challenge space as their primary gameplay
mechanic, in particular platform and adventure games, like Super Mario Bros.,
Ratchet & Clank, Portal (Valve Software 2007) and American McGee’s Alice.
Because negotiations of spatial problems are necessarily connected with physical
interaction and movement in space, active environmental challenges are typically,
but not exclusively, presented as experiential spaces, whereas navigational
challenges are characteristically unbound to spatial mode. Many games incorporate
passive spatial challenges as a secondary game mechanic. Game worlds like
Baldur’s Gate (BioWare 1998) and The Elder Scrolls Oblivion, by the expansive
nature of their gamespace, contain implicit wayfinding challenges.
Problems of navigation and environmental obstacles, whether they require a

simulated physical response by the player‟s avatar or an intellectual solution, are
configurations of challenge space. While all games that feature environments can
contain obstacles to easy movement, with varying degree of difficulty, challenge
spaces present these obstacles as a primary component of gameplay. To be a
challenge space the game environment must be an integral part of gameplay. The
critical aspect to challenge space is the direct opposition between the player and the
game environment. The function of challenge space is to act as an enemy. The
simulated world directly challenges the player‟s skill, reflexes, memory or
intelligence. Whether it is an active combatant, an inimical world that is dynamically
trying to kill you, or a land of more intellectual tasks, challenge spaces require the
player to actively decipher and understand the game environment.
17
Computer Games & Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings. Tampere, Finland, 2002, pp.323-329.
4.3 Contested Space

In real space contested spaces are war zones, disputes over water rights to rivers,
football fields and cricket pitches. Some are highly regulated contests within a
formalised space, others aggressive informal conflicts. Contested spaces occur
when people engage in rivalry or discord. In videogames contested spaces work on
a number of different levels. Some games feature competition over resources, or
contests of resource control, where players fight for domination of a limited number
of supplies essential to gameplay. In Starcraft acquisition and control of the two
embedded resources, minerals and vespene gas, dictate the number and quality of
combat units and buildings available to the player, thereby exerting a direct
influence on the player‟s ability to wage war on their opponent. Other contests of
space occur when players fight for mastery and domination over all or part of the
game environment, or for control over spatial objectives. Winning conditions in
Civilization IV (Firaxis Games 2005) include controlling a majority proportion of
available land.
Figure 3
Fighting an
opponent in Unreal
Tournament 2004
Then there are contests of survival or victory in combat against inimical entities
whether they are controlled by other players or controlled by the game AI, a
computer game bot. In Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment 2006) the player
manages a team of soldiers in combat scenarios, capturing enemy positions as part
of the single player campaign, while online death matches in Unreal Tournament
2004 require players to kill their opponent in order to enter the next round (Fig. 3).
Björk and Holopainen note that combat, or actions with the intent to kill or overcome
opponents, is one of the oldest game themes18. The idea of contest also translates
into the idea of less violent forms of competition against other opponents so that
sport games like FIFA 07 (Electronic Arts 2007) contain a form of contested space.
The common factor linking these variations is conflict with an opponent, where
gamespace is a location for conflict or where adversaries fight for mastery over
gamespace. Gameplay and gamespace is dominated by contention, where players
compete, dispute, fight and struggle against the game‟s artificial intelligence (A.I.)
and one another. Contested space can be actuated by what Björk and Holopainen
describe as conflicting or incompatible goals, which set up competition between
players19. In contested spaces architecture and landscape function as settings for
conflict, struggle and battle against other opponents. They are arenas of combat for
virtual skirmishes over space and resources, where open conflict between entities
occurs. To remove the opponents would be to remove gameplay, leaving the player
as a tourist in a pointless space. The architecture and environment are not sufficient
to sustain gameplay on their own and their efficacy results from their interaction
between opponents.
Unlike challenge space the environment does not form the major part of gameplay.
In the seminal contested space of Doom it is the mobile adversaries not the
architecture that forms the main challenge to the player. Yet the gamespace still has
a notable effect on gameplay, channelling, influencing and being exploited by the
player. Architecture plays a role in how gameplay operates and its outcomes – for
example architecture can act as a choke point or provide cover. Henry Jenkins and
Kurt Squire note that “exceptional players‟ learn to read tactical possibilities from the
spaces themselves”20. Architecture also provides incentives to combat. By capturing
the flags or spawn points in Battlefield 2 players diminish the other team‟s ability to
regenerate dead combatants. Knowledge of spatial conditions is important for player
success, particularly against live opponents in online play, yet is not essential.
18
19
Ibid, pp.237-239.
20
Jenkins, Henry, and Kurt Squire. "The Art of Contested Spaces". In Game On: The History and
Culture of Videogames. King, L. (Ed.). New York: Universe Publishing, 2002, pp. 064-075.
Contested spaces range from realistic reinterpretations of historic battlefields to

highly improbable layouts, where the permutations of gamespace make combat
against opponents more interesting and more difficult.
Figure 4
Space created to make

fighting more interesting in
Doom, Episode 2, map 6:
Halls of the Damned. Map
constructed by Ian Albert.
Architecture within an experiential contested space is designed to facilitate

combative gameplay by directing, constraining, sheltering, revealing and concealing
player activity and potential threats. The architecture is subservient to the gameplay.
Contested spaces will readily distort reality to facilitate gameplay, which can result in
improbable and convoluted spaces. Games like Doom create bizarre constructs for
gameplay (Fig. 4). Aarseth notes of Doom “what may seem like a naturalistic world
is in fact a constrictive topology of nodes and connections between them that
interfere with unhindered movement”21 Exterior areas are often not separate or
divisible from internal areas in function. Although they might appear different they
share similar attributes and often fulfil the same role
At other times more environmental fidelity is called for, particularly in war games that
seek to replicate historic encounters. In the Call of Duty single player campaign the
landscape can be recognised as European and the buildings as farmhouses. Yet
this experiential environment has been changed to channel gameplay. Hedges have
become impenetrable barriers; woodlands are similarly impassable and simple post
and rail fences unclimbable. In this manner the player is directed to particular
spaces where conflict has been arranged for them, leading the player through the
narrative of the single player military campaign. Linear constructions of contested
gamespaces work to channel the player into fights. Architecture can also operate as
a closed arena, working to contain fights and prevent avoidance of them. King and
Krzywinska note that fighting opponents within a restricted area creates a
heightened sense of urgency and danger22. A boss battle in The Legend of Zelda:
Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD 1998) cannot be escaped from; the only way to
leave the space is to defeat the boss. King and Krzywinska note that enclosed
spaces, combined with restrictions on visibility, can add suspense and a sense of
impending danger to gameplay23.
Other games present contested play within more open constructions of gamespace,
particularly online multiplayer games which allow players to range freely over a
predetermined expanse of space. In these less restricted spatial constructs
21
Yearbook 2000. Eskelinen, M. and Koskimaa, R. (Eds.) University of Jyväskylä: Research Centre for
22
Contexts. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2006, p.90.
23
Ibid, p.90.
landscape functions as an expansive architectural construct that sets the conditions

for combat. Different terrain in Unreal Tournament 2004 calls for different styles of
play, each map has vantage points and advantages for the canny player.
Gamespace works as an open arena where the fight is shaped by the terrain. Each
map in Starcraft defines parameters for engagement. How you defend or attack is
influenced by the spatial conditions; approaches to enemy bases may be limited,
while using different vessels may allow the player to attack from other directions.
Stealth games offer a mode of contested space, where the player must evade the
notice of the game‟s inhabitants, or their AI routines, in order to fulfil a task; from
theft to assassination. Sébastien Babeux see stealth games as initiating tension
between gamer and game world, where places that the gamer must trespass are
antagonistic to the „game ego‟. Yet Babeux also notes the role of the game‟s
narrative in setting up this antagonism, where gamespace is controlled by a hostile
narrative entity24. Conflicts of space are dependent on conflicts between entities.
Rather than an opposition between players over resources or survival, stealth
games polarise space through the concept of ownership and jurisdiction. Star Wars
Knights of the Old Republic (Bioware 2003), a role-playing game set in the Star
Wars Uuniverse, sets us a similar polarisation of space within the framework of
notions of good and evil choices. Aligning with the light or the dark side of the Force
determines whether you have to fight your way out of the Sith temple or are given
free transit.
Salen and Zimmerman link the subject matter of games to conflict, where games are
“systems in which players engage in an artificial conflict”25. They note that “games
typically represent territorial conflict, economic conflict, or conflict over knowledge”26.
Games are based on conflicts over space, conflicts over items of value and conflicts
over information. Where challenge space sets up a contest between space and
player, contested space situates play as conflict between entities. Contested space
is most obviously conflict over territory, but equally contains conflict over units of
value, for example the competition over resources in strategy games. Salen and
24
Babeux, Sébastien. "King of the Hill: Investigation and Re-Appropriation of Space in the Video
Game". Aesthetics of Play. University of Bergen, Norway, 2005.
http://www.aestheticsofplay.org/babeux.php. Accessed 20 April 2006.
25
26
Ibid, p.457.
Zimmerman situate conflict over knowledge as cultural, where games like Trivial
Pursuit place value on information sets, but equally spatial knowledge can be
important to mastering contested space. Strategy games use the fog of war to
differentiate between the known and unknown, observed and unobserved terrain,
where knowledge of enemy action is an important commodity.
Contested gamespace is a setting for contests between entities, where space

influences the contest. Contested spaces are evident from the earliest commercially
released game, Computer Space (Nutting Associates 1971), to the present day,
Gears of War (Microsoft 2006). Exemplified by the genre of first person shooters,
contested space is also dominant within strategy games, sport games and
adventure games, but any game that initiates conflicts of survival, conflicts over
resources and conflict over goals between beings sets up a pattern of contested
space. Within these games the environment works to make the contests more
dynamic – replacing the environment of Unreal Tournament with a featureless
square room would leave the fundamental conflict intact but render gameplay
boring.
4.4 Nodal Space

Human society uses sophisticated architectural patterns, where the particular
activities that occur within buildings are linked to specific building types. We expect
different activities in domestic buildings to commercial buildings. This pattern is
repeated within houses, where bathrooms are for one type of activity and kitchens
for another, and on a larger scale in cities, in residential to industrial zoning. Activity
becomes something that is spatially separated. In Ordering Space, Karen Franck
and Lynda Schneekloth note that both social practices and built environments use
place types as a structure that distinguishes and separates activity27. Architecture
and space are physically arranged in nodes that indicate and support usage
patterns. These nodal structures of space are culturally specific but basic meanings
are endemic within western civilisation. Nodal space is a structuring of space that
uses commonly understood correlations between activity and architecture or
space28.
27
Franck, Karen and Schneekloth, Lynda (Eds.). Ordering Space: Types in Architecture and Design,
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994, p.9.
28
Ulf Wilhelmsson points out that George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s work on metaphors
(Metaphors We Live By, 1980 and Philosophy in the Flesh, 1999) might be relevant to nodal space,
Within videogames this same association of space with activity is used to provide
overall structure to gamespace. In World of Warcraft architecture organises activity
into discrete zones, you find the auction house in a city to sell items, and you go to a
town to find transport. Architecture acts as a container, both concentrating activity
and defining the area of activity. Cities act as concentrations of both architecture
and activity. In a similar manner the named and visually distinguishable landscape
collates quest activity. You go to the murloc village to kill murlocs and to the orc
outpost to kill orcs. Action is tied to location. The architecture provides an overall
structure to the game by categorising where activity can take place, forming a
structural hierarchy that lends readability to a large and complex virtual space.
RPGs and MMORPGs often use nodal space as their primary pattern for this
reason. Nodal space collates activity and places it within a socio-spatial structure.
Nodal patterns are also used to create a hierarchy of space, where activity is placed
within a dichotomy of civilisation and wilderness. The walls of the towns in The Elder
Scrolls IV: Oblivion define a relative separation between safety and danger, outside
in the wilds bandits and dangerous animals are rife, inside players find a
concentration of services, characters and quest opportunities. The nodal structure is
used to create a hierarchy of danger, where monsters and game opponents who
pose a higher threat to the player are often found away from places of civilisation,
which are places of relative safety. Availability and quality of loot is then described
by an inverse relationship to points of civilisation. In the multiplayer version of Diablo
(Blizzard Entertainment 1996) no player can kill other players inside town limits 29.
The game places a control over player agency that becomes active within spaces
defined as towns. Rules of behaviour are coded into the space, where the town is
reconstituted as a marker for interaction rules, borrowing from nodal concepts of
safety in civilisation to make the rules easily recognisable in space.
Everyday or ordinary activities are spatially situated inside a nodal pattern. In The
Sims each room acts as a node centred on the customary activities for that space;
eating and cooking in the kitchen, sleeping and dressing in the bedroom. Equally
fantasy games associate everyday activities with the built environment. Baldur’s
noting in particular the action-location metaphor, which is based on a connection between being at
a location and performing certain actions at that specific location.
29
Though in early versions of the game players worked out a “townkill” hack that allowed them to
kill other players in town zones.
Gate is based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Second Edition) rule set and
contains magic and monsters. But Baldur’s Gate also contains prosaic activities
such as shopping, selling and sleeping that occur in centres of civilisation, towns
and inns. Ordinary activity, routines of trade and rest, as opposed to the
extraordinary activity of combat, are associated in the game environment with safe
architectural nodes, centres of civilisation or towns that form a central node or home
base from which players can extrapolate game structure. Baldur’s Gate appends
other game-specific safe activities to these quotidian places, such as memorisation
of spells. Extraordinary and dangerous activity most often takes place outside of the
mundane sub-urbanity of the towns.
Within nodal space architecture can act as a container for activity and operate as a
signifier of civilisation and its comforts. A social correlation between architecture and
inhabitant can also occur in nodal space. In World of Warcraft humanoid life forms
often have a geographic relationship with architecture, where the inimical serpentine
Naga infest ruins, gliding between the wrecked remnants of civilisation. Ruins
extend the structural logic of architecture, creating a mid-point between civilisation
and wilderness. Players looking for particular subsets of humanoids associate them
with particular forms of architecture and look for this within the landscape. Players
approach unknown buildings with care as they are rarely empty and may harbor
friend or foe. Architecture is associated with civilisation and intelligence, both hostile
and friendly, as it is in science fiction narratives, where “architecture is almost
universally used to reveal the presence of intelligent life on other planets”30.
Games that privilege nodal space mimic real life environments, using our familiarity
with architecture and function to signify places where corresponding activities take
place. Nodal games then rely on not subverting popular conceptions of architectural
and landscape roles. In gamespace an inn must be recognisable as an inn to order
to be useful as icon that collates related activity. A town must be distinguishable
from the landscape around it to participate in a hierarchical structure. Architecture is
used in the manner most concurrent with how we use architecture in reality but
games also adopt clichés from other media. Increasingly games are building their
own database of architectural types, where dungeons have game specific meanings
as discrete, often subterranean, constructs replete with monsters and treasure.
30
McGregor, Georgia. Alien Architecture: The Building/s of Extra-Terrestrial Species - Pre-Twentieth
Century. Honours Thesis: BA Architecture, University of Technology, Sydney, 2004, p.65.
Dungeons represent a node of danger and opportunity in a hierarchical structuring

of gamespace. Nodal spaces must also acknowledge that social readings of space
are changeable and are viewed from many different perspectives. Cities in particular
have multiple meanings; from cesspits of vice to an urbane cultural havens. Where
World of Warcraft uses cities to concentrate services and offer safety, a city in Thief:
Deadly Shadows is a place of danger.
Figure 5
Domestic nodal
space in The Sims.
The starter house
displays traditional
areas of function
The Sims (Maxis 2000) implements nodal points within play and within the
construction of gamespace (Fig. 5). Players can move into a ready-made suburban
home complete with traditional areas of program including kitchens, bathrooms and
bedrooms. Alternately the player can construct their own house using a menu of
pre-made items. The player can construct something quite unusual out of these
items, such as a house with toilets in the living space. Yet doing so makes no
difference to gameplay outcomes. When we play against the dominant suburban
uniformity of The Sims the pleasure lies in subverting the normative values. The
Sims then relies on the player to generate these socially acceptable patterns or use
the social norm as a counterpoint. Activity is informally tied to location within a social
pattern. The player plays with the nodal pattern or against it. Either way The Sims
relies on it.
Architecture in nodal gamespace acts as a node, as a centre for convergent

activities. Each node hosts and collates related activity. Nodal space traces a direct
relationship between the activities we perform in gameplay without influencing the
outcome of those activities. Nodal architecture is not an active participant in
gameplay yet it does impact on gameplay by placing boundaries to activity, so that
gameplay activities become location specific. Spatialisation of activity through
architecture and landscape is familiar and easily understood by players even if, as in
Ernest Adams‟ view, buildings are not the most efficient way to organise activity in
games31. Architecture acts as a container to activity, often concentrating activity and
limiting the area of activity. In order to access different activities players need to
access different nodes within gamespace. Architecture provides an overall structure
to the game – both by categorising activity and by providing hierarchy. Without the
embedded architectural association with particular activities gameplay would remain
intact, but the game would be more difficult to learn and harder to navigate.
Nodal space is usually implemented within open constructs of space. The

structuring of gamespace with social patterns of usage is most necessary when the
player needs to make meaningful choices amongst a range of navigational options.
Open games like Oblivion necessitate the use of a social ordering of space in the
way that linear games like Tomb Raider do not. This is not to say that nodal patterns
cannot be implemented in more linear renditions of gamespace. Fable connects
nodal structured areas of action with linear paths. Games that offer limited modes of
interaction do not need to use nodal patterns. FPS games which focus on a pure
combat experience, without detailing any of associated support activities that
warfare entails in reality, do not need to use nodal patterns. Games that contain
heavily scripted narratives, guiding the player through events, do not need to adopt
nodal patterns. Nodal space is a pattern that is used to organise a variety of
possible actions within space and gives an overall structure to divergent gameplay
activities.
But if we can see gamespace as inherently architectural and dependent on modes

of spatial practice in real space, are not all gamespaces nodal to some degree?
Nodal space, however, refers to an implementation of social patterns in gamespace
where activity and program are spatially separated and structured within a hierarchy
31
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20021009/adams_01.htm. Accessed 23 April, 2005.
of space. This mapping of game activity onto space occurs because nodal spaces
associate particular activities with common types of place, building on strong social
patterns of usage in our society. The two components of nodal space are the
segregation of activity through a spatial structure and its associated socio-spatial
meaning. A multiplayer map in Battlefield 2 is clearly less nodal than World of
Warcraft because for the most part its gameplay is not spatially sectioned. Fighting
ranges freely across the map and specific spatial behaviours, such as hiding behind
cover when sniping, occur as a product of localised affordances. While Battlefield 2
does embed some specific activities in space, such as spawn locations, their
placement seems arbitrary in relation to the game world32. Fighting is the dominating
activity and it occurs in shops, homes and high-rise buildings alike. Battlefield 2
ignores social classifications of buildings, instigating topography without social
typologies.
Other games appear to embody a causal relationship between architecture and

what happens in that space, but this relationship is not necessarily an expression of
nodal space. Fighting biological enemies in Half-Life within a scientific installation
after a scientific accident is spatially plausible and makes narrative sense, but this
association does not structure gamespace. Offices, corridors, warehouses and
laboratories are presented to the player in a confusing jumble of diegetic place types
that lend variety to the contests held within them but add little to our understanding
how the spaces of Half-Life are configured. Though specific places may hold
specific challenges, such as the monster who has taken up residence in the blast
pit, activity is not related to building type. The socio-cultural activities that normally
take place within the buildings of Half-Life architecture are suspended. Half-Life
does not use nodal space to structure the game. Neither do games that offer a
casual relationship between architecture and activity operate as nodal spaces.
Isolated example of nodal associations between an architectural object and activity,
such as a weapons shop in Ratchet and Clank, do not structure the overall milieu of
gamespace.
32
It would, for example, be difficult to predict where spawn points occur on a map merely by looking
at that space. The placement of spawn points directly impacts on gameplay and has more to do
with the logic of contested space than any social structure of space.
Nodal space can operate equally well in experiential or symbolic space. World of
Warcraft and Ultima VII both use nodal patterns in remarkably similar ways,
irrespective of their presentation of space. Unlike the subordination of social
readings of space to combat activity in Battlefield 2 or the anarchy of spatial use in
Second Life33, nodal spaces adopt social patterns of spatial use to lend structure
and readability to the game environment. Mattias Ljungström finds that World of
Warcraft uses spatial concepts that correspond with patterns expressed in
Christopher Alexander‟s A Pattern Language, a book which looks at constructing the
built environment to enact social solutions34. Alexander promotes the gathering of
services together, or activity nodes, a pattern expressed in the cities of World of
Warcraft. Ljungström notes the triumvirate of the games most important spatially
situated services, the auction house, bank and mailbox, are situated together
creating a density of activity and players.
Nodal spaces both collate activity within specific, socially defined structure and
correlate those activities within a greater spatial structure. All videogames use
common cultural readings of space to add ambience, but nodal spaces in particular
adopt a social structuring of space. Nodal spaces configure gamespace with a
socio-spatial structure, which helps players to comprehend their layout. As part of
this appropriation of social structure nodal space often simplifies or exaggerates
social patterns. Nodal space can be hierarchical, offering a gradation between
safety and danger. Nodal space can differentiate between different usages of space,
where particular activities are housed in particular structures. Nodal space is a
product of social interactions with architecture, not just a product of the configuration
of space. Nodal patterns lend structure to gameplay, by implementing an overall
structure to gamespace.
4.5 Codified Space

Architecture can be seen as a system of signs. Architecture is both a container and
a shorthand symbol for what it contains. Geoffrey Broadbent has said all buildings
“inevitably carry meaning”35. Architecture denotes its function and connotes other
33
For further information on Second Life see Chapter 5.
34
Ljungström, Mattias. "The Use of Architectural Patterns in MMORPGs". Aesthetics of Play Online
Proceedings. University of Bergen, Norway, 2005. http://www.aestheticsofplay.org/ljunstrom.php.
35
Broadbent, Geoffrey. A Plain Mans Guide to the Theory of Signs in Architecture. New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, 1996, p.133.
more insubstantial meanings. Videogames take this symbolic capacity and develop
it as an essential part of gameplay. A barracks building in Battle for Middle Earth is
not a place to house soldiers but an object that creates soldiers (Fig. 6) and a
marketplace does not trade goods but creates the economic effects that are
associated with trade. The buildings look like architecture but are not habitable
constructs. In Starcraft buildings represent defensive and offensive capabilities,
while in Rise of Legends (Big Huge Games 2006) self-constructing sections of the
city known as districts offer military, industrial and mercantile benefits. Architecture
operates as a sign of its ability to provide items or effects that are associated with it
in reality.
Figure 6
Building as menu in
Battle for Middle
Earth II
Landscape also functions as codified space, particularly when it is seen as a set of

resources as opposed to an experiential space. In Sid Meier’s Civilization IV (Firaxis
Games 2005) each type of landscape has specific effects; grassland gives a bonus
to food production while jungle terrain decreases food production and movement.
Other tiles can be mined or quarried. The landscape is projected as a patchwork of
economic and industrial possibility. Much of the landscape in Company of Heroes is
codified as cover for infantry. The ground next to solid structures is shaded with dots
that designate patches of low or heavy cover, where soldiers can shelter from
enemy fire.
Codified space offers a comprehensible narrative and spatial shortcut in games,

compressing time. Creating a soldier in Battle for Middle Earth II is conducted via a
building menu and takes less than a minute yet this process still makes diegetic
sense, symbolically encompassed within the narrative by the architecture. Codified
architecture works as a symbolic point which allows access to other items. Björk and
Holopainen note that the cities in Civilization series are containers that store game
elements, from food to military units”36. Codified architecture can also spatialise
information. A tavern in Heroes of Might and Magic V allows the player to access
intelligence rumors. Architecture acts as a simplifier that reduces complex
information layers to a comprehensible and localised icon. Strategy games, which
require the management of large amounts of complex information, are the biggest
employers of codified spaces.
Enabled by dissociation and reconstitution, codified space explicitly represents

something more than itself. This can be information or access to objects and effects.
A stable in Battle for Middle Earth II is both a spatial representation (an architectural
object) and an access point that allows players to create cavalry units. As spatial
constructs it is inevitable that videogames should use spatial symbols as a major
part of gameplay. Codified space is about the connection to information that is in
itself not spatial, where data is placed within a spatial allegory, or the presentation of
non-spatial data through a spatial representation. In architectural terms non-spatial
information includes what architecture enables one to do, the effects of architecture
on other things and what architecture accesses, links to or enables. Codified space
represents what it contains and accesses, rather than what it is as a distinct spatial
entity.
Codified spaces contain information and objects used in gameplay, acting as a

conduit for other gameplay elements. In themselves codified objects do not form the
main element of gameplay, but operate as a means of supporting play – acting as
stepping stones to other actions and resources. Codified buildings affect gameplay
by acting as what Björk and Holopainen describe as converters, transforming game
elements into other elements37. Buildings in Starcraft consume basic resources
gathered from the landscape and transform them into military units. Each
36
River Media, 2005. On enclosed disk.
37
Ibid. On enclosed disk.
transformation takes a certain amount of basic resources and a certain amount of

time. Architecture in strategy games exerts an influence on gameplay through the
timing and consumption levels embedded in the building as assigned qualities. In
strategy games the selection of buildings, and therefore of available units, is integral
to gameplay.
Games that codify space formalise the association between architecture and what
architecture can represent. Galloway notes that RTS and resource management
games like Civilization III (Firaxis Games 2001) and SimCity 3000 (Maxis 1999), in
which the player can conduct much of the game through interfaces and menus, are
connected to the diegetic game world but exist at a remove from it38. In Battle for
Middle Earth II the act of spawning an army occurs only by accessing menus from
the buildings, which stand as symbolic containers representing other capabilities.
Architectural properties are transformed into informational matrices and the
architectural object becomes a place where the information layer connects to the
game world. In essence gamespace itself becomes an interface. Buildings act as
intermediaries, where the architectural image is the interface, signifying and allowing
access to different level of information and game objects. Codified space is then a
specific identifiable instance of what Lev Manovich called the image-interface, where
images acquire the role of an interface39.
Codified space as a pattern illustrates how architectural form is distinct from

architectural function in videogames but at the same time owes a debt to
conventions of function. As an interface object in videogames architecture takes on
a new role, where function is embedded in, and united to, the architectural form in a
way that is explicitly formalised by the game rules. Architecture is often used as the
signifier for the intersection with the information level because we associate
architecture with its ability to hold things within its structure.
38
Galloway, Alexander. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Electronic Mediations Vol. 18.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, pp.12-19.
39
p.290.
Architecture functions as a spatial metonymy40, where a building stands for the

processes that occur within it. Marcos Novak argues that any information, any data,
can become architectonic and habitable in cyberspace41. A barracks building in
Battle for Middle Earth 2 signifies the hiring, training and equipping soldiers,
substituting an architectural construct for the activities and objects associated with it.
In Starcraft a factory is an interface that allows players to bring pre-rendered
constructs like siege tanks into play. In reality vehicles are produced by machinery
and workers housed in a factory. Our unconscious familiarity with architecture as a
signifier of what it contains and our ability to metonymically link two associated
concepts, the spatial container and information within, allow the player to intuitively
manipulate gameplay. Without this architectural association gameplay could still
function but the game would operate on a more abstract level and would be more
difficult to play and learn.
Codified space relates to Henry Jenkins‟ concept of embedded narrative, where “the
game world becomes a kind of information space”42, although Jenkins was talking
about how narrative elements are read through spatial detail rather than the coding
of specific information in space. The information space created by codified patterns
is often extraneous to narrative, where codified space is associated with the
metaphoric patching of non-diegetic game components. Spatialisation of activity and
information in codified space often replaces unembellished computational activity.
Rather than accessing routines of saving by using a keyboard based menu system
players of A Dog’s Life maneuver their agent, rendered as a dog, into a kennel to
access saving routines. A kennel in A Dog’s Life operates as an architectural
metaphor that indicates an opportunity for respite and safety and as a spatial means
of metaphorically patching the non-diegetic routine of saving.
40
Metonymy is a literary term where something is called not by its own name but by the name of an
attribute or adjunct related to that thing. Where metaphor operates by linking similar qualities,
metonymy works by because of an association between the two things. The White House is an
example of a metonymy used to refer to the President and his staff.
41
Marcos Novak, “Liquid Architectures in Cyberspace”. Cyberspace: First Steps, 1991. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1991. www.surfacenoise.info/367/readings/novak.pdf. Accessed 18
September 2009.
42
Performance and Game. Harrigan, P. and Wardrip-Fruin, N. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The
MIT Press, 2004, p.126.
It can be argued that many games also contain codified spaces in a secondary
aspect namely in the form of maps. A map simplifies space, being more concerned
with the relationships of things in space than the things themselves. More
importantly a map can represent non-spatial information within a spatial context. The
mini-map in Battle for Middle Earth II show enemy incursions occurring. The map
screen in World of Warcraft shows place names and indicates the affiliation of
inhabitants, while other icons denote capital cities and centres of civilisation. Each of
these games then contains an aspect of codified space. Yet map screens are often
not playable segments of the game, rather they are informational adjuncts to
gameplay. You cannot interact with the map screen in World of Warcraft; it is not
part of the spatial construct of the Warcraft world. In contrast Titan Quest allows
teleportation via portals that access a map screen, bringing the map into play and
making it part of the spatiality of the game world. While all maps are essentially a
form of codification of space, only those maps that are actionable, navigable and
contain non-spatial information actively operate as codified space.
Codified space shares a special relationship with symbolic space. Like symbolic
space codified space partakes in the duality between representation and information
proposed by Manovich. Codified space uses space to represent other kinds of
information, rather than being concerned with spatial experience. Codified patterns
are most commonly seen in symbolic space, partly because codification occurs
principally in strategy games, which are dominated by symbolic space. Given that
symbolic space is more concerned with the conceptual relationships with space this
is not surprising, yet codification is equally possible in experiential space.
Experiential games often codify parts of gamespace. The med-station in Half-Life is
a codified spatial insertion of game mechanics. Metaphoric patching with
architectural or landscape components is often a localised act of codifying space, a
limited instance of codification within gameplay.
Discussing the patterns of spatial use in his doctoral thesis, Steffen Walz queries
whether codified space is in fact “not a gamespace pattern per se, but an activity
prevalent when playing a computer game”43. He supports his argument by noting
that all activity in computer games is a manipulation of data (data that represents
something else). Hence riding a horse in a computer game is a manipulation of
43
Walz, Steffen P. Toward a Ludic Architecture: Framing the Space of Play and Games. Doctoral
Thesis, Faculty of Architecture, ETH Zurich, 2008, p.95.
horse data. But the difference between this kind of generalised data manipulation
and my use of codified space is that while all activity and representation in
videogames is coded into data, codified space (as a pattern of spatial use) refers
specifically to the presentation of non-spatial data through a spatial representation.
A representation of a house or a horse in a videogame is a representation of spatial
data, in that both houses and horses have dimensionality in real space.
Codified space is a transformation of space, where information or non-spatial

actions are added to space. Houses can become producers of economic benefits;
equally horses could be coded as a source of economic effect. While we could be
pedantic and argue that all activity takes place in space and is hence spatial, for
practical purposes we can say that non-spatial data includes all those things without
intrinsic dimensionality (such the economic benefits offered by a marketplace in
Battle for Middle Earth 2) and things that collapse a multitude of spatial activities into
a single point (such as the production of a siege tank by a building in Starcraft). The
encoding of non-spatial information into spatial format is of course not a unique
quality of videogames, for example a three-dimensional graph of sales data is a
representation of non-spatial data in a spatial form.
In codified space, architecture is a symbol for something more than itself.

Architecture in codified space acts as means of spatialising non-spatial information.
Codified space is an interface to information, objects and effects, a means of
accessing non-diegetic information and activity, operating as spatial metonymy and
spatial metaphor. With increasing spatialisation of information occurring across
many forms of virtual media codified space as a pattern has implications that reach
far beyond videogames.
4.6 Creation Space

Architecture is something built. Gamespace is also something that can be
constructed as a part of gameplay. Sim-City 3000 requires the player to create and
manage a city, through zoning land, placing services and building transport
networks. The player changes the game environment indelibly, changes that are
reflected in the city‟s growth. Creation space occurs in The Sims when we build a
house, in Battle for Middle Earth 2 when we construct a defensive base (Fig. 7) and
in Trackmania (Nadeo 2004) when a player creates and edits a racetrack. Björk and
Holopainen describe construction as a gameplay pattern, as “the action of
introducing new game elements that are presented as intentional constructions into
the Game World44”, or as deliberate environmental implementations by the player.
Creation space occurs when gameplay implements the creation of gamespace itself.
Figure 7
Creating buildings
and placing walls in
Battle for Middle
Earth II
Architecture is something that is continually altered, remodelled and reused by its

inhabitants. Buildings are redecorated, renovated and revised. An Elven fortress in
BFME II can be upgraded with additional structures and capabilities, improved by
the addition of encasing vines to make it stronger, a crystal moat to protect its flanks
and a vigilant Ent that hurls boulders at nearby enemies. Björk and Holopainen note
that the act of reconfiguring the game world can include changes in the spatial
setting and in the rules that govern the game45. Creation space can then include the
ability to change not only the look of gamespace but also the ability to alter
environmental elements like gravity and friction.
Opening a door in gamespace is not creation space, merely a change in state of an

existing environment. Unlocking a door in Tombraider allows the player to explore
further but does not alter the composition of space. Enacting a pre-scripted event is
not creation space. Players must initiate the resonant cascade scenario in Half Life
to proceed in the game but they have no authorial control over the resultant event.
44
45
Ibid, p.58.
Creation space then implies a degree of choice by the player. Whereas many
changes in the game state occur outside the control of the player as predetermined
events, creation space enable gamespace to be configured and reconfigured under
the authorial control of the player, where the player‟s choices impact upon
gameplay.
Creation space can also be destructive. This might be combative as in Battle for
Middle Earth 2 when live opponents attempt to undo your base-building efforts. Or it
might be part of an environmental puzzle as in Katamari Damacy (Namco 2004)
where an adhesive ball is rolled around the game world until it is large enough to
replace the stars accidentally destroyed by the King of the Cosmos. Each item
added changes the totality of the ball – as the ball grows it can grab larger and
larger items. Parts of gamespace itself become detachable objects that can be
consumed by the ball, which ravages desk tops, street furniture and finally
architecture like a sticky Godzilla on speed. Buildings are clumped into a monster
ball, uprooting insipid office blocks and harvesting domestic homes, till the
continents themselves become a target.
Like most strategy games Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment 2006)

incorporates creation space as part of base building, yet this is only a small part of
the game, which encourages offensive play by spacing resources across the whole
landscape. Apart from building base structures like weapons support centres and
motor pools, players can also create battlefield structures, sandbag walls and tank
traps, taking creation space across the full arena of play. More interesting Company
of Heroes also instigates creation patterns through a fully destructible environment,
allowing players to not only smash player-built structures but giving them the ability
to demolish nearly every structure in gamespace. Using heavy artillery,
flamethrowers and tanks players can annihilate buildings under enemy control. As
they collapse and burn, new pathways are opened up and cover for enemy troops
diminished. The destruction of gamespace is a vital tool in denying resources to the
enemy. This is creation space through demolition.
The ability to damage an environment does not indicate creation space, unless that
damage has an impact on gameplay. In the same way that a player may leave
behind a level filled with bloodstains and bodies, destructible levels can be filled with
the carcasses of buildings, the architectural equivalent to gore. If a war game allows
you to blow up buildings but that demolition does not allow you to access different
areas, impede enemies or otherwise affect outcomes then environmental
destruction functions only as eye candy. Destroying buildings in Company of Heroes
does more than provide vicarious pleasure; it denies cover for the enemy, changing
the battlefield and the battle. In creation space architecture and landscape function
not only as the game environment but become intrinsically part of the player‟s
toolbox. Space is not just a place to play in but also a thing to play with.
Creation space can operate directly under the player‟s control, or operate as an
indirect process. Björk and Holopainen note that constructive play can have
emergent properties46. In SimCity 3000 the player sets parameters to construction
by placing city infrastructure, yet the process of construction itself is largely out of
the player‟s control. A small number of individual buildings can be directly placed by
the player in the city grid but most are built by the game engine according to how
well the player manages the cities requirements. Urban districts can grow into model
neighbourhoods or decay into slums. Most of the urban landscape in SimCIty 3000
acts as a remote creation space, indirectly channelled by the player.
In their game classification structure Christian Elverdam and Espen Aarseth label
the ability to alter gamespace as environmental dynamics, distinguishing between
games which allow the player to alter gamespace freely and those that only allow
construction in predetermined positions47. Yet even games which would classify as
freely allowing construction limit creative opportunity through environmental barriers.
In Battle for Middle Earth II you can build anywhere as long as it is not on a hill, or a
river, or a tree or any number of predefined inaccessible areas. Battle for Middle
Earth II also limits construction to a set menu of buildings for each playable species.
Creation space limits what can be achieved by offering a number of pre-rendered
choices and providing only a small range of construction tools. Zoo Tycoon allows
manipulation of the landscape with tools for creating hills, hollows and plateaus.
Players can then select from a range of ground surfaces and paving, fences and
street furniture to decorate the land. Buildings are pre-constructed complete objects
that the player can buy and place in their terra-formed map (Fig. 8). Zoo Tycoon
offers environmental freedom in landscaping but combines that with severe
46
47
Elverdam, Christian and Aarseth, Espen. "Game Classification and Game Design". Games and
Culture. Volume 2, Number 1, 2007, p.7.
restrictions to architectural choice. Limiting choice is way of channelling player

activity, reducing options focuses attention on other areas of gameplay. Creation
space then contains options but not infinite choice.
Figure 8
The player can buy

prefabricated
buildings in Zoo
Tycoon, but cannot
create their own
buildings
Other games give the player the opportunity to create a personal locale in the game,
a house or perhaps, depending on the inclination of the player, a castle. For some
players this becomes the focus of their endeavours. In Everquest 2 (Sony Online
Entertainment) players can purchase one room apartments or five room houses,
empty and requiring decoration. Ultima Online also allows the player to purchase a
large range of houses or fortified buildings from an architect or from another player.
Players can customise and decorate the houses, select stairs or teleportation
devices as means of accessing different floors and use them as secure storage
depots. Interior design and real estate becomes a raison d'être for killing monsters
and trading for currency.
The modification of gamespace through editing-software provided by game

developers can be considered as another facet of creation space. The Elder Scrolls
Construction Set was supplied with the game Morrowind, allowing the player to build
houses and three-dimensional constructs. In conjunction with third party modding
tools the construction set allows modders to place plugins back into the existing
game environment or create entirely new gamespaces. These mods can range from
household items to entire worlds48. Modding is an integral part of some games. The
ability for players to script their own game module is an essential part of Neverwinter
Nights (Bioware 2002), one of the main criticisms of the first game was that it was
basically a toolkit with a token single-player campaign. The modding community for
The Sims is also very active in the creation of houses and household items.
Modders have been an integral part of the gaming community since Doom released
its code. Yet modding is not truly part of gameplay. Nitsche and associates note that
“there is a clear differentiation between playing and content generation. Players
have to work in an external editor to change the game world, recompile it, before
they can play it. Play and space generation still remain separated”49. Creation space
is a pattern of spatial use while modding is a way of changing space that occurs
outside of gameplay. On that point alone modding is not part of creation space. Yet
modding can affect gameplay dramatically and can be considered as part of the
overall game experience. In this way mods and plugins overlap with creation space.
Another overlap with creation space occurs in user-generated worlds like Second
Life, where players can create architecture, landscape and objects, coding their
interactions. However non-gamic virtual worlds like Second Life are not
videogames50. Nitsche notes that these kind of virtual spaces “lack many of the
features of a game”51.
Creation space occurs when gamespace is appreciably altered or created under the
authorial control of the player. Creation acts can be constructive, ranging from acts
of decoration to environmental construction on a grand scale, or destructive.
Occurring under the authorial control of the player creation acts affect play by
enacting significant changes to gamespace, whether the player chooses from a
designated range of prefabricated options or creates spatial change through tools
48
Such as the rebuilding of the entire world of Tamriel from the Elder Scrolls Games using the
construction tools supplied by Bethseda Softworks. Tamriel Rebuilt. www.tamriel-rebuilt.org.
Accessed 30 June 2007.
49
50
See Chapter 5 for a further exposition on the difference between non-gamic virtual worlds like
Second Life and videogames.
51
that act upon space. The creation of space becomes an integral part of gameplay
Creation space can be considered as forming the act of play.
4.7 Backdrops
Toca Race Driver 3 (Codemasters 2006) contains both a spatially challenging
environment of racetrack and plethora of inaccessible buildings that recede into the
distance. These buildings are visually detailed but cannot be entered,
circumnavigated or interacted with (Fig. 9). The buildings on the edge of the game
world stand for a greater environment, shorthand for the rest-of-the-world. Race
Driver world is a screen world that remains forever inaccessible beyond the focus of
the race. Trackside exists only as a backdrop to the gameplay arena of pit and road,
where architecture does not affect or form gameplay. The player can see the
buildings and distant countryside but can never reach them, attempting to drive into
the distance results in the player being catapulted into a loading screen, arriving
back at the racetrack only a short distance after attempting to leave it. The stands
are protected by an impassable fence and the pits never materialise at the end of
the driveway.
Figure 9
Inaccessible
buildings that the
player can never
reach in Toca Race
Driver 3
The buildings and surrounding countryside in Toca Race Driver 3 function as

backdrops, sections of gamespace that the player cannot act upon, either through
move acts or expressive acts. Toca Race Driver 3 is focused on the act of driving, a
challenge space that uses inert objects to further its illusion of space. The buildings
are not necessary for the gameplay in the same way that the track is – they are part
of the setting but not part of the substance. Björk and Holopainen note that truly
inaccessible areas “provide player‟s with the illusion that the game world or level is
larger than it is”52. A racing game is a tightly focused experience that benefits from
concentrating its efforts on the action space of racetrack, using backdrops to add
further contextual spaces that are not essential to active gameplay but are important
in contributing to the atmosphere.
Backdrops are a conscious design choice (and sometimes a failure) to limit

navigational functionality to an area. Spaces that the player can see but not reach,
places that by their appearance we could expect to navigate. We expect to be able
to traverse them, even if it is to fall off a cliff and die. Disconnected from our
expectations backdrops are separated from the rest of gamespace because the
customary affordances associated with their structures in real life are negated. The
termination of gamespace in a wall is not a backdrop; the wall offers its customary
affordances of preventing egress unlike the meadows beyond the racetrack which
cannot be traversed despite appearances to the contrary. Backdrops direct play, by
presenting the player with unnavigable space they set out limits to movement. Most
videogames are careful about using spatially plausible means of controlling and
limiting gamespace, controlling interior and exterior areas with architectural and
topological barriers, but some games adopt backdrops as a consequence of
diminishing returns in depicting areas of gamespace not directly involved in
gameplay. By using backdrops designers can give the impression of an extensive
game world, without having to produce content for spaces outside the main areas of
gameplay.
If gamespace is actionable it is not a backdrop. When gamespace is inert,

unnavigable and un-able to be acted upon it reverts to a backdrop, a throwback to
earlier less ergodic forms of representation. Backdrops are the default position of
gamespace when no functional qualities are assigned to gamespace. The rule
52
driven nature of videogame demands that gamespace must adopt a particular

pattern of spatial use or else be relegated to a backdrop. The ergodic nature of
videogames also indicates that backdrops will almost never be a primary pattern in a
representational game‟s make up. Backdrops play no part in gameplay beyond
acting as part of the mise-en-scène. Their function is almost entirely atmosphere,
though they can also impart information or act as landmarks orientating the player in
the environment. A non-interactive cut scene can be considered as a backdrop in its
lack of navigational functionality. Architectural backdrops are cast in a supporting
role – they provide diegetic context to gameplay and as such are important despite
their remove from gameplay.
Backdrops can be used to reduce spatial interaction. Choosing “walking the dog”
mode in Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD 2005) presents the player with a set of buildings
that are backdrops. Players choose the route for their walk in a map mode with a
bird‟s eye view of the town. Once on the streets the buildings scroll past like a
moving panorama. The player can make the dog move faster or slower but cannot
change their direction, nor move closer to the passing buildings, which remain at a
set distance from the gameplay. There are a small number of places that walking
enables you to visit in person: a discount shop, a gymnasium and a park. Yet each
of these areas can only be preselected on the map screen. Similarly the home
screen, which shows an interior room where the player can interact and play with
their dog, has walls that can never be reached. The junction between wall and
experiential floor space is hazy, an atmospheric loss of detail that implies a distance
that can never be crossed. The walls are dissociated from the space in which
gameplay takes place and providing only a visual context to the floor. Backdrops
concentrate the active areas of gamespace in Nintendogs into scrolling and planar
domains.
Any navigable space is not a backdrop. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas many of
the buildings appear to function as backdrops. Players cannot enter them or access
further information through them, or interact with them. Yet players can make their
avatar land on them via aerial transport and then base-jump off them. More
importantly the player can travel around them. They are inaccessible in terms of
interior function yet they are still spatial constructs that the player can navigate. In
this way the buildings of San Andreas operate as spatial objects and not as
backdrops. They create and define navigational pathways between them as part of
their construction of city. As objects they still play an active role within gameplay,
containing what Dan Pinchbeck notes as passive affordances53, distinct from the
more actionable affordances of the environment.
Architecture as a backdrop can still be a spatial three-dimensional construct but

remains separate from navigable space, its assigned qualities unavailable or
unattainable. The grandstands of Toca Race Driver 3 are three-dimensional
constructs, their perspective alters as you drive past them, but they function as
backdrops in their inaccessibility. It can be argued that a backdrop can never be an
experiential space. An architectural backdrop is reduced to a symbolic level by a
lack of interactivity and the inability to negotiate it. To enter and traverse architecture
is to have a relationship with that space. Even the two-dimensional architecture of
“point and click” adventure games can be acted upon and explored with the mouse.
The architecture of backdrops can take any form but without being navigable or
interactive, remains a spatial pastiche. In reality we are always aware of the
spatiality of architecture. We know it can be navigated even if we are denied access.
Real architecture is never a backdrop in the same way as in videogames,
notwithstanding the sham architecture of movie sets and theme parks.
4.8 Spatial Patterns in Use

Do other patterns exist? The answer is emphatically yes. This thesis does not
presume to list every way in which gameplay and gamespace interact. The six
patterns listed here describe a series of prevalent gamespace and gameplay
interactions that express fundamental relationships between space and play. The
most crucial pattern not discussed in this thesis is the notion of narrative space.
Every gamespace is in part a narrative space, where space is constructed to
support a particular sequence of events, and a contextual realm that lends meaning
to gameplay. Gamespace acts as a milieu in which gameplay occurs. As a
representational space each environment brings to the game an immeasurable
quantity of cultural connotations. Jenkins notably described ways in which
gamespace creates, connects to and reinforces narrative54, but the very
53
Pinchbeck, Dan. "Counting Barrels in Quake 4: Affordances and Homediegetic Structures in FPS
Worlds". Situated Play: Proceeding of the DiGRA 2007 Conference. Tokyo, 2007, p.9.
54
Jenkins, Henry. "Game Design as Narrative Architecture". First Person: New Media as Story,
Performance and Game. Harrigan, P. and Wardrip-Fruin, N. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The
MIT Press, 2004, pp.118-130.
inclusiveness of the pattern limits its usefulness in describing interactions between

space and play. Investigating the links between gamespace and narrative sits
outside the aim of this thesis55.
Other observable patterns in gamespace are more thematic in nature, describing an

attribute of spatial activity rather than addressing any underlying relationship with
gameplay. The hosting of social activity could be described as a spatial pattern, yet
a large component of social practice in games occurs outside the spatial diegesis56.
Still other patterns of spatial use that we can observe in real space translate
uncomfortably into videogames. The implementation of domestic space in
videogames is dissociated from domestic functionality. While houses in The Sims
mimic domestic patterns of activity, apartments in Knights of the Old Republic house
assailants and little else. Others patterns reiterate the themes underlying the six
patterns. A boss-battle is a subset of contested space.
The patterns discussed in this chapter were chosen because they describe
fundamental connections between gamespace and gameplay. Virtually all
videogames use one or more of the patterns described in this chapter. Many
videogames are dominated by a primary pattern, using secondary implementations
of other patterns in a supporting role. Appendix 3 lists the patterns of spatial use
employed in a number of videogames. Other games employ a specific mix of
patterns. As Ulf Wilhelmsson says, “If we are to do something specific the
environment must be set up accordingly57”.
Toca Race Driver 3 is at once a contested space, where players compete over a
spatial objective, a challenge space, where the player must negotiate a twisting path
in the environment, and a user of backdrops in creating the non-accessible world
beyond the track. The primary pattern is that of contested space, the objective of the
game is to win the race, competing against other players or AI controlled cars. The
racetrack operates as a challenge space yet this is not as important as the idea of
55
See Henry Jenkins, Janet Murray, Michael Nitsche and Marie-Laure Ryan for work on connections
between narrative and space.
56
Chapter 7 discusses social activity in the context of virtual worlds, noting that, while space
influences social activity, a large amount of social interplay occurs through non-spatial means,
primarily through text and voice channels.
57
p.68.
competition. The physical challenge of the twisting track adds interest to the spatial
contest between the race cars, increasing difficulty and influencing outcomes. Toca
Race Driver 3 uses backdrops as a supporting pattern to sustain the spatial diegesis
around the track without investing in that space as navigable and usable. This blend
of patterns, driven by the gameplay demands, is used by most racing games.
Games can change their spatial patterns within discrete areas of the game
environment. The patterns can then be used to describe over-arching patterns of
use in gamespace as an overall concept and used to describe spatial relationships
within a portion of gamespace. The nodal pattern that supports gameplay in World
of Warcraft is suspended within the player-versus-player battlegrounds, where
contested space rules supreme and gameplay is significantly different from questing
in rest of the game world. A game might introduce a single instance of a pattern in a
discreet area of space. Nintendogs is dominated by nodal space and only brings
challenge space into play within a specific context, during agility trials.
Early videogames used simple iterations of patterns. Due to technological limitations

many expressed only a single pattern. Space Invaders (Taito Corporation 1978) and
Pacman are contested spaces where the single screen limits gameplay and
delineates a compact combat zone. Each pattern of spatial use appeared early in
the development of videogames, contested space is found in Space Wars
(Cinematronics 1977), challenge space in Super Mario Bros (Nintendo 1885), nodal
space in Ultima 1 (Richard Garriott 1980), codified space in Dune II (Westwood
Studios 1992), creation space in SimCity (Maxis 1989) and backdrops in The Way of
the Exploding Fist (Beam Software 1985).
Commonalities in pattern use arise within different genres. The concept of genre in
videogames, however, is problematic. Mark J. P. Wolf sets out more than 40
possible classifications of genre58. Yet his proliferation of genres includes many that
are not in common usage. Other frequently used genre classifications, like
adventure games, are notoriously difficult to define. Yet the gaming community
continues to use genre to differentiate between games. The most clearly defined
and historically well-developed genres show a close association with particular
patterns. (Appendix 4 tables the use of spatial patterns by genre).
58
Wolf, Mark J. P. (Ed). The Medium of the Video Game. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001,
pp.116-134.
FPS are dominated by contested space, reflecting the central role of personal
conflict in gameplay. Strategy games are defined by a blend of contested, creation
and codified space. MMO‟s and RPG‟s commonly blend contested space with
navigational challenges and nodal patterns, where spatial organisation gives
structure to open expanses of space and an assortment of goals. Puzzle and
platform games always use challenge space. This suggests that these genres are
tied to the type of spatial experience offered. In contrast poorly defined genres that
cover a wide variety of gameplay styles, including adventure and simulation games,
express a more divergent set of patterns. Potentially spatial patterns could be use to
define genre distinctions, however further work is required.
The current trend in pattern implementation is moving towards more intricate

configurations of multiple patterns that link together in sophisticated ways. Driven
partly by increased capacity of game engines to simulate realistic physics and
physical properties, videogames are merging environmental capabilities into
gameplay. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition adds environmental complications to a
third person shooter. Trapped on an ice-bound planet players continually lose
thermal energy in the cold. Losing too much heat results in loss of health and
eventually death. Thermal energy can be acquired from enemies and environmental
stations. Combat becomes both a means of defending oneself and a way of
surviving a hostile environment. Not only do players have to deal with opponents
they are also in opposition to the environment. Lost Planet blends challenge space
with the primary pattern of contested space.
Gamespaces that code space with multifarious properties enable emergent play.
Jesper Juul describes emergent gameplay as “situations where a game is played in
a way that the game designer did not predict”59. Emergent gameplay can be
designed for by providing flexible interactions between game objects, resulting in
unseen combinations of embedded elements. Harvey Smith describes unanticipated
emergent play in Deus Ex (Ion Storm 2000) where players would lead a soldier unit
that exploded upon death next to a locked container, killing the soldier and using the
ensuing explosion to open the container, subverting the spatial challenge set into
the lock60. Emergent gameplay can then alter the embedded patterns of spatial use.
59
Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005, p.76
60
Smith, Harvey. “The Future of Game Design: Moving Beyond Deus Ex and Other Dated Paradigms”.
Players can also choose to ignore predefined spatial patterns and superimpose their
own goals onto the game environment. But most embedded patterns of spatial use
are surprisingly resilient. Players can ignore the quests in Morrowind and set out
instead to collect Dweemer artefacts, yet players are still bound to negotiate the
same contested space set in a nodal pattern in the process of fulfilling their own
goals. That emergent gameplay can subvert the underlying patterns reminds us that
gameplay is a negotiation between game and player.
Other games like Bioshock and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (Arkane Studios
2006) place the environment as a weapon in contested space. Players can use
elements of the gamespace to kill their opponents; using telekinesis to throw chunks
of architecture, freezing opponents in pools of water, dropping enemies into deep
chasms by removing a strut from the bridge they are standing on. Yet Bioshock
remains a contested space at heart. Remove the opponents and the offensive
elements of gamespace become useless. The environment contains an implicit
challenge, prompting players to ask how they can use gamespace to their
advantage, but is cast in a supporting role to the contest. If contested space acts as
an arena for conflict then in these games the arena has just become more active.
Adding realistic physical characteristics to environments and creating destructible

environments extends player agency, integrating gameplay further into gamespace
and driving pattern integration. Company of Heroes uses the contested/codified
blend that is ubiquitous within real time strategy games, but then extends it by
allowing every structure in the game world to operate within the codified pattern,
where buildings can be converted into defensive structures or productive parts of the
player‟s base. Creation space is instigated across the whole battlefield in the same
manner, where every structure that can be used in gameplay by one player is also
vulnerable to destruction. This seamless blend of the three patterns integrates
contested space more fully into the landscape, requiring deeper spatial strategies
from the player.
International Game Developers Association. October 2001.

http://www.igda.org/articles/hsmith_future.php. Accessed 28 June 2008.
Figure 10
Beast and building -

Colossus 1 from
Shadow of the
Colossus
Ingenious games play with the nature of the patterns. In Shadow of the Colossus,
contested and challenge space is contained within an open world, where the player
is free to explore. Specific spatial and adversarial challenges are sequentially
presented to the player through the story line. The player must find a way to each of
the sixteen gargantuan colossi, defeating them in turn to complete the game (Fig.
10). Using their sword to highlight the direction of the next colossus, the player sets
out across a landscape that encompasses navigational challenges, wayfinding to
the distant and hidden colossi, and the physical challenges of traversing difficult
terrain. Despite featuring an open space Shadow of the Colossus does not
implement a nodal pattern in its space, but this is part of the narrative severing of
gamespace from ordinary everyday life. The world of the colossi is mythic in nature.
Here one might, through great travail, bring back the souls of the dead. Even to
“trespass upon that land is strictly forbidden”61. There are no social patterns in this
lonely land. Navigation is assisted in this vast space through artificial means, by the
in-game artefact of wayfinding sword, rather than through nodal patterning.
Each inimical colossus must be climbed in order to be conquered. Colossi that fly or
swim must first be brought to ground so that the player can attempt to ascend. The
colossi try to dislodge and kill the player, shaking and stamping their huge forms.
Once atop the colossus the player targets its weak points and stabs them with a
sword. Repeated stabs kill the colossus which falls to the ground. Gamespace
becomes a contested space, where a brutal fight between the player and colossus
occurs. The game landscape provides an environmental arena for each fight, a
challenge space that is an integral part of combat, space that can aid or oppose the
player. The colossi are contained within a section of gamespace, prevented from
leaving the fight arena by the topological features. Each fight with a Colossus
presents specific environmental trials, where the player must use the landscape for
advantage, the initial attacks on a Colossus may be more prudent from a safe
vantage point or the player may need to use the environment in order to ascend the
colossus. Shadow of the Colossus seamlessly blends challenge and contested
spaces.
But there is also an ambiguity to the nature of the colossi, clad as they are in
fragments of architectural form. Bones rise out of the creatures like ancient stone
beams amongst the grass-like fur or the fur-like grass that grows across the beasts.
Some are girded with balconies while others erupt in finials and bastions (Fig. 11).
The final colossus rises like an ancient temple, a living Borobudur that is part man
and part building, an archi-borg of monumental proportions. All the colossi contain
stone elements that reflect the decorated and weathered ruins that litter the
landscape. Are they living creatures that have taken on architectural form, or
architectural constructs that have taken on life? The distinction between gamespace
and game denizen is blurred. Are we contesting them or do we confront them as an
environmental challenge? Shadow of the Colossus cleverly manipulates the
essence of challenge space and contested space, obscuring the boundary between
the two.
61
Game prologue. Shadow of the Colossus (Team Ico 2005).
Figure 11
Concept drawing
for beast with
architectural
elements in Shadow
of the Colossus
4.9 Patterns of Spatial Use

The patterns express fundamental ways of relating to space that have been made
explicit in videogames, enabled by processes of dissociation and reconstitution.
Each pattern describes a construction of space that determines or affects how
gameplay takes place and expresses an interaction between gamespace and the
type of play offered in the game. That there can be a difference between intended
and actual use of gamespace reminds us that gameplay occurs as interplay
between game and player and that gameplay is not generated by space alone. As
constructions of space the patterns direct play by enabling and influencing particular
activities.
Each pattern sets out a relationship between space and play. In challenge space
gamespace directly challenges the player, wherein space directly forms gameplay.
In contested space the game environment acts as an arena for conflict, affecting but
not creating gameplay. In nodal space videogames use social arrangements of
space to organise space, structuring gameplay through spatial compositions. In
codified space non-spatial information is spatialised, wherein space acts as a
signifying interface that reframes complex play routines. In creation space

gamespace is indelibly altered by the player, where changing space becomes
gameplay. In backdrops space is non-interactive, wherein space is not an active part
of gameplay.
Table 1
Patterns of spatial use
Where Space
Challenge gamespace directly challenges the
forms
Space player
Contested gamespace is a setting for contests

affects
Space between entities
gamespace is organised with social

Nodal Space organises
patterns
Codified gamespace represents non-spatial

re-frames
Space information
Creation gamespace is altered under the

becomes
Space players control as part of gameplay
players cannot directly interact with

Backdrops sits outside of
gamespace
Gameplay
Gamespace can be an active unit of gameplay but gamespace can also work to
structure, support and influence play. Challenge space is an active dominant
component of gameplay. Contested space is a less active, influencing component of
gameplay. Nodal space is a structural background to gameplay. Codified space is a
symbolic structure reframing elements of gameplay. Creation space is an active
component of gameplay under the control of the player. Backdrops are external to
gameplay, supporting play diegetically. That backdrops do not have an active role in
gameplay serves to illustrate the ludic nature of space in the other patterns.
Some of the patterns require or demand active input from the player, others are
more passive. Challenge, contested and creation spaces work with active input from
the player, embedding the patterns across all the units of gamespace. In particular
contested space describes a pattern that is dependent on players playing a certain
way. Nodal spaces, codified spaces and backdrops are more passively
implemented. Nodal and codified space have more to do with modes of

interpretation, while backdrops remove player agency altogether. Each pattern has
to be implemented or enabled by the game designer through the construction of
space but also describes the play that occurs in that space and thus is equally
dependant on the player.
Gamespace is based on real space. Videogames display recurrent patterns of

spatial use, taken from reality, altered and formalised by the demands of gameplay.
Each pattern has a particular relationship with gameplay and through this
association reveals ways in which gamespace relates to gameplay. The patterns
also help us to understand how play takes place in space and may have implications
for understanding play in the real world62. Each of the patterns is situated within the
diegetic context of gamespace. The patterns operate within a larger narrative
context and connotative milieu. The patterns describe recurring instances of spatial
use during play, other forms of play also occur.
The patterns of spatial use are a way of understanding how videogames use space
both to create and to influence play. Gamespace has been constructed to support
predetermined play experiences. The patterns of spatial use show that play is
connected to gamespace through a series of relationships, where space creates,
manipulates and supports gameplay. The patterns of spatial use express a series of
primary relationships between space and play, where space is constructed and
functions to form or support particular forms of play.
62
There might be interest in comparing how we situate play in real space to how we situate play in
videogames. Equally there could be interest in examining instances where architecture in real
space is influence by videogames.
Chapter 5 Terra Ludus, Terra Paidia &
Terra Prefab
Spatialisation of Play
Videogames are created for play, which is in part formed and controlled by
gamespace. “Play is the free space of movement within a more rigid structure”1
according to Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. Gameplay, as spatially enabled, is
constrained by what actions are enabled by the predefined structure of gamespace.
Ian Bogost argues that what we really do when we play videogames is “explore the
possibility space its rules afford by manipulating the game‟s controls”2. Gamespace
contains a range of possibilities of play.
Play can be understood as paidia and ludus, terms introduced by Roger Caillois to
describe an axis of play between structured rule-driven games and freeform
imaginative play. This chapter examines the role of gamespace in forming paidia
and ludus. To enable a full spectrum of play to be analysed the discourse is
extended beyond videogames to include non-gamic virtual worlds. As multiplayer
constructs virtual worlds offer a wide range of activities, ranging from the anarchic
freedom of worlds like Second Life to more defined experiences in games like World
of Warcraft. This chapter benefits from including virtual worlds in discussing paidia
and ludus because non-gamic worlds typically impose less structure on play than
videogames.
This chapter begins by examining the differences between videogames and virtual
world, looks at the role of space in fostering social interaction and then moves to
analyse how space functions to facilitate different forms of play. This chapter
identifies and defines an axis of play where paidia and ludus are spatially regulated
and formed through spatial goals and spatial rules. Articulating the spatialisation of
play in virtual environments as terra ludus and terra paidia. An intermediary
construction of space situated between ludus and paidia is also identified and
1
2
Terra Ludus, Terra Paidia & Terra Prefab 200
termed as a terra prefab, where implicit goals and a series of prefabricated choices
restrict gameplay options.
Like the last chapter, this section also examines the function of gamespace, looking
at the ways in which space is constructed to facilitate different types of play.
Identifying the ways in which paidia and ludus are spatialised allows us to analyse
and compare different constructions of gamespace. By investigating how paidia and
ludus are spatialised in videogames and virtual worlds we see how gamespaces
spatially manipulate and control play.
5.1 Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds take the paraphernalia of digital games and construct places for
multiple users, forming a continuum that includes games and social worlds. Virtual
worlds offer both gamic and non-gamic forms of play. From the structured gameplay
of World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment 2004) to the user-generated, freeform
play of Second Life (Linden Lab 2003), virtual worlds offer a range of play in spaces
that appear to be markedly similar in their design, construction and representation,
notwithstanding stylistic differences. Spatiality is an important feature of both
videogames and virtual worlds.
Lisbeth Klastrup defines a virtual world as “a persistent online representation, which

contains the possibility of synchronous interaction between users and between user
and world within the framework of a space designed as a navigable universe”3.
Videogames constructed for single-player campaigns are not virtual worlds, because
they do not provide for interaction between concurrent users. Other videogames
that provide for multiple users are excluded from being virtual worlds because their
representation of space is a temporary construct. In online FPS games like Unreal
Tournament 2004 players fight each other in an environment that lasts only till
victory conditions have been met or the players have left the field. The game world
lasts only for the duration of the match and gamespace is reformed for every match.
Virtual worlds in contrast provide an environment that continues to exist even when
no players are interacting with it.
3
Klastrup, Lisbeth. "A Poetics of Virtual Worlds". The Fifth International Digital Arts and Culture
Conference. RMIT, Melbourne, 2003, p.101.
Klastrup continues the definition: virtual worlds are “worlds you can move in, through
persistent representation(s) of the user, in contrast to the represented worlds of
traditional fictions, which are worlds presented as inhabitable by real people, but not
actually habitable”4. Virtual worlds, like videogames, incorporate player agency in a
representation of space with assigned qualities. Text-based chat rooms are not
virtual worlds because, as Klastrup notes they “are not spatially extended”5, but non-
graphical constructs like TinyMUD (James Aspnes 1989) and Lambda MOO (Pavel
Curtis 1990), which describe space with words, are. Gordon Calleja argues that
virtual worlds are assemblages of virtual environments – “computer generated
domains which create a perception of space and permit modification through the
exertion of agency”6. The representation of the user is both the point at which the
player can exert agency on the environment, the player‟s „game ego‟, and a
representation of that user that other people see. Richard Bartle notes the
importance of the player‟s representation in the world, through which all interaction
with the world and other players is enacted7.
Klastrup immediately goes on to note that virtual worlds are different from other
forms of virtual environments in that their scope makes it impossible to imagine
them in their spatial totality. Calleja too picks up on this in his definition, “virtual
worlds are composite assemblages of persistent, multi-user virtual environments
extending over a vast geographical empire”8. These spaces can be navigationally
fragmented or coherent. The single rooms of Habbo Hotel (Sulake Corporation
2000) require no scrolling to explore, yet there is a multiplicity of rooms linked
together as units in a vast network. Richard Bartle notes a world “is a space of
interaction the inhabitants of which regard as a mainly self-contained unit”9. World
implies a state of complexity, virtual worlds are characteristically expansive and
typically contain more than one distinct space.
4
5
Ibid, p.101.
6
Calleja, Gordon. "Virtual Worlds Today: Gaming and Online Society". Online- Heidelberg Journal of
Religions on the Internet. Issue3, No. 1, 2008, p.14.
7
Bartle, Richard A. Designing Virtual Worlds. Berkely, California: New Riders Publishing, 2004, p.4.
8
Religions on the Internet. Issue3, No. 1, 2008, p.15.
9
Bartle, Richard. "Presence and Flow: Ill-Fitting Clothes for Virtual Worlds”. Techné: Research in
Philosophy and Technology. Volume 10, Number 3, 2007, pp.39-54.
Tony Walsh also sees a virtual world as a place that you visit, a digital place that is
typically graphical, multi-user, online and persistent10. He notes that virtual worlds
exist on a continuum between games and social worlds. Where gamic virtual worlds
tend towards combat, exploration, resource gathering, character development and
trade, non-gamic virtual worlds offer shopping, avatorial modification, social contact,
economic activity, property development and cultural events as primary activities.
Videogames prescribe what kinds of play can occur, guiding player experiences
through predefined routes, while non-gamic virtual worlds present a range of spaces
and tools for the player to construct their own experience. Places like Second Life
offer what is known as a „sandbox‟ experience where the user can generate world
items including fashion, architecture and events, trading them in an open market. In
contrast World of Warcraft delineates gameplay through quests, generated enemies
and zoning of land. Walsh notes that game-orientated virtual worlds have a system
of rules with universal goals surrounded by fiction and socially orientated virtual
worlds also have a system of rules with varying goals with or without a story11.
Edward Castronova entitles virtual worlds as synthetic worlds, “expansive, world-

like, large group environments that are made by humans, for humans, and which is
maintained, recorded, and rendered by a computer”12. Both virtual worlds and
videogames are screen-based digital environments and as such are subject to the
same technological mediation. Notwithstanding stylistic differences there are visual
similarities in their production of space. Virtual worlds adopt the same configurations
of space as videogames and use familiar HUD features. Videogames and virtual
worlds overlap, virtual worlds are both a subset of videogames and an extension of
them.
As a consequence of the particular demands of virtual worlds there are differences

in spatiality between single player videogames and virtual worlds. The exigencies of
multiple users impacts on the simulation of time. Events continue to move while
players are offline; the world is not petrified at the point at which the player left it as
in single-player games. While time in virtual worlds is commonly compressed in
10
Walsh, Tony. "The Real, the Virtual and the Mixed". Mixed Reality Branded Entertainment Seminar.
Sydney, Australia, 17 May 2007. http://lamp.edu.au/2007/06/11/podcast-the-real-the-virtual-and-
the-mixed/.
11
Ibid.
12
Castronova, Edward. Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 2005, p.11.
relation to real space it is possible to return to a virtual world at a later date and find
that significant changes to gamespace have occurred. Every user‟s movements in
and out of the time stream must be managed. Virtual worlds avoid conflicts of time
between players by adopting a linear, sequential, constant experience of time. Jouni
Smed and co-authors note that temporal distortions in online games are usually
managed as character traits, slowing or speeding up the user‟s avatar in relation to
the environment, rather than as effects over space, which remains temporally
consistent13.
The insertion of multiple „game ego‟ points in a virtual world creates other interesting
phenomena. How avatars interact in space is affected by their simulated physical
interaction. Avatars can be treated as solid objects in space, where only one avatar
can fill a section of space at any time, or as nebulous objects, able to exist
simultaneously in the same space. If a virtual world allows multiple occupancy of
space then many people can fold into a small area, a compressed confusion of
crowd. Curiously players often attempt to spatially separate their avatars in busy
areas, allowing personal space to their electronic counterparts. When instigated as
solid objects only a certain number of avatars fit into a given volume of space
precluding others from accessing that section of space. Their solidity may allow
them to bump other people out of the space they were occupying, introducing a
spatial tension to social relations that can result in queuing and other tactics of
shared space. As users join or leave a chat group in There (Makena Technologies
2005) the server spatially tweaks their avatars into a circular formation, resulting in
an involuntary twitching and shuffling of participants.
There are technological implications to online play that can affect how users
experience virtual space. Each player installs the virtual world on their computer.
The central server keeps track of each user‟s position and status, and changes in
gamespace, sending that information out during play, in effect continuously updating
the state of the world. Information parcelling is subject to bandwidth and latency
issues, while a large population of users in any one area increases each player‟s
information load. Accumulations of players in the city of Ironforge in World of
Warcraft resulted in slow performance for some players. Lag would delay the
13
Smed and co-authors detail a way in which non-contiguous time manipulation can be instigated
(Smed, J., Niinisalo H. and Hakonen, H. "Realizing the Bullet Time Effect in Multiplayer Games with
Local Perception Filters". Computer Networks: The International Journal of Computing and
Telecommunications Networking. Volume 49, No.1, 2005, pp.27-37).
player‟s navigational commands resulting in their avatar falling into a deep channel
that bisected the city‟s most popular area. Dependant on the technology used,
virtual worlds can be subject to population caps to control these kinds of issues.
Virtual worlds often work around limitations of player numbers by using multiple
servers, so that the game is replicated on many different servers. Each server is
technically identical yet different practices of play may emerge on different shards.
Virtual worlds often use the same patterns of spatial use found in single player
videogames. Contests between entities have a long history of group conflict and
cooperative play, and are well suited to the digital multi-player arena. Contested
space is the singularly most represented pattern in gamic virtual worlds. Contested
space is essentially a gamic pattern; it contains inherent goals of avoiding loss or
courting gain. There are no formal contested spaces within most non-gamic virtual
worlds. Second Life supports user-generated combat through the use of weapons,
where combat can occur only in areas designated as “unsafe” by the owner.
Combat zones in Second Life are described by Linden Lab as a “free-for-all
sandbox”14, where the rules of engagement are user generated.
Similarly challenge spaces are predominately found in gamic virtual worlds.

Challenge space sets up a direct opposition between player and space. Without
defining activity all spatial challenges, including navigational challenges, are
necessarily user-defined. Players can impose a physical challenge over space by
deciding to climb a virtual mountain, but this remains a personal interpretation of
space. Challenge space as physical challenges or environmental puzzles are found
far less often as major components of gameplay than in single player games. Issues
of reusability in a world designed for continuous occupation and issues with multiple
avatars attempting a single spatial challenge limit their implementation. A number of
virtual worlds work around these problems by using challenge space in mini-games,
nested components of space which revert to single or limited player practices.
Navigational challenges are extremely common in virtual worlds due to their

expansive nature, particularly in gamic worlds. Wayfinding is part of the challenge in
World of Warcraft, which often gives vague or imprecise directions in the quest
directives. But without a compelling need to travel somewhere, to progress in the
game or achieve a gamic goal, navigational difficulties become nebulous. In non-
14
Linden Lab. Second Life Wiki. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Combat. Accessed 26 May 2008.
gamic worlds the process of being lost becomes an act of exploration without intent,
or can be circumvented altogether. Worlds like Habbo Hotel and Second Life use
browser-based searching and allow direct teleportation to chosen sites to avoid
navigational challenges (Fig.1).
Figure 1
Navigation via a
menu in Habbo
Hotel - click on the
link to be taken to
that section of
space.
Most gamic virtual worlds adopt nodal patterns as a way of giving structure to their
extensive environments, allowing players to easily understand the overall
configuration of space and activity. Ultima Online: The Kingdom Reborn (Electronic
Arts 2007) introduces new players to this nodal paradigm by directing them (through
quests) to the nodal hub of the nearby town and the zombie-infested wilderness.
Players can get locally lost while still being socio-spatially certain of what kind of
spaces offer safety and services or danger and reward. A large number of gamic
virtual worlds nest contested space within a nodal pattern, using nodal hubs to
collate support activities, and a wilderness-civilisation dichotomy to separate less
lethal activities from more dangerous zones. Gamic virtual worlds that do not adopt
nodal patterns need to find some other way of making their gamespace
comprehensible to players. Due to the difficulty of believably adopting nodal patterns
in an alien sci-fi setting, Tabular Rasa (Destination Games 2007) metaphorically
patches in game navigational aids as military signs and military intelligence maps.
Non-gamic virtual worlds gravitate between using nodal patterns and creating less
structured spaces. Many virtual worlds sprawl without any kind of social spatial
grouping occurring. A miniature Taj Mahal sits next to a multicoloured object like a
giant cucumber in There (Fig. 2). Users might find a desert café or pirate ship
floating on a cloud. The architectural jumble is aptly described with Reinier de
Graff‟s evocation of Dubai as “a collection of mutually competing theme parks”
displaying “a monotony of the exceptional”15. In Second Life a lack of overall
structure, results in an overwhelming multiplicity of sites, an anarchy of user
generated locations16. Second Life resorts to non-spatial searchable information
menus to allow players to find particular locations within its space and bypasses
navigational difficulty by enabling direct teleportation to selected sites.
Figure 2
Juxtaposition of
architectural themes
in the social virtual
world of There.
When non-gamic virtual worlds implement nodal spaces they tend to be less
cohesive – disparate spaces and activities conflict the nodal pattern. Habbo uses
the layout of a modern hotel to make sense of its space. Players move from the
lobby to corridors and private rooms, or leave the hotel to go out to the park. The
hotel acts as overriding metaphor for the Habbo’s space and is particularly
appropriate for Habbo’s segregation of private rooms and public space. Yet other
rooms are spaces we might not associate with a hotel like a TV recording studio,
while the spectacularly diverse user-generated guest rooms are not spatially
contiguous with hotel space. Habbo uses a diffuse nodal pattern, less for structuring
space and more as a metaphor for shared space.
15
De Graaf, Reiner. In "OMA Breaks The "Monotonously Exceptional Mould" In Dubai". Astragal. The
Architect's Journal, 2008. Comments 19th May.
16
Although the use of islands does allow some delineation of zones.
Codified space is seen less often within gamic virtual worlds, most of which are
intent on providing an experiential spatial diegesis, and is currently rarely
implemented in non-gamic three-dimensional worlds. Codified space is found in
EVE Online, where space stations have no internal navigable space and operate as
a thematic point of access to menu based services. Other objects in space are
similarly unnavigable. Planets can be approached but never landed upon or
explored, they function as backdrops. EVE is primarily a contested space supported
with nodal and codified patterns, which uses backdrops to further the illusion of a
vast universe of star systems. Virtual worlds tend to focus on the physical and social
interaction in space, codified space goes against this trend yet virtual worlds could
benefit from using instances of codified space. Second Life frequently uses
traditional two-dimensional forms of information dispersal, including posters,
billboards and inventory notes, but could equally use codified structures17.
The range of creation acts that occur in virtual worlds encompasses destruction,
creation, placement and decoration. But creation space presents the danger of
conflict between users when they pursue different goals. Uncontrolled changes in
space by a player can affect the ability of other players to use that space, while
issues of ownership and investment of resources restricts destructive mechanics.
Many gamic virtual worlds contain no creation space or allow its operation only
under severe restrictions. In World of Warcraft any changes to space, such as
blowing up a building as part of a quest objective, are temporally succinct events
where gamespace soon reverts to its pre-quest state. Other conflicts are avoided
with the notion of consensual attacks on player built structures. Age of Conan
(Funcom 2008) zones siege combat, creating areas where players can attack player
run cities.
Virtual worlds often supply the player with a space of their own that they can
personalise. Content is often prefabricated, conjured up from a set menu and
personalised by the player as a display of preferences and creativity to other users.
Games like Everquest and Ultima Online limit creation space to the customisation of
property, where players can own and decorate real estate. Personal spaces are
usually spatially disconnected from the rest of the virtual environment, avoiding the
17
Hover tips (an optional ability where moving the mouse over an item brings up an informative tag
with a description and ownership details) are not codified space in that the objects do not act as a
symbol for something other than themselves.
creation of vast sprawls of avatar suburbs, or are restricted to predetermined areas,

negating conflicts of spatial use. Navigation of personal rooms in Habbo is menu-
based, while the room of the week is displayed on the website.
Non-gamic worlds often allow users to generate content, relying on this to fill their
world. User-generated worlds are an extreme extrapolation of creation space that
exists outside the formal relationship of gamespace and rules. The passing over of
authorial control to users results in an anarchy of space. The majority of
components in Second Life are user-generated resulting in a disparate collection of
objects where the banal and the extraordinary sit side by side. Florian Schmidt
describes Second Life as “lego on acid”18. Creation space is the only inherent
pattern, though users can overlay other patterns onto space. The world controls
spatial conflict by conferring ownership and control over space to buyers. Second
Life is often presented as an architecturally compelling experience where virtual
avatars fly through the world investigating marvels and meeting interesting people.
Yet for every example of architectural sophistication there are a dozen examples of
amateurism. Technological limitations include a kind of crudity of shape, a lack of
detail and a textural flatness that at times results in an architecture that is the virtual
equivalent of a child‟s city built of empty cereal boxes.
Figure 3
The Freebie
warehouse in
Second Life allows
plenty of room
for flight within
its confines.
18
Schmidt, Florian. “Second Life: Lego on Acid”. In Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture
and Urbanism: The Next Level. Borries, F., Walz, S. and Bottger, M. (Eds.). Basel: Birkhauser, 2007,
p.156.
The amateurish buildings betray an instinctive adaptation to the vagaries of the

virtual world they are created in. The Freebie Warehouse presents itself as a giant
open fronted box; its immense volume is matched by the oversized division of its
space into two storeys and the massive ramp that leads between them (Fig. 3). The
oversize room allows players to navigate the space when flying, and is forgiving of
erroneous manipulation of avatars through the less than instinctive movement
controls. The teleportation point, where avatars arrive when teleporting directly to
the warehouse, sets up the first view of the site. Architecturally this creates a
moment of discovery where the architecture is not approached but instantaneously
revealed and radically changes the temporal sequence of a building.
5.2 Social Space

A fundamental attribute of virtual worlds is their support of social activity and
communication. Virtual worlds are defined by their facilitation of interaction between
real entities. As T. L. Taylor notes, “the social is not just an add-on”19 in virtual
worlds but an integral component. Virtual worlds incorporate social activity through
diverse means including quest dynamics, guild structures, communication channels
and economic activity. Klastrup relates the notion of players sharing significant
experiences and changes within the mutual environment of a virtual world to the
emergence of social space or space as a virtual community20.
The design of space is a factor in the emergence of social space, as a construct that
hosts activity. As Bob Moore points out, “virtual worlds not only provide social
networking features, they also provide the world in which you meet people and play
with”21. Equally the environments of virtual worlds are a factor in the emergence of
social space through their influence on the activities occurring within them. Taylor
states, “the importance of linking design with the social life of a game cannot be over
emphasised”22. Yet a significant component of social activity in virtual worlds is not
spatially orientated. Social activity in virtual worlds often occurs as verbal or text
19
Taylor, T. L. Play between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The
20
21
Moore, Bob. On the Convergence of Virtual Worlds and Social Networking Sites. terranova. 7
February 2008. http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2008/02/on-the-converge.html. Accessed
25th May 2008.
22
based communication, both discursive and contextual. Menu-based textual means

of social interaction are frequently incorporated into the HUD. In the intergalactic
virtual world of EVE the richest social activity occurs as a consequence of player
alliances, where the “corporate chat window is the nexus of all socialization”23.
Social activity can occur in virtual worlds without virtual proximity in the world space.
Martin Zogran notes that the conventions of one-to-one relations that occur in
physical space are disassociated in virtual worlds24. Conversation between players
is primarily mediated through text or VoIP channels, connecting player via menu
options regardless of their avatar‟s position25. Communicating players may never
meet in the course of play. Even within guilds that operate as tightly connected
social networks players will often play in different zones. Nicolas Ducheneaut,
Nicholas Yee, Eric Nickell and Robert J. Moore in their trans-server study of World
of Warcraft noted that in a typical medium-sized guild almost half of the players were
never observed in the same zone as other guild members and only a relatively small
core of players were actively playing together26.
In questioning the narrowly defined tradition of social play in MMORPG games as

grouping, Ducheneaut and co-authors note that a large number of players in World
of Warcraft never or rarely group. They argue that social contact between players
comes not just from groups but also from an indirect social community where other
players “provide an audience, a sense of social presence, and a spectacle”27.
Watching other players generates humor, interest and entertainment. Other players
are both spectators and a “diffuse and easily accessible source of information and
chitchat”28. Calleja notes that even if a user does not interact directly with other
users, their presence provides a social context to the world29. Different players also
23
BrickReid. The Older Gamers Forums. http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/eve-online-
intergalactic-superhighway-private/125544-some-qs-about-eve-my-thesis.html. Accessed 24
August 2007.
24
Zogran, Martin. "Architecture in Virtual Worlds Panel". State of Play III: Social Revolutions. New
York, 2005. Video available at www.nyls.edu/pages/3903.asp. Accessed 20 July 2008.
25
Though worlds like Second Life offer proximity based sound and chat it is still possible to
communicate at any distance.
26
Ducheneaut, Nicholas. et al. "'Alone Together?' Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively
Multiplayer Online Games". Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems. Quebec, Canada, 2006, pp.407-416.
27
Ibid, pp.407-416.
28
Ibid, pp.407-416.
29
Religions on the Internet. Issue 3, No. 1, 2008, p.15.
play and socialise differently. Casual players may have significantly different
experiences to hard-core players, while users who have connections outside of the
virtual world will bring pre-existing relationships into the game. Social interaction
varies from the indirect and casual to the more defined, accountable and formal
roles. Ducheneaut et al. describes this as being alone together – “surrounded by
others, but not necessarily actively interacting with them”30.
Players are often geographically spread across available space in a virtual world.
Richard Bartle notes that in gamic virtual worlds players are often partitioned
through geographic means31. Physical boundaries in gamespace, impassable
mountains and walls, limit freedom of movement, as do less tangible boundaries,
where expenses and geographically zoned dangers act as deterrents to travel.
However non-gamic virtual worlds commonly offer no restrictions to navigation.
Separation of users is not mandated by the structure of the environment, but instead
occurs as a result of dispersed activity and world size. Second Life offers a massive
65,000 acres32 of virtual environment. Even with over one million residents logging
in within a sixty-day period33 the population density on average for Second Life
works out at around three acres of virtual space for every resident at any one time34.
Yet players do get together. Within virtual worlds proximity based social activity is
generated as a result of activity embedded in gamespace and spatially collated
through activity hubs. As Taylor remarks, “shared activity becomes a basis for social
interaction, which in turn shapes the play”35. Players gather to avail themselves of
particular activities offered at different sites, the more popular the activity the more
popular the site. Frequency of occupation by users can be determined by issues
such as closeness to useful areas, the amount of useful services offered and
proffering of exclusive services. Places that host these activities draw in people
creating an immediate indirect social community and offer opportunities for deeper
30
Ducheneaut, Nicholas et al. "'Alone Together?' Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively
Multiplayer Online Games". Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems. Quebec, Canada, 2006, pp.407-416.
31
Bartle, Richard A. Designing Virtual Worlds. Berkeley, California: New Riders Publishing, 2004,
p.227.
32
Linden Lab. Second Life Website. http://secondlife.com/whatis/world.php. Accessed 26 May 2008
33
Data from Linden Lab records that there were 1174499 residents logged in during the last 60 days.
th
Statistics were updated on Sunday May 25 2008. Linden Lab. Second Life Website.
http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php. Accessed 26 May 2006
34
Parts of Second Life are designated as private and as such are not available for navigation.
35
social contact. Both gamic and non-gamic virtual worlds are haptically and
phenomenologically sterile, their corresponding emphasis on activity reinforces the
ability of activity hubs to act as significant generators of proximity based social
interaction.
Henry Jenkins and Kurt Squire observe that “designers have found that players tend
to gather in areas that fulfil particular functions, like shops that sell equipment,
fountains that heal life or crossroads, where they can meet other players, rather than
in environments that are „designed‟ for socializing”36. Activity centres in gamic
constructs can be trade bazaars, transport hubs or collections of resources,
including things to kill and things to collect. Within non-gamic virtual worlds activity
drawcards include shops that offer free goods, sites that can change your
appearance and places hosting events. Social spaces can be user-generated or
defined. Participants in Everquest commonly used the East Commonlands tunnels
as a player-run bazaar before it was superseded by the introduction of an official
trading zone in The Shadows of Luclin expansion. The new marketplace caused
changes to both the in-game economy and the social networking and proximity
based role-playing the East Commonlands tunnel provided37.
Techniques of movement in virtual worlds can also operate as significant activity

hubs, in particular teleportation and transport systems. Ease of travel is a factor in
player‟s decisions on which location they choose to play in. Transport collates
people as they negotiate their way to different areas of space, channelling users
through transport bottlenecks. Boats and zeppelins continuously travel between
continents on World of Warcraft, trains run between major cities and mythical beasts
fly players between villages. Waiting players socialise on the terminus platforms and
meet up at convenient flight hubs. Transport is reconstituted as geographical and
temporal compression, allowing both rapid and instantaneous travel. Teleportation
counteracts the tyranny of virtual distance entirely, creating hubs if preset to a
specified location. Unlike videogames non-gamic virtual worlds rarely place
restrictions on travel. Second Life allows teleportation to any set of spatial co-
ordinates. Users can effortlessly meet at any point in space.
36
Jenkins, Henry and Squire, Kurt. "The Art of Contested Space". In Game On: The History and
Culture of Videogames. King, L. (Ed.). New York: Universe Publishing, 2002, p.075.
37
MIT Press, 2006, pp.63-64.
“Many of the things that are seen as nuisances or difficulties” Taylor writes “are
exactly the mechanisms that propel the creation of emergent cultures and social
networks”38. Social activity is spatialised when players must group together to tackle
dangerous or difficult tasks or environments. Taylor notes “by creating an
environment often too challenging for a solo player, people are compelled to
group”39. This kind of social coercion is particularly evident in gamic virtual worlds.
Richard Bartle describes the group imperative as a mutual dependency, where
players have different skills that a group needs to exploit in order to succeed40.
Players in EVE physically aggregate in unpoliced and low security regions of space,
impelled by the danger of attack by other players to join forces for safety. Social
activity as grouping occurs as a result of the demands of gameplay, in particular
where one player alone cannot achieve a goal. Some dungeons in World of Warcraft
require up to 40 people to cooperate in order to have any chance of killing the
instance bosses41,
Social activity is also spatially mediated through more specific constructions of

space, when virtual worlds mimic the social spaces of reality. In Second Life social
space is created by users who often duplicate spaces that host social activity in real
life, including nightclubs, shopping malls and dance venues, reproducing how
architectural forms host particular functions. MMORPG‟s typically adopt nodal
patterns of space to give underlying structure to the game world.
Virtual worlds also create social spaces that fulfil particular virtual conventions. The
spawning of new characters at a predetermined site, often called the newbie zone,
is a way in which new players are introduced to gamespace and each other. Each
player must pass through the portal of introductory space before dispersing into the
greater community, whether it is Orientation Island in Second Life or the rustic
newbie town of Lumbridge in Runescape (Jagex Ltd 2001). Newbie zones usually
offer safe spaces with a high concentration of activities and resources to ease the
new player into the game. These arrival zones collate social activity when there are
38
39
Ibid, p.38.
40
Bartle, Richard A. Designing Virtual Worlds. Berkeley, California: New Riders Publishing, 2004,
p.232-233.
41
Their spaces need to be large enough for groups to coordinate their attacks.
large numbers of new players to populate the area, but with waning conscriptions
become lonely places.
Other forms of social space in Second Life utilise the ability of virtual space to
negate social prohibitions, allowing the curious to safely investigate spaces that they
might not frequent in reality. Nude beaches and sites with adult content are
common. Some worlds are specifically generated for adult use and sexual play. Red
Light Centre (Utherverse 2007) mimics the kinds of places sexual entertainment is
associated with in reality, catering for the curious in a Las Vegas-like medley of
hotels, casinos and nightclubs.
Figure 4
The Opera House

is just a shell in
Second Life.
Spaces that offer architectural attractions appear to offer social drawcards, but the
ability of these spaces to attract social activity is not as significant as might be
expected. Haptic and phenomenological sterility mean that the player will not remain
in these areas, as they might with sites in real space, unless there are other benefits
available. The Opera House in Second Life is set up for instantaneous recognition
not for interaction (Fig. 4). Sensory limitation in virtual worlds results in a
representation of space that is unable to satisfy a deeper investigation. Anecdotal
evidence argues that architectural attracters in virtual worlds that are not combined
with other activities foster casual encounters rather than sustained interaction, a
superficial tourism.
Social activity can appear to be spatially generated when people congregate at a

particular site but this can be a result of technological mediation rather than any
particular spatial quality. “Since the social world is mostly about other people”,
Castronova laments, “the developers have not bothered to place NPC‟s or mobs or
anything out in the wilderness to entertain you”42, for that you have to head to where
the people are. Exploring in socially orientated worlds like Second Life can be a
lonely existence. Many locations have no other players in the local vicinity and
spectacular settings endure as uninhabited ghost towns. The player is compelled to
use the text-based search facilities or the map to locate other players. The map
system in Second Life allows the player to search for popular places, find events
and look for high concentrations of people, to which the player can teleport. High
attendance at a particular space can occur purely as a result of people looking for
other people.
Taylor notes that MMOG‟S also serve as a form of public space, where social life
and cultural production occur43. Constance Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams
postulate MMO‟s as third places. Ray Oldenburg coined the term third places to
refer to places where people gather to socialise informally outside of the workplace
and the home44. As third places MMO‟s offer rich bridging social capital, or the
opportunity for wide-ranging casual social relationships. They note that of
Oldenburg‟s eight defining characteristics of third places, seven are effectively
fulfilled by MMO‟s45. Similarly non-gamic virtual worlds can be seen as third places,
the common appellation of non-gamic virtual worlds as social worlds supports this.
However, Steinkuehler and Williams find that MMO‟s do not fit the one spatial
criterion that defines a third place, namely that of “low profile‟, a characteristic
homeliness and lack of pretension. Instead most gamespaces are typically extra-
ordinary and fantastic; and even particularly grandiose areas can be found to act as
third places.
42
43
MIT Press, 2006, p.160.
44
Steinkuehler, Constance and Williams, Dmitri. "Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name:
Online Games as ‘Third Place’”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Volume 11, No. 4,
2006, pp.885-909.
45
Characteristics considered as fulfilled by Steinkuehler and Williams are; a playful mood, regular
attendees, accessible, levelling, a home away from home, neutral ground, and conversation as a
main activity.
Steinkuehler and Williams negotiate their way round the negation of the low profile
characteristic by arguing that the social function of these environments stems more
from player interaction than from the visual atmosphere. They argue that in MMO‟s
subscription patterns usually crest after release and then gradually decline as
players go on to newer more sophisticated games, so that competition has a greater
impact on the games social patterns than game environment. This gradual
depopulating and technological obsolescence bestows a kind of quaint homeliness
on an older game, fitting Oldenburg‟s criterion of a “low profile”. However, this does
not allow for the immediate and continual use of games as third places during rising
population levels, the impact of expansion packs or the relatively long term success
of the juggernaut of MMO gaming, World of Warcraft.
But as algorithmic spatial constructs MMO‟s and non-gamic spaces like Second Life
have specific characteristics and needs that overrule the requirement for “low
profile”. Three spatially-mediated features are significant. The first spatial feature
that negates the low profile rule is the phenomenological and haptic limitation of
screen-based space and the resulting increased emphasis on activity. Socialisation
occurring outside of a guild network commonly occurs at activity hubs, or places that
host important or desirable activity. Thus Steinkuehler and William‟s example of third
place activity occurring at Cruma Tower in Lineage II (NCsoft 2003) occurs because
of player proximity in farming desirable prey, as a result of a spatially collated
activity. In direct contrast to the homeliness of third places gamic virtual worlds bring
people together through danger and activity. Online places might actually need to be
more spectacular or more active in order to counteract haptic sterility. In non-gamic
virtual worlds less dangerous but equally popular activities like shopping bring
players into proximity.
The second element to note is that many virtual places copy either familiar building
styles or underlying patterns of spatial organisation. Sociologist Nathan Glazer notes
how conservative and traditional the spaces and places of virtual worlds are46.
MMORPG‟s typically adopt nodal space patterns so that the underlying structure of
the game is familiar and habitual, even when the buildings may be bizarre. Other
worlds copy easily recognisable icons, clichés of architecture that we are familiar
with from the worlds of television and film. Even the most fantastic architecture can
46
Glazer, Nathan. "Architecture in Virtual Worlds Panel". State of Play III: Social Revolutions. New
York, 2005. nyls.edu/pages/3903.asp. Accessed 20 July 2008.
become homely when it pickups up on common tropes and familiar patterns of

usage.
Finally, as screen-mediated products, virtual worlds are situated within another

context. As Axel Stockberger points out the material, physical, social space
surrounding the game is part of gamespace47. Homeliness has overtones of
comfortable and unpretentious usage. While the virtual world does not often fit this
criterion, the physical context of the user in reality is often low profile, from the
comfort of the computer chair at home to the sometimes dowdy, often cave-like,
internet café. Oldenburg‟s criterion of low profile is found in the real space
surrounding the screen. Virtual spaces then fulfil Oldenburg‟s defining characteristic
of low profile through the copying of patterns from real space and in the real space
setting that surrounds the player. But equally the prioritisation of activity in virtual
space can be seen to negate Oldenburg‟s requirement.
Ian Bogost talks of the cantina and bazaar areas of Star Wars Galaxies (Sony
Online Entertainment 2003) as “failed efforts to create meaningful social spaces”48.
In both virtual worlds and real space, the generation of architectural spaces to foster
social activity is fraught with difficulty. The creators of one of the first commercial
multi-user virtual environments, Habitat (Lucasfilm 1985), found that “social
engineering is, at best, an inexact science”49. Social spaces are not easy to define
or construct. Discussing the failure of the practitioners of the modern architecture
movement to generate community spaces in places like the Park Hill flats at
Sheffield, Brent C. Brolin notes “there is not necessarily a direct relationship
between complex physical geometry and complexity of social interaction”50.
47
48
Bogost, Iian. Unit Operations an Approach to Videogame Criticism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The
MIT Press, 2006, p.124.
49
Randall Farmer, F. and Morningstar, C. “The Lessons of Lucasfilm’s Habitat”. In The Game Design
Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Salen, K. and Zimmerman, (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts:
50
Brolin, Brent. The Failure of Modern Architecture. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company,
1976, p.71.
While discussing space as relational, as culturally intertwined and cognitively

interpreted, Edvin Babic notes that “space can both shape the background of social
interactions and can be shaped in the course of this process”51. Observing that in
the pre-constructed spaces of MMORPG”S the “same place can be perceived and
used in different ways”52, Babic argues their design “offers an operable framework
for social interaction”53 within which players are free to reinterpret and realise space
for their own purposes. While virtual worlds influence the use of their space through
their construction of space many uses and meanings of gamespace in virtual worlds
will be highly personalised and individual interpretations.
Multiplayer interaction also creates the opportunity for economic activity. Loosely
translated as buying and selling things, accumulating stuff and engaging in whatever
avatorial activity enables these activities, economic activity can be seen as part of
gameplay. Equally, economic activity can fall outside the realm of play; users
conduct real businesses within virtual worlds, while product branding opportunities
are seen as serious commerce. True economic behaviour can only occur in
multiplayer worlds. According to Castronova, selling to non-player characters does
not count as economic activity, because “economic activity is about trade and trade
only exists between human beings”54. The exchange and consumption of items,
investment in virtual products and labour supply are the basis of many activities in
both gamic and non-gamic virtual worlds.
Many virtual worlds foster what Mike Molesworth and Janice Denegri-Knott describe
as a “commodity and consumption experience” that is “deprived of material
substance”55. The basis of economic activity is some kind of product to trade with.
Virtual worlds offer embedded resources, where the product is already available in
the environment as part of the spatial diegesis, and external resources, where the
user produces resources (either within the world or outside of the context of the
51
Babic, Edvin. "On the Liberation of Space in Computer Games". Eludamos: Journal for Computer
Game Culture. Volume1. No. 1, 2007. http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/
article/view/4/21. Accessed 24 October 2007.
52
Babic, Edvin. "On the Liberation of Space in Computer Games". Eludamos: Journal for Computer
Game Culture. Volume1. No. 1, 2007. http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/
article/view/4/21. Accessed 24 October 2007.
53
Ibid.
54
55
Molesworth, Mike and Denegri-Knott, Janice. "Digital Play and the Actualisatization of the
Consumer Imagination". Games and Culture. Volume 2, No. 2, 2007, p.115.
virtual world) and then brings them to market (both in the virtual world and outside
the virtual world through third party entities like eBay). The virtual world may provide
the tools to create resources or offer support for external software programs, where
items are created outside the virtual world. Second Life specifically caters for the
virtual entrepreneur, allowing them to make and sell anything, including architecture.
Resources can be embedded or codified into, the virtual environment. Players can
mine mineral deposits coded into the landscape in Entropia or pick herbs in World of
Warcraft. Virtual worlds usually renew embedded items at regular intervals,
producing them in varying quantities to achieve values of rarity. The landscape and
architecture of virtual worlds also plays host to beings whose possessions are of
some value to players – beings who often have a specific spatial location. Gamic
virtual worlds reward the contest between player and game denizen with loot both
realistic and improbable. Gold farmers exploit rich areas of gamespace, repeatedly
killing and looting inhabitants in order to exchange game currency for real world
currency. Space operates as a set of geographically distributed resources that
provide the basis for economic activity, whether it is the labour required to gather
those items or the virtual items themselves that are being sold.
Juho Hamari and Vili Lehdonvirta assert that game designers play an essential role
in driving the consumption of virtual goods, through the implementation of design
patterns such as stratified content, increasingly challenging content, item
degradation, inconvenient travel distances, limited inventory space and artificial
scarcity56. Gamic virtual worlds commonly use a hierarchy of space as a way of
artificially creating value – where an inverse relationship between safety and profit
exists. Greater rewards are usually commensurate with greater distances to travel,
greater dangers to confront and higher requirements of necessary equipment and
skills.
Embedded resources can also be items crafted by players from in-game materials.
Players make and sell swords and armour in fantasy epics like Ultima Online, while
crafters make droids and star ship components in Star Wars Galaxies. While many
items can be made anywhere, some items are site-specific. Architecture can
56
Hamari, Juho and Vili Lehdonvirta. “Game design as marketing: How game mechanics create
demand for virtual goods”. International Journal of Business Science and Applied Management.
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2010, pp14-29. http://www.business-and management.org/download.php?file=
2010/5_1--14-29-Hamari,Lehdonvirta.pdf. Accessed 29 September 2009.
operate as a prerequisite for crafting; when in-game „recipes‟ call for items to be
made in the presence of a forge or laboratory. If those pre-requisite spaces are
situated in dangerous locations or limited in availability then space can affect or limit
resource production. Virtual land can also be considered as an embedded resource.
When you can buy architectural constructs or own real estate, virtual worlds
spatialise investment as virtual real estate57. The landscape and architecture of
virtual worlds becomes a resource. Virtual architects sell their services, creating
algorithmic buildings for other users.
Figure 5
A shopping Mall
where players can
sell their products in
Entropia Universe.
Spatialisation of economic activity also includes the point-of-sale. While economic

activity is not always spatially situated58, virtual worlds often offer spaces that are
set-up purely for trading, selling and buying opportunities (Fig. 5). Point-of-sale is
often contextualised within the game as shops, markets or auction houses, copying
real life sites of economic activity. In Second Life structures are often erected to
contain economic activity; from simple advertising plinths to billboard superstores59
and giant warehouses. Economic activity is spatialised as resources embedded in
virtual space, external resources brought to market in virtual space, the
commodification of landscape and architecture, through services creating spatial
constructs and within point-of-sale structures. Virtual world economies are complex
things that extend beyond space but are hosted, supported and formed in space.
57
Richard Bartle writes an interesting paper on the pitfalls of virtual property.
Bartle, Richard. Pitfalls of Virtual Property. The Themis Group, 2004. www.themis-
group.com/uploads/Pitfalls%20of%20Virtual%20Property.pdf. Accessed 30 September 2009.
58
Occurring through in-game message boards or outside the virtual world in other trading entities
such as Ebay.
59
Interestingly billboards in Second Life merge advertising medium and point-of-sale. Users can both
browse and buy items from them.
As environments that host a number of users virtual worlds are necessarily social
spaces. Social activity in virtual worlds occurs as conversation and grouping but also
includes indirect social community. Spatially mediated social activity occurs
principally in virtual worlds through shared activity or in activity hubs, where the
limitations of virtual space privileges activity. Social activity is spatially propagated
when players need to group together in order to confront dangerous tasks and
achieve difficult goals. Virtual worlds spatialise and influence economic activity
through virtual real estate and the setting of virtual resources in space. Virtual
worlds also locate social activity by mimicking the social spaces of real space,
adopting nodal patterns in MMORPG‟s, replicating building types associated with
social activity and creating spaces for specific virtual functions. Virtual worlds use
the construction of space to host, influence and create social opportunity.
5.3 Paidia and Ludus in Virtual Worlds

Roger Caillois introduced the terms, paidia and ludus, in his classic work, Man Play
and Games to describe an axis of play where ludus is commonly understood to refer
to structured rule-driven play and paidia to freeform play. A game of cricket or chess
operates under ludus, while pretending to be a princess is understood as paidia.
Ludus is associated with formal games and paidia with improvisation and
imaginative play.
Gonzalo Frasca uses philosopher Andre Lalande‟s definitions to clarify Caillois‟

terminology. Transposing Lalande‟s meaning of jeu as games (which have a result
or a winner and loser) and as play (which has no goal outcomes) Frasca redefines
paidia and ludus. Ludus and paidia can be understood as a system of goals and
rules. Paidia becomes a type of physical or mental activity with no defined objective
or useful objectives that is undertaken purely for the player‟s enjoyment. Ludus is a
“particular kind of paidia”60 which operates under a system of rules that outline
conditions of victory and defeat. Ludus has goals, paidia does not. However, Frasca
notes that while “paidia videogames have no pre-designated goal”61 and no defined
win situation the player can designate their own goals. Ludus then contains
structured goals while paidia does not.
60
Frasca, Gonzalo. "Ludology Meets Narratology: Similitude and Differences between (Video) Games
and Narrative". www.ludology.org. 1999. http://www.ludology.org/articles/ludology.htm.
Accessed 4 May 2007.
61
Ibid.
Ralph Koster questions the validity of defining games by their rule set, arguing that
paidia activities generally have more rules, not less, than ludus games and that
paidia and ludus describe a spectrum between how many of the games rules have
been codified. He argues that paidia “generally “imports” rule sets derived from a
vast array of cultural assumptions”62 whereas ludus games have rule sets that have
been tightly defined. Koster also states that ludus games “nonetheless have an
assortment of rules that are implied, but not stated, that are part of the cultural
practice of gameplaying”63. Stephen Sniderman‟s article on unwritten rules supports
this argument; players follow many unspoken rules including the etiquette,
sportsmanship and conventions of any game64.
For Koster both types of games contain un-formalised rules. Both Frasca and Koster
argue that as we define goals to ourselves paidia games tend towards ludus. Koster
redefines the spectrum between paidia and ludus (as structured games and
freeform play) to being between formalised rules and un-formalised rules. Using
both Frasca‟s and Koster‟s understanding of Caillois terms, the spectrum between
paidia and ludus in relation to videogames and virtual worlds operates between
ludus as goal-driven activity, with clearly defined or formalised rules, and paidia as
freeform activity, with undefined goals and undefined but implicit or informal cultural
rules. Videogames like Tetris clearly enable play as ludus, while Second Life
operates as paidia.
Videogames and virtual worlds encompass a range of activity that moves from
structured, goal-driven gameplay to open ended user-generated activity that
equates to an axis between play circumscribed by rules with defined goals and
unstructured play without goal conditions. Lisbeth Klastrup comments that the
experience of virtual worlds “as agreed-on pretence play or conscious performing,
seem close to the notion of playing, of paidia” while ludus equates to the more
gaming aspects of user experience65. The continuum between game-orientated
virtual worlds and socially-orientated virtual worlds also offers a continuum between
worlds focused on ludus activity and worlds focused on paidia experiences.
62
Koster, Ralph. "Pondering Caillois". Ralph Koster's Website, 29 October 2005.
http://www.raphkoster.com/2005/10/29/pondering-caillois/. Accessed 4 May 2007.
63
Ibid.
64
Sniderman, Stephen. “Unwritten Rules”.In The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology.
Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006, pp.476-502.
65
Klastrup, Lisbeth. "A Poetics of Virtual Worlds". Melbourne: The Fifth International Digital Arts and
Culture Conference. RMIT, Melbourne, 2003, p.103.
Space is significant to play. In discussing Caillois‟ use of paidia and ludus Chris
Bateman infers that ludus can be seen as “a synonym for the explicit rules of a
game”66. Ludus then includes the rules of the game, the rules that set out a game‟s
goals and the rules which dictate the components of the game. Bateman notes that
rules that set out the components of the game might include such things as the
dimensions of the playing field. The rules of cricket dictate a series of spatial
conditions, such as the size and shape of the oval and the length and width of the
pitch. Yet cricket is also played in the street where spatial conditions are more
informally applied. If you hit the ball over the neighbour‟s garage you might score
four runs. In both cases spatial rules are integral to the game. The designated space
is part of the set conditions in which the game is played. In videogames these set
conditions are coded in. The code is the designer‟s method of controlling what
occurs in that space.
Paidia can appear to be ironically contradictory to the algorithmic nature of digital

spaces because their worlds are governed by procedural rules. Virtual environments
seem more akin to ludus due to their coded, rule driven nature. Chris Bateman
suggests that for videogames we need to distinguish between the rules of the game
world and the rules of the game played out within it67. He argues that if the game
world closely resembles the physical world then players take this coded phenomena
as a given, in the same way that games played in the real world do not define every
aspect of their environment. Gravity is a given element for games played in the
physical world and when coded into games can also be taken as a given. Movement
in a platform game is analogous to movement in reality and part of an assumed set
of abilities, and therefore is not part of the gamic rules and not definable as ludus.
The fact that this movement must be programmed in to occur is irrelevant. Given
that the rules of the game and the rules of space often coincide (particularly in
instances of challenge space) Bateman‟s argument seems flawed.
The distinction between game rules and the substructure of a game within
videogames and virtual worlds is highly ambiguous. Bateman himself notes that
differentiating between game rules and substructure is hugely subjective.
Gamespace and how we are able to act upon it must be considered as part of the
66
Bateman, Chris. “The Complexity of Ludus”. Only a Game. April 14, 2006.
http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2006/04/the_complexity_.html. Accessed 6
February 2007.
67
Ibid.
rules of the game, because taking play as separate to space is problematic in a

number of ways. Gamespace is specifically constructed for particular forms of play;
it forms and regulates play. Gamespace controls player agency, including
movement, in ways different to reality and players must learn the spatial rules of the
game in order to succeed in many games. Rather than ignoring environmental rules
we can understand them as enabling paidia when those rules are set in place to
enable player freedom. Despite a steep curve in learning how to navigate and make
objects in Second Life the complex spatial rules ultimately enable player freedom. In
contrast games like Tomb Raider constrict play with strict spatial rules.
Frasca notes that the game environment in part determines the player‟s ability to
perform paidia activity68. Bateman notes, “A video game requires formal rules or
procedures to exist, but if we want the player to play freely” and support paidia, “we
need to construct these rules in a form that supports self-expression69”. Gamespace
designates the set conditions in which ludus and paidia take place. Paidia and ludus
describe an axis that exists in virtual worlds, between spaces that support ludus and
those constructed for paidia.
5.4 Terra Paidia, Terra Ludus

If ludus refers to structured play with designated goals and formalised rules, and
paidia refers to freeform play with no pre-determined goals and un-formalised rules,
then we can examine how paidia and ludus operate spatially by examining how
goals and rules operate in space. Paidia and ludus can be understood through the
ways in which video games and virtual worlds implement or ignore goal structures
and regulate play spatially. The implementation of paidia and ludus in virtual space
can be phrased as terra ludus and a terra paidia, the former a land of goals and
rules and the latter a land of free-play. Terra ludus and terra paidia refer to the
spatialisation of paidia and ludus, where goals set out spatial conditions to be met
and rules refers to the regulation of play in space.
68
Frasca, Gonzalo. "Ludology Meets Narratology: Similitude and Differences between (Video) Games
and Narrative." www.ludology.org. 1999. http://www.ludology.org/articles/ludology.htm.
69
Bateman, Chris. “The Anarchy of Paidia”. Only a Game. December 23, 2005.
http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2005/12/the_anarchy_of__1.html. Accessed 4 May
2007
A terra ludus contains spatial goals pre-designated by the designer. A terra prefab
contains no spatial gaols, though it can contain player designated goals (building on
Frasca‟s understanding of paidia in videogames). A terra ludus contains spatial
rules that regulate and restrict how play occurs. A terra prefab places less control
over spatial activity, though as a digital construct it must set out some rules of
engagement with space in order to facilitate player agency. Ultimately a terra paidia
uses spatial rules to enable player freedom.
5.4.1 Goal conditions for Ludus and Paidia

For Axel Stockberger goal conditions are implicated in the spatialisation of paidia
and ludus, contrasting the ability to freely explore the city in Grand Theft Auto with
the explicit spatial goals of Space Invaders. Spatial goals are common in
videogames, while non-gamic virtual worlds like Second Life do not present the user
with any specific targets. Rather than detailing the myriad of different spatial goals
found in videogames we can understand goal conditions as spatially implemented in
three main ways – as predesignated or official spatial goals, as unofficial spatial
goals or spatial challenges, and as support to game goals.
Space is formally integrated into goals when there are explicit spatial terms or
demands stated in winning conditions or included as part of achieving predesignated
goals. Spatial goals include requirements that ask players to move through or act
upon space in a specific way, or gain control over space (Fig. 6). Rise of Legends
single-player campaign contains scenarios asking the player to capture all of the
enemy‟s cities. Goals are also formally spatialised when there are specific
navigational requirements presented as part of a goal. This can include the giving of
spatial directions in quests. Official spatial goals have been predetermined and
incorporated into the game by the game designer. A terra ludus includes official
spatial goals, a terra paidia does not.
Figure 6
“Go and see Ryder,

he lives down the
street” is an example
of a formal spatial
goal that includes
spatial directions
within the quest.
Unless you see
Ryder you cannot
progress in the
predetermined
narrative of Grand
Theft Auto: San
Andreas.
Videogames often incorporate official spatial goals while social virtual worlds rarely
do. In EVE Online (CCP Games 2003) spatial goals include the transportation of
packages to specified locations, while there are no spatial imperatives in Second
Life. Single player games tend to invest more heavily in predetermined spatial goals.
Call of Duty (Infinity Ward 2003) sets overall spatial goals, such as „assist in the
capture of Pegasus Bridge‟, and sets individual spatial targets for the player to
achieve, such as „locate the V2 launch site‟.
Space can be integrated into gaols on a less formal or unofficial level when there
are unstated spatial goals that must be undertaken by the player incorporated into a
game. Spatial goals that are unstated in official goal conditions, but are necessary
for the completion of that goal, can be considered as informal goals. If a quest asks
you to find a sword, but you need to cross an ocean in order to do so, then crossing
the ocean is ancillary to the formal goal.
Unofficial spatial goals also include spatial challenges. Spatial challenges are a
pattern of spatial use where gamespace directly challenges the player‟s skill,
reflexes, memory and intelligence. Spatial Challenges are rarely set out as formally
stated goals, rather they are discovered as they are played. A single-player game
like Tomb Raider 2 (Core Design 1997) contains many specific spatial challenges, in
order to complete the game the player must negotiate multiple architectural
obstacles and solve problems of navigation. Each spatial challenge sets

intermediary victory conditions to the more formal goal conditions. Where the explicit
goal of Tomb Raider 2 is to retrieve the Dagger of Xian, the majority of gameplay is
composed of smaller unavoidable spatial challenges. Established genres that invest
heavily in spatial goals and challenges blur the line between official and unofficial
goals. Players are well aware that the goal of platform games like Super Mario Bros
and adventure games like Tomb Raider is to move through space. The unstated
goal of spatial progression acts an formal feature of the genre.
Predetermined spatial challenges operate in a terra ludus but players can also set
their own spatial challenges. In World of Warcraft the airfield above Ironforge, which
can be seen only from the flight path, presents an implicit challenge to players who
set out to find ways in which the supposedly impassable hills surrounding the airfield
might be climbed. Rather than no spatial challenges a terra paidia contains no
predetermined spatial challenges. Neither are spatial challenges compulsory in a
terra paidia. Where you could not proceed in Tomb Raider 2 without defeating its
spatial challenges you are under no compulsion to climb to the airfield in World of
Warcraft. A terra paidia does not set out spatial challenges; however the player is
free to make up a spatial challenge in response to the landscape.
The player, however, can choose to accept or ignore officially stated and informal
goals. The degree by which the game or virtual world supports the player in ignoring
official goals is a measure of how close it is to implementing ludus or paidia
spatially. A player can follow a sequence of predetermined goals (spatial and non-
spatial) in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Equally they can dispense with official
goals and set out on their own, supported by the large range of freeform activities on
offer. Essentially GTA: San Andreas operates as a terra ludus in official narrative
mode and as a terra paidia in free-play mode. It is more difficult to ignore or
circumvent the official line and its concomitant spatial goals in games like Baldur’s
Gate or Mass Effect (Bioware 2007).
Finally space can be incorporated into goals when gamespace is specifically

constructed to support spatial and non-spatial goals. Strategy games like Starcraft
embed resources essential for the game‟s progress into gamespace. To defeat your
opponent you must use the assets embedded in space to build an army. Without the
spatial resources many of the game‟s goals cannot be reached. Gamespace does
more than just host play; it plays an active role in reaching that goal. You cannot
fulfil the official goal of surviving for 30 minutes of game time, in Starcraft’s Terran
mission number three, without harvesting spatial resources.
A virtual world or videogame must have goals (official or informal predetermined) for
space to be able to support those goals. Paidia worlds like Second Life have no pre-
set goals; its diversiform space is not tied to any conditions. Is it possible for a world
to have predesignated goals and for space to not be closely linked to them? Given
that player agency in a videogame is spatially situated, this seems unlikely, though it
is theoretically possible. In practice most games that incorporate official or informal
spatial gaols into play construct space to support those goals70. This category then
is not as useful as the other categories in analysing spatial conditions, but has been
included because it outlines another way in which space is incorporated into goals.
The link between game goals and the environment is explicit or clearly traceable in
gamic worlds. Gamespace can be connected to game goals in a number of
overlapping ways. Gamespace can be explicitly mentioned as part of a game‟s
official goals. It can act as an unspoken or subsidiary goal (which includes spatial
challenges) or it can act as component that supports a goal. A terra ludus explicitly
states official spatial goals, incorporates more informal spatial goals and
predetermined spatial challenges into gameplay, and its construction of space is
involved in supporting game goals. In contrast a terra paidia has no official or
informal spatial goals, does not predetermine spatial challenges.
5.4.2 Rule conditions for Ludus and Paidia

Terra ludus and terra paidia are defined by spatial goal conditions, but paidia and
ludus are also implemented through the regulation of play, where the virtual
environment dictates specific ways in which we can interact with the world. Staffan
Björk and Jussi Holopainen describe rules as limiting the player‟s range of actions,
where rules both enforce particular actions and the order of those actions71. In
effect the explicit and informal rules of the virtual world set out the limits of what is
possible within that world. In operation paidia and ludus are spatialised by limits and
restrictions to spatial freedom, through what Alexander Galloway designated as
70
See appendix 5.
71
River Media, Inc, 2005, p.15.
move acts or expressive acts72. Spatially rules can control how we move, act on
space and construct space. However the divide between videogames and non-
gamic virtual worlds is more ambiguous when it comes to spatial rules. Spatial rules
are characteristic, rather than diagnostic, of the spatial implementation of ludus and
paidia. Rules can be spatially implemented in three main ways – as move acts, as
expressive acts and as creation acts.
Figure 7
The construction of
space controls
movement in
Knights of the Old
Republic. The game
also controls player
movement with
player agency i.e.
players can‟t climb
walls
Rules are spatialised as control over move acts. Rules control how players move
through space. Nearly every virtual environment offers the player control over the
speed and direction of travel of their agent in space – be it an avatar, an army, a
machine or a mouse pointer. Some virtual worlds and videogames adhere to the
constraints of ordinary space, others allow the player to fly and jump impossible
distances. While there is no clear distinction in movement abilities between
videogames and social virtual worlds they nonetheless exhibit a range of control in
navigational freedom. Second Life allows players to walk, run, fly and teleport freely
in space, it offers almost complete autonomy of movement. Knights of the Old
Republic is more restrictive, it sets out paths interspersed with open zones that offer
limited branches; zones always end in a bottleneck, which reduce options to a single
path (Fig.7).
Move acts can be controlled through the construction of the environment, using
spatial elements as barriers and channels. Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth
2 limits move acts with environment boundaries. The player‟s army is hemmed into
72
Galloway, Alexander. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Electronic Mediations: Volume 18.
engagement zones by non-navigable portions of the landscape. A hill or river

operates as a wall, creating a no-go zone and dividing the map into distinct and
sharply separated areas of access and denial. A terra ludus confines or pushes
movement in predetermined directions, deliberately channeling and routing
movement through the construction of space (beyond the regular ability of space to
conduct and direct movement). While the limited spaces of Habbo Hotel or Club
Penguin might geographically limit the amount of movement possible to the player,
users are free to move at will within those spaces, unlike the scripted movement of
Yoshi’s Island DS.
Move acts can also be controlled by gameplay rules, such as the setting of
prerequisite conditions to progression through space or through limiting levels of
player agency. Baldurs’ Gate does not let the player progress to new areas of
gamespace unless specific portions of the main quest have been completed. Tetris
(Alexey Pajitnov 1985) restricts the player to rotating or speeding up blocks, within a
rectangular frame. World of Warcraft limits navigation on a more general level by
separating the world into distinctive zones, each with their own degree of danger,
segregating players according to their level (and providing a significant reason for
players to level up their characters).
A terra ludus has a vested interest in delivering the player to narrative events or in
controlling the way in which a player moves through gameplay, whereas a terra
paidia does not need to limit or regulate movement. A terra ludus directs movement
in predetermined ways, through the construction of space or through predetermined
conditions that need to be met, while a terra paidia does not.
Rules can be spatialised as expressive acts. Rules control what players can do in
space. All videogames and virtual worlds tend to limit what the player can do. To
code-in all imaginable actions is impractical. However, videogames often contain a
greater range of possible actions than non-gamic worlds. The virtual world Club
Penguin (Club Penguin Entertainment 2005) is limited in the amount of actions it
makes possible compared to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Ubisoft 2003).
An involved narrative can demand a greater range of actions than a purely social
world does. Rather than the amount of actions possible in the virtual environment it
is the spatial control and restrictions over those actions that differentiate terra paidia
and terra ludus.
Gamespace can force players to perform specific spatial actions or limit the
possibilities of what the user can do. Actions in Prince of Persia are spatially
contextual; the player must do certain actions in certain areas to progress while
other actions can only be done in certain areas. In a strategy game like Lord of the
Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, many actions are context specific. Tower guards
are created in a barracks building, hero units in a fortress. Each building offers a
different menu of possible actions. A terra ludus spatially limits or dictates what
actions can or must be taken. There are set rules about what takes place where.
Conversely a terra paidia allows actions to take place anywhere in space, any time.
Beyond ownership of land there are very few rules about what can be done where in
Second Life73.
Rules can be spatialised as creation acts. A different kind of expressive act occurs
when we alter or create gamespace. Second Life allows users to permanently
create and change both terrain and architecture, within a limit described only by the
user‟s ability and the amount of space available. Players have total control over
space they own and can potentially create versions of anything. Paidia is spatially
enabled by the player‟s ability to create the environment and code environmental
interactions. In contrast World of Warcraft allows no manipulation or creation of
gamespace. The player cannot alter gamespace in any meaningful manner. Quest
outcomes only temporarily change gamespace, which reverts to a static condition
within a short time. To allow players to permanently change space would affect the
playability of the carefully constructed ludus quests. As part of the continuum
between ludus and paidia, some videogames factor creation and destruction into
gameplay, acts which indelibly change gamespace. Company of Heroes (Relic
Entertainment 2006) allows demolition as a game play mechanic, destroying a
building reduces cover for the enemy. But these acts occur within predetermined
parameters, carefully controlled so that they cannot subvert the goals of the game. A
terra ludus tightly controls or denies creation acts, while a terra paidia offers users
freedom in creating gamespace and objects.
73
Examples of spatial rules in Second Life are the instigating of public and private places, and the
specific creation of combat zones. Player generated rules include things like only allowing
predetermined dance moves in specific locations. These rules are not universally implemented.
5.4.3 Rules and Goals in Terra Ludus and Terra Paidia

Paidia and Ludus are spatially instigated through goals and rules in six main ways.
An archetypal terra ludus would be a space that was specifically generated to fulfil
predetermined goals, which contained official spatial goals and predetermined
spatial challenges. We could expect this resolute terra-ludus to offer a single
predetermined path through space, where the environment dictates context specific
actions and gamespace is unable to be altered. Videogames like Tomb Raider not
only seem ludic in their presentation of a task-driven predefined story, they are
profoundly ludic in their spatiality. Tomb Raider fulfils every category of a terra ludus
(Table 1).
A true terra paidia would allow the player freedom in spatial navigation, creation and
agency. Considering paidia as spatial play is limited to what the player can do within
gamespace, according to what actions and reactions are coded into the game
environment, a quintessential terra paidia allows users to code anything or any
effect into the environment. It would contain no spatial goals; therefore its space is
not bound to supplying the needs of those goals. In Second Life you can create
anything you like within the boundaries of the space you own. There are no
prescribed activities and no spatial benefits other than those that the user might
generate. Second Life exemplifies free play in virtual space and operates as a terra-
paidia (Table 1).
Table 1
Second
Raider
Tomb
Goal and rule conditions for Tomb Raider & Second Life
Life
Predetermined Official Spatial Goals ◄ ►

Goals
◄ ►
terra paidia
Predetermined Informal Spatial Goals

terra ludus
Gamespace Supports Goals ◄ ►

Direct/Restrict Move Acts ◄ ►
Rules
Restrict Expressive Acts ◄ ►

Deny/Restrict Creation Acts ◄ ►
Terra ludus and terra paidia refer to the spatialisation of goals and degrees of
freedom in spatial rules. As comparative tools terra ludus and terra paidia combine
reference to whether a space is designed for paidia or ludus and analyses how
space implements them. As tools of spatial analysis they allow us to understand and
compare how videogames and virtual worlds manipulate and control our
experiences in their space. Because terra ludus and terra paidia describe a
continuum in the spatialisation of play (as ludus and paidia) many games and virtual
worlds will not fit neatly into one category or another. Many will express a range of
paidia and ludus elements in gamespace. The majority of videogames and virtual
worlds express a tendency towards either ludus or paidia. (Appendix 5 lists a range
of games and virtual worlds, tabling their spatial goal and rule conditions and noting
their orientation towards terra ludus or terra paidia). By breaking down the
spatialisation of paidia and ludus into different categories it is possible to see where
particular games spatially define the play experience.
Warcraft
World of
Table 2
Goal and rule conditions for World of Warcraft
Predetermined Official Spatial Goals ◄

Goals
74
►
terra paidia
terra ludus
Gamespace Supports Goals ◄
Direct/Restrict Move Acts
75
◄►
Rules
Restrict Expressive Acts

76
◄►
Deny/Restrict Creation Acts ◄
A game like World of Warcraft clearly offers more navigational freedom than Tomb
Raider but still partially controls movement through the progressive relationship
between the player‟s character and zone difficulty. Players are first denied space by
its dangers and then driven to find new challenges. Though the player can return to
earlier parts of the game environment, the space becomes increasingly quiescent as
the player gains higher levels. World of Warcraft contains spatial goals and
constructs space to support those goals, but as a rule does not predetermine spatial
challenges77. World of Warcraft restricts some expressive acts, like mining, but
74
The majority of spatial challenges are undefined, however players can and do set their own
challenges (such as the climb to the airfield above Ironforge) moving the game toward paidia.
75
World of Warcraft has an open environment but restricts move acts with levels of hazard.
76
World of Warcraft spatially restricts some expressive acts but allows other acts to occur anywhere
in gamespace.
77
Though the player is free to set their own spatial challenges.
allows others to be freely indulged in. World of Warcraft tightly restricts creation
acts. World of Warcraft operates mainly as a terra ludus but adopts some of the
characteristics of terra paidia (table 2). Greg Costikyan acknowledges role-playing
games combine a lack of victory conditions with a wide selection of goals78. World of
Warcraft’s sense of expansive freedom comes from the wide range of goals to
choose from and the navigational freedom offered within the hierarchical zoned
structure of gamespace.
5.5 Terra Prefab

In the continuum between terra ludus and terra paidia, some games are harder to
define. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is celebrated for its inclusion of freeform
activities while games like The Sims and SimCity are touted as containing paidia in
their lack of specific goals. Yet these games are clearly more spatially regulated
than Second Life. Maaike Lauwert notes that a popular conception of Will Wright‟s
Sim games is “that they offer unlimited freedom to experiment, act out, create and
destroy”79, but concludes that the SimCity franchise does not operate as a
borderless playground but instead contains considerable limits to player freedom. In
comparison to non-digital construction toys, which accommodate role-play and
fantasy after their construction, Lauwert argues that SimCity is focused almost
exclusively on the construction phase80.
Critiquing the production of city in SimCity Lauwert notes the game offers only one
of Kevin Lynch‟s three possible conceptual models for cities. SimCity is
characteristically the practical city, a functional and pragmatic city commonly based
on orthogonal grids. SimCity does not offer the cosmic city, whose layout is symbolic
or spiritual, or the organic city. According to Lauwert, SimCity epitomises the
sprawling American grid city, noting “you do not start to build your city with a square
or a church but by zoning and laying out the grid structure”81 (Fig. 8).
78
Costikyan, Greg. “I Have No Words and I Must Design”. In The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play
Anthology, Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006,
p.197.
79
Lauwert, Maaike. "Challenge Everything? Construction Play in Will Wright's SIMCITY". Games and
Culture. Volume 2, No. 3, 2007, p.195.
80
Ibid, p.199.
81
Ibid, p.198.
Figure 8
Zoning of space in a
pre-generated
starter town in
SimCity 3000.
SimCity does allow gamers to create and install content for the game, using external
software. Players can design and plug in their own buildings and items.
Differentiating between the play activity in game as internal and the play processes
that occur outside the game, such as the modding of content, as external, Lauwert
notes that external play can change the games appearance and to a certain extent
its workings but “players cannot change the variables that form the simulated
cities”82. For example players cannot build a mod allowing them to “build and
manage a city according to New Urbanist principles”83. Referring to a mod that
introduces three types of saguaro cacti to SimCity’s vegetation, Lauwert notes that
modding often just provides “more variations on the existing themes of the game”84.
Modding only extends the illusion of choice.
In relation to spatial goal conditions SimCity sits between terra ludus and terra
paidia in the continuum. SimCity does not have formal or explicit goals yet the
landscape is clearly designed to do one thing only; build a city. There are clear
spatial imperatives implied in the games construction and an implicit goal within the
set of parameters given to the player. Frasca notes while there are no clear goals in
82
83
Ibid, p.206.
84
Ibid, p.203.
SimCity many simulations contain rules of defeat85. The game then contains an
implicit goal of avoiding or courting failure. SimCity does not define any spatial
challenges, players are free to choose or ignore difficult configurations of space. Yet
the management of the city itself is a constant implicit spatial challenge, where
gamespace forms gameplay. Rather than formal goals SimCity contains implicit
goals.
Similarly SimCity is ambivalent in how it implements spatial rules. It allows freedom

of movement but sets that movement within a limited portion of space. Actions are
regulated as object specific, but can be used across the entire game map. Finally
SimCity is about creation of space but sets a number of constraints on that creation.
Players are free to change the terrain, but the majority of creation options are limited
to the free placement of pre-supplied objects within a set of parameters. Lauwert
argues SimCity “is wide-ranging in terms of form but very explicit, detailed and
specific in terms of content”86, referring to design of the décor versus the restrictions
in constructive freedom. SimCity offers to the player a prefabricated set of choices, a
list of types of civic installations, a pre-designed set of architectural objects, an
inventory of services, allowing them to layout the city however they like, as long as
they create a city with services that sits within the parameters of the game. The look
of the city is determined by how well the player services the city and predetermined
by the menu of possible buildings.
Lauwert argues that Wright‟s games have created a play world that enables paidia
within a “ludus, rule–bound system”87. Enabling a kind of regulated paidia out of
prefabricated elements SimCity restricts creation and action to a prefabricated set of
options. While it could be argued that the world community has enhanced paidia in
SimCity modding only extends the illusion of choice. Positioned between ludus and
paidia the seemingly freeform activity in SimCity offers only a limited selection of
choice and sets the player on predetermined paths. It could be argued that many
toys do this, the tea-set lends itself to a certain form of play, but the restrictions are
cultural rather than spatial. SimCity appears to offer a special kind of midpoint
between terra ludus and terra paidia, operating as what we might call a terra prefab.
85
Frasca, Gonzalo. "Ludology Meets Narratology: Similitude and Differences between (Video)Games
and Narrative." www.ludology.org. 1999. http://www.ludology.org/articles/ludology.htm.
86
87
Ibid, p.209.
Rather than explicit formal goals terra prefab sets out implicit spatial goals in the
environment, where the construction of gamespace privileges specific activities.
Terra prefab offers the semblance of choice through prefabricated components,
elements whose usage is predetermined in gameplay. SimCity operates as a terra
prefab (table 3).
SimCity
Table 3
Goal and rule conditions for SimCity
Implicit
Predetermined Official Spatial Goals
▼
Goals
Implicit
Terra ludus
▼
terra paidia
Implicit
Gamespace Supports Goals
▼
Direct/Restrict Move Acts ◄►
Rules
Restrict Expressive Acts ◄

Prefab
Deny/Restrict Creation Acts
▼
terra prefab
SimCity sets out creation acts as a process of selection and combination, where the
player chooses from prefabricated elements. The concept of prefabrication in spatial
choice relates to Lev Manovich‟s notion of selection, the assemblage of new media
from ready-made parts88. Manovich notes that through the process of selection “one
does not construct a unique self but instead adopts already pre-established
identities”89. SimCity offers authorship over gamespace through the selection of
items, where the player customises gamespace through their choice of components.
Combining selection with pre-fabricated elements in SimCity allows the game to
push a particular agenda, focusing players on the process of urban planning.
Prefabrication is a way of managing complexity, a limitation of choice for control of
experience. Profoundly ludus games control the gameplay experience tightly while
paidia games use little editorial or narrative control. A terra prefab however
integrates the process of selection into gameplay as a way of allowing meaningful
88
pp.123-129.
89
Ibid, p.129.
creation acts while maintaining an agenda. A terra prefab controls play through
implied and embedded bias in the construction of space.
In comparison to ludus games like Tomb Raider many games appear to offer
spatially unlimited play experiences, yet when compared with paidia worlds like
Second Life their options are restrained. Sandbox games and games without strong
goal conditions often use gamespace as a way of covertly controlling play, adopting
elements of a terra prefab. In The Sims size and quality of space affect sim
happiness, setting up an implicit goal of material possession90. Equally virtual
worlds that offer play as predominately paidia can adopt elements of a terra prefab
in their construction of space. Prefabrication of space is implicated in user‟s
personal space in Habbo Hotel, where players buy set items to decorate a pre-
rendered room. Terra prefab is about the implicit placement of spatial goals in the
environment and the construction of gamespace to privilege specific activities. Terra
prefab is also about the semblance of choice through prefabricated components,
elements whose usage is predetermined. A terra prefab offers both a degree of
autonomy and constraint. (Appendix 5 lists a range of games that operate as a terra
prefab).
5.6 Spatialisation of Play

Many virtual worlds move between paidia and ludus in their formal structure.
Entropia Universe contains both gamic and non-gamic activity. Players are colonists
on frontier planet, Calypso, equipped with an orange jumpsuit and set free in the
environment. There are no formal spatial goals, but there are implicit goals in the
hunting and mining economy that reward exploration and resource gathering. Other
generated activities constructed and controlled by Entropia include manufacturing,
tailoring, taming animals and beauty treatments, all of which are dependent on in-
game resources. Equally Entropia allows the player to bypass resource grinding by
investing real currency in the game to buy in-game items. Users can also set up
enterprises outside of the organised activity of the game, including event
management, speculative real estate and taxi services. Users can invest time in the
90
The Sims also sets up other implicit values in its selection and valuation of items. Those interested
should read:Paulk, Charles. "Signifying Play: The Sims and the Sociology of Interior Design". Game
Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research. Volume 6, Issue 1, 2006.
http://www.gamestudies.org/0601/articles/paulk. Accessed 20 August 2007.
constructed gameplay activities or ignore them to carve out self-generated activity,

encountering a different world depending on whether they invest time or money.
While there are no overtly stated goals in Entropia space is constructed to support
occupations and their implicit goals. The world presents complete navigational
freedom, tempered only by the dangers of the wildlife where level of skill and quality
of weapons limits the player‟s freedom. Florian Schmidt notes, “Chances of survival
in the wilderness are slim, if not impossible, without investing in weapons”91, thus
reaffirming the primacy of organised occupations. A player may create their own
goals, yet the environment privileges certain activities. A new player might create a
goal of circumnavigating the continent, without partaking in resource grinding, but
would mostly end up dying unless they expend real money on protective gear and
weapons.
Many activities are spatially regulated on Calypso, hairdressers need a stylist‟s chair
and miners must search the land for minerals. Other activities are less spatialised,
yet all are reliant on context specific actions and materials sourced from the game
environment. Players cannot freely create space, apartments and houses are
constructed by the Entropia team. Players can make furniture but the use of
prefabricated blueprints restricts what they can create to prefabricated elements.
As a blend of gamic and social world Entropia offers players the opportunity to
undertake a number of different roles, once you own a space ship you can taxi
people between the planet and the space stations, you can speculate on virtual real
estate, set up a virtual bank and exchange virtual money for real currency. Many of
the games activities sit outside the understanding of play, activity undertaken for
economic gain is unlikely to be described as paidia. Entropia promotes itself as
being more than a game, yet retains control over its space, by adopting some of the
characteristics of a Terra Ludus and Terra Prefab (table 4). Only by circumventing
the traditional resource gathering structure through fiscal input can the player freely
enjoy Entropia as a Terra Paidia (table 4).
91
Schmidt, Florian. 2007. “Entropia Universe: Money Make the World Go Round’”. In Space Time
Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: The Next Level. Borries, F. et al. (Eds.),
Birkhauser, Basel, pp.154 -155.
Monetary
Table 4
Activity
Goal and rule conditions for Entropia Universe
Input
Input
Goals Predetermined Official Spatial Goals ▼ ►
► ►
terra paidia
terra ludus
Gamespace Supports Goals ▼ ►
Direct/Restrict Move Acts
92
◄ ►
Rules
Restrict Expressive Acts ◄ ◄

Deny/Restrict Creation Acts ▼ ▼
terra prefab
By investing the digital environment with spatial goals, overtly and implicitly, and by
controlling player agency through rules, videogames and virtual worlds prescribe
play. By understanding space as terra ludus, a land of spatial goals and rules which
restrict play acts, terra paidia, a land of spatial freedom, and terra prefab, a land of
implicit goals and prefabricated choice, we can understand how different forms of
play are facilitated by the environments of videogames and virtual worlds.
Terra ludus, terra paidia and terra prefab describe a continuum in the spatialisation
of play, with no hard distinctions between the categories. Terra ludus, terra paidia
and terra prefab help us to understand spatial difference between gamic and non-
gamic constructs. Social worlds offer spatial freedom to enable paidia, while
videogames control their spaces tightly to create specific forms of play, delivering
ludus. Other videogames appear to offer paidia in their lack of specific goals but are
shown to tightly control player experience and direct gameplay through spatialisation
of implicit goals and restriction of choice, operating as terra prefabs.
Through emergent gameplay users can subvert the designer‟s intentions. Each
algorithmic space contains the potential for both ludus and paidia. The more
complex the space and the more agency the player has within that space the
greater the possibilities for paidia. Terra ludus, terra prefab and terra paidia detail a
predisposition of space towards particular forms of play but do not necessarily
enforce users to play that way. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has a different set of
92
Entropia restricts move acts with levels of hazard within an open environment. Being able to buy
weapons and armour removes much of the danger that prevents easy travel.
characteristics according to whether you fulfill or ignore its missions (see appendix
5). Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska observe that “it is possible in many games to
switch between paidia and ludus” arguing that players can often choose to ignore
the games directives and “simply play around”93. Terra ludus, terra prefab and terra
paidia help us to understand the bias encoded within space and the intended uses
of a space.
Extending beyond videogames into related non-gamic fields illustrates

commonalities in spatial construction in computer-generated spaces. This indicates
that this thesis is applicable to different constructions of space, situating it as a
toolbox for understanding spatial conditions in range of virtual spaces. The
complexity of virtual worlds and modern videogames means that terra ludus, terra
paidia and terra prefab as investigative tools are limited in their ability to describe
them in their entirety; there is more to a videogame than its space. Terra ludus, terra
paidia and terra prefab are strictly spatial interpretations of Caillois terms, there are
always other influences and constructions of play occurring.
Every game contains the possibilities for both forms of play through emergent
gameplay, but terra ludus, terra paidia and terra prefab provides useful insights into
how videogames and virtual worlds construct space for particular purposes. Terra
ludus, terra paidia and terra prefab are useful in comparing different constructions of
space and understanding how space generates and influences play. Terra ludus
controls play overtly through goals and player agency, while terra prefab controls
play covertly through goals and through limiting player options. Terra Prefab
illustrates how less ludic games still control play through their spatial configuration.
As comparative tools of spatial analysis terra ludus, terra paidia and terra prefab
allow us to understand and compare how videogames and virtual worlds spatially
manipulate and our experiences, highlighting the relationships between space and
play. Terra ludus, terra paidia and terra prefab express ways in which play, as
freeform or structured, is enabled and controlled by the construction of space.
Gamespace functions to manipulate and control play.
93
Contexts London: I. B. Tauris. 2006, p.13.
Conclusion
If Vitruvius had a Xbox
Vitruvius didn’t play videogames but what if he did? Let us imagine Vitruvius sitting
down to play, ignoring for the moment the two thousand interim years of
technological development. We ease him into it with Titan Quest. The game is
loaded, gamespace appears on the screen. Vitruvius picks up the controller and
begins to play. He recognises much of the architecture; the game is based on the
ancient worlds of Greece, Egypt and Rome. He soon gets the hang of the game,
happily running around, hacking and slashing fell beasts, though he was overrun and
slain by skeletons when he stopped to grumble about the temple proportions in
Athens. Yet as an architect and engineer Vitruvius notes that this world is very
peculiar, it’s not like the Roman world he knew. Its buildings are less about living and
more about killing.
We take Vitruvius through a collection of games. He is bemused with the idea of

building Rome in Civilization IV, comparing the buildings and soldiers to pebbles in a
game of Latrunculi (a Roman game that resembles chess). The Sims is met with
incomprehension; the arrangements and accoutrements of the domus1 having
morphed over the centuries. Every game brings a new batch of questions. Vitruvius
wants to know why he can’t drive his fancy chariot over to that clearly visible and
enticing town in Toca Race Driver 3. Why can’t he set fire to the straw roof in
Morrowind? What purpose does the inexplicable space of Doom serve? All the time
Vitruvius is learning that gamespace is constructed for play. His questions begin to
reflect his new knowledge of the medium. At the beginning of each game he asks
what can I do in this world and what does this world want me to do? After falling prey
to a number of especially nasty architectural traps in Tomb Raider he wants to know
what can this world do back. Most of all Vitruvius wants to know why is each world,
each gamespace and each piece of architecture, built this way.
Vitruvius didn’t play videogames, but I do. While I was playing games and writing this
thesis I began to wonder what would Vitruvius’ dictum of firmitas, utilitas and
venustas look like if he had been writing about architecture in videogames? The
1
A Roman house for wealthy and middle class citizens.
If Vitruvius had a Xbox 243
answer lies in understanding videogames. Taking Vitruvius’ maxim as a starting point

this thesis examined architecture in videogames through its structure and function.
Gamic architecture was considered in the light of how it is made and what it does.
Given that the explicit function of videogames is gameplay, the task was to
understand how architecture is constructed and used to support gameplay. This
thesis asked – what are the relationships between architecture and gameplay in
videogames?
But this thesis also argued that gamespace is an architectonic construct, a built
environment. In short gamespace itself can be seen as architecture. The question
became – what are the relationships between gamespace and gameplay? To answer
this question this thesis examined both architecture in gamespace and the
architecture of gamespace, investigating videogames in three ways. It looked at the
structure of gamespace, it investigated the function of gamespace and finally,
because videogames are an idiosyncratic medium (one that Vitruvius would not have
recognised), it examined the differences between real space and gamespace. Each
approach revealed things about the medium, the way it operates, the way it
constructs space for play and the ways in which it uses space to prescribe play.
Using function, structure and difference as ways of investigating the relationships

between gamespace and play this thesis discovered a series of important
relationships between gamespace and gameplay. Each chapter offered a different
conceptualisation of gamespace, concepts that can be used as a framework for
understanding gamespace and architecture in gamespace. On the way a number of
patterns and configurations of gamespace were identified.
Building on the work of Alexander Galloway and Ian Bogost, among others,
Chapter One analysed the structure of gamespace by examining the literature
on videogames. The results were set out as a new theory of gamespace – the
units of gamespace. Within the units a spatial heart of gameness was
identified.
Chapter Two examined the differences between real space and gamespace,
looking at how gamespace is constructed. Identifying a number of ways in
which gamespace diverges from real space, this thesis proposed that the
divergence is enabled through processes of dissociation and reconstitution.
Investigating representation, abstraction, simulation and transformation in
gamespace, Chapter Three identified two major modes of spatial production
in videogames: experiential and symbolic (where space privileges either lived

experiences of space or conceptual information).
Chapter Four identified a series of major relationships between space and
play – the patterns of spatial use. Six major patterns were detailed –
challenge space, contested space, nodal space, codified space, creation
space and backdrops.
Lastly Chapter Five explored how the structure of gamespace functions to
support play as paidia and ludus, identifying three types of gamespace: terra
ludus, terra paidia and terra pre-fab.
So what are the relationships between gamespace and gameplay? Put simply
gamespace can be used to create, manipulate and control gameplay, while
gameplay dictates and influences the construction of gamespace. Gamespace and
gameplay exist in a reciprocal relationship. Particular forms of play call for particular
constructions of gamespace. Particular types of gamespace construct play in
particular ways. Gamespace creates, manipulates and controls gameplay using a
series of strategies, a number of which this thesis has described.
A deep and abiding relationship between gamespace and gameplay was discovered
in Chapter Five, in the ways in which gamespace supports play as ludus or paidia, as
structured or as freeform play. Spatial goals and rules set out the conditions under
which play takes place. In effect the spatial conditions set out a series of limitations
to play. Through spatial freedoms gamespace facilitates play as paidia, through
spatial restrictions gamespace controls play as ludus. Each gamespace encourages
particular forms of play through its construction.
The construction of space directly impacts on gameplay in other ways. The

dichotomy between experiential and symbolic space observed in Chapter Three,
between being in space and observing space, is indicative of another relationship
between space and play. Each mode of space results in a different form of gameplay.
Experiential space submerges the player into an intimate relationship with space,
focusing on spatial relationships. Symbolic space conceptualises spatial relations
and sets the player at a remove from gamespace. The construction of gamespace in
part dictates the player’s experience.
We can see videogames as a space to play in, where gamespace is the context for
play. But the patterns of spatial use identified by this thesis also indicate that the
game environment takes a more active role in facilitating gameplay. The patterns of
spatial use reveal a series of underlying relationships between space and play.
Space is used to form play, when gamespace itself acts as an opponent in challenge
space. Space is used to affect play, acting as a modifying force between opponents
in contested space. The game environment is used to structure play, when space
organises activity in nodal space. Gamespace is used to support complex play
routines, acting as a host for non-spatial information in codified space. Altering
space becomes the act of play in creation space. Gamespace forms, affects,
organises, supports and becomes play.
Gamespace is also revealed in this thesis as something that does not actively
participate in gameplay. Space can operate as a backdrop, as a non-interactive
pattern of spatial use where no active element of play occurs. Equally acts of spatial
tourism, where a game presents an alternate spatial mode but penalises or does not
allow gameplay to take place in that spatial mode, show how gamespace can be
disengaged from direct involvement in gameplay. Both backdrops and acts of spatial
tourism are involved in supporting gameplay through other means, as a spatial milieu
and atmosphere.
The relationships between gamespace and gameplay are confirmed by the ways in
which videogame genres adopt particular spatial formations. This thesis found that
videogames use particular forms of space to support, create and control various
forms of gameplay. First person shooters are usually experiential, contested spaces.
Strategy games are overwhelmingly contested and codified, symbolic, creation
spaces. The differences between gamic and non-gamic social virtual worlds
described in Chapter Five also illustrate the way in which space is used to control the
play experience. Different forms of play require different combinations of gamespace
patterns and modes.
The units of gamespace assembled in Chapter One suggest a particular relationship

between the construction of space and play. Gameplay cannot occur without all the
units, but more importantly it is the mechanisms of assigned qualities and player
agency that allow play to take place in the representation of space and allow for the
interaction between machine and operator in gamespace. Assigned qualities set the
potential for gamespace to act. Player agency sets the potential for the player to act
in gamespace. As the spatial heart of gameness, assigned qualities and player
agency allow interaction, or reciprocal actions, to take place.
This thesis also looked at gamespace as a technologically mediated space, as

something different to real space. In Chapter Two I argued that this difference is
enabled by processes of dissociation and reconstitution, processes that disrupt the
causal relationships of the physical world. The links between materiality, structure,
sensory data and function are disrupted and reassembled in response to the
demands of play. Acts of dissociation and reconstitution hence underlie the
relationships between gamespace and gameplay.
The technology of videogames allows any element of space and architecture to be

reconstituted at will, used or ignored, altered or enhanced. Spatial practices can be
extended and architectural form is limited only by the imagination. Equally
gamespace can be subverted through its technological means. Gamespace can
glitch and crash. Players can cheat or change gamespace through hacks and mods.
Gamespace is a mutable space.
Gamespace is a built environment, where gamespace is constructed to create,

control and influence play. Similarly architecture in gamespace is constructed to
create, control and influence play. The relationships between gamespace and
gameplay hold true for architecture in gamespace, where architecture acts as a
microcosm of gamespace. Just as for gamespace, architecture in gamespace
functions to create, manipulate and control gameplay. Architecture supports the play
experience as a component of gamespace and as a separate entity. The
relationships and concepts described in this thesis can be used in analysing either
individual constructions of architecture in gamespace or gamespace in its entirety.
Play occurs in gamespace. The type of play intended determines how that space is
constructed. Designers choose between different constructions of space, consciously
or unconsciously tailoring gamespace to fit their gameplay vision. Gamespace is
constructed to support particular types of gameplay and in doing so becomes
subservient to play. Space is used to create, manipulate and control play and in
doing so confirms that the explicit function of gamespace is gameplay.
Understanding gamespace is important to the study of videogames. Yet a study of

gamespace has significance beyond the medium. Computers spatialise many forms
of information and experiences. According to Lev Manovich “navigable space
2
represents a larger cultural form” that transcends videogames, where “navigable
space is a key form of new media”3. The idiosyncratic construction of gamespace
and the ways in which videogames control and influence activities through the
construction of space are applicable to other digitally constructed spaces. The
relationships between space and play in videogames illustrate how space can be
constructed to facilitate certain behaviours. Some of the relationships between
gamespace and gameplay could be used in analysing and constructing activities
beyond play4. Understanding gamespace helps us to understand other algorithmic
navigable and actionable spaces.
By examining architecture in gamespace this thesis also points to what is possible in

real space. Videogames contain an architecture that extends beyond the material.
The arrival of ubiquitous computing, where information processing is integrated into
everyday objects and activities, allows attributes previously only available in the
virtual world to become part of our corporeal world. What is possible in gamespace
becomes possible in real space. Architects in real space could learn from the
sophisticated controls that gamespace adopts to control play, going beyond the
embedding of screen on wall. The paradigms of symbolic and codified space, in
particular, hold resonance for this kind of “everyware”5 computing. With the blending
of atoms and bytes gamespace shows us what architecture can become. The
relationships between gamespace and gameplay point to ways in which information
and activity can be embedded in space through code.
This thesis has not ranked or rated games on how successfully they have
implemented the relationships between space and play. Nor has it explicitly set out
how designers might design better games. Yet a greater understanding of the ways
in which gamespace creates, manipulates and controls gameplay lends itself to the
design process. There is much that this thesis has not answered; it leads to many
2
p.248.
3
Ibid, p.252.
4
In particular the patterns of nodal and codified space are pertinent to virtual spaces interested in
setting information in a constructed environment.
5
Greenfield, Adam. Everyware: the dawning age of ubiquitous computing. Berkeley, California: New
Rider, 2006.
further questions. Are there further relationships between Caillois patterns of play
and the patterns of spatial use6? How are paidia and ludus implicated in the patterns
of spatial use? Could we redefine gamic genres through their spatial characteristics?
Is there a relationship between particular forms of narrative and spatial construction?
How does codified space relate to semiotic and textual readings of game
architecture? How are particular building types used within play? As a framework for
understanding gamespace and its relationship to play this thesis sets out a path in
which further investigation may take place. An understanding of the structure and
function of gamespace will enable investigations into gamespace aesthetics to be
grounded in knowledge.
Finally we can return to Vitruvius. What if Vitruvius had played videogames? What if
he had an X-box? If Vitruvius had understood the nature of gamespace and its
connections to gameplay would he have written a different maxim for architecture in
videogames? I like to think so. Perhaps he would have retained utilitas, noting that
the explicit function of gamespace is to support gameplay. He might have added an
addendum that the utility of architecture in gamespace is different to that of real
space. The architecture we find in videogames and the architecture of gamespace
both function to host, form, influence and create play.
However, this thesis also demonstrated that the construction of architecture in

gamespace is different to real space. Through acts of dissociation and reconstitution,
and through processes of representation, simulation, abstraction and transformation,
space is reinvented. Game architecture does not have to stand up and fight the
forces of gravity or withstand the weather unless the game designer specifically
codes those interactions in. Games imitate buildings in real space not because they
are forced to by rules of physics but because they wish to create settings that take on
the attributes and associations of those in real space. Vitruvius might have decided
that firmitas, or firmness, was not so important in gamespace.
Rather than focusing on how architecture stands up, Vitruvius might have considered
as significant the ways in which gamic architecture and gamespace construct and
control what you can do in videogames. After all games are actions, as Galloway
6
A question that Steffen Walz tackles briefly in his PhD Thesis (Walz, Steffan P. Toward a Ludic
Architecture: Framing the Space of Play and Games. Doctoral Thesis, Faculty of Architecture, ETH
Zurich, 2008, pp.93-95.)
noted. Furthermore at the spatial heart of gameness we find player agency and
assigned qualities – which enable navigation of gamespace and allow players to
perform expressive acts on space – acts that make possible the interaction between
player and space. Rather than an outmoded quality of firmitas, game architecture
exhibits qualities of action. Vitruvius might have argued that gamespace exhibits
effectus, translated as doing, execution, performance and effect7. Gamespace
consists of actions, operations, processes and resultant outcomes. It is this
operational ability of videogames that enables the potentiality and mutability of
gamespace.
Of the three ideals of Vitruvian architecture, venustas, or beauty and delight, was the
only value not brought into play in this thesis. After all architecture in gamespace
scares and repels us as often as it invites admiration. Why not study aesthetics? Like
buildings, gamespaces are complex, integrated structures which have to serve a
particular purpose. An aesthetical analysis without an understanding of how
gamespace is constructed and operates would only be superficial.
Yet gameplay must occur somewhere. Considering that gamespace is a construction

of space, a setting where play and narrative occurs and a setting that has a
significant effect on play, Vitruvius might have chosen to focus on gamespace as a
location and situation for play. Rather than venustas Vitruvius might have written
locus, or place, location and situation. Gamespace sets both the location of play and
the circumstances of play. As a situation that creates, manipulates and controls play
locus connects us back to the function of gamespace, reminding us that the explicit
function of gamespace is to support gameplay.
If Vitruvius had played videogames he might have asserted that architecture in

gamespace exhibits utilitas (utility and function), effectus (doing, execution,
performance and effect) and locus (place, location situation). Architecture in
gamespace and the architecture of gamespace functions to support gameplay, both
as an active component of gameplay and as a setting for gameplay. The relationship
between space and play in videogames is one of mutual action – where gameplay
dictates the production of gamespace and where gamespace hosts, forms,
influences and creates play. Gamespace is the actionable situation of play.
7
Using a number of online English to Latin Dictionaries.
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List of Games
Adventure, Atari, 1978.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Funcom, 2008.
Age of Mythology, Ensemble Studios, 2002.
American McGee’s Alice, Rogue Entertainment, 2000.
Arena, JODI, 2002. http://untitled-game.org/ug2.html. Accessed 21 October 2007.
Baldur’s Gate, BioWare, 1998.
Battlefield 2, Digital Illusions CE, 2005.
Battlezone, Atari, 1980.
Bejewelled, PopCap Games, 2001.
Bioshock, 2K Games, 2007.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Headfirst Productions/Bethseda Softworks, 2006.
Call of Duty, Infinity Ward, 2003.
Civilization, Firaxis, 2001. 
Civilization III, Firaxis Games, 2001.
Civilization IV, Firaxis Games, 2005. 
Club Penguin, New Horizon Interactive, 2005.
Company of Heroes, Relic Entertainment, 2006.
Computer Space, Nutting Associates, 1971.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Arkane Studios, 2006.
Deus Ex, Ion Storm 2000.
Diablo (Blizzard Entertainment, 1996) 
Diablo 2, Blizzard Entertainment, 2002.
Dog’s Life, Frontier, 2004,
Doom, iD Software, 1993,
Doom II, iD Software, 1994,
Dune II, Westwood Studios, 1992,
Entropia Universe, MindArk, 2003.
Eve Online, CCP Games 2003,
Everquest, Sony Online Entertainment, 1999.
Everquest 2, Sony Online Entertainment, 2004. 
Fable, Lionhead Studios, 2004.
FIFA 07, Electronic Arts, 2007.
Gears of War, Microsoft, 2006.
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Rockstar North, 2004.
Grim Fandango, LucasArts, 1998.
List of Games 270
Habbo Hotel,Sulake Corporation, 2000.

Habitat, Lucasfilm, 1985. 
Half Life, Valve, 1998.
Heroes of Might and Magic V, Nival Interactive, 2006.
IL-2 Sturmovik, 1C, 2001.
Katamari Damacy, Namco, 2004.
LambdaMOO, Pavel Curtis, 1990. 
Lemmings, DMA Design, 1991.
Lineage, NCsoft, 2003.
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II, EA Los Angeles, 2006.
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Capcom, 2007.
Lumines, Q Entertainment, 2004.
Mass Effect, Bioware, 2007.
Myst, Cyan Worlds, 1993.
Neopets, Neopets Inc, 1999.
Neverwinter Nights, Bioware, 2002.
Nintendogs, Nintendo EAD, 2005.
Pac-Man, Namco, 1979.
Pixel Chicks (Mattel). 
Planescape Torment, Black Isle Studios, 1999.
Pong, Atari, 1972.
Portal, Valve Software, 2007.
Prey, Valve Corporation, 2007
Psychonauts, Double Fine Productions, 2005.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ubisoft, 2003.
Ratchet and Clank, Insomniac Games, 2002.
realMyst: Interactive 3D Edition, Cyan, Sunsoft, 2000.
Red Light Centre, Utherverse, 2007.
Rez, United Game Artists, 2001.
Rfactor, Image Space Incorporated, 2005.
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War, Stainless Steel Studios/Midway Games, 2006.
Rise of Legends, Big Huge Games, 2006.
Rome: Total War, Creative Assembly, 2004,
Runescape, Jagex Ltd, 2001.
Second Life, Linden Research, 2003.
Shadow of the Colossus, Team Ico, 2005.
Silent Hill 2, Konami, 2001.
SimCity, Maxis, 1989. 
SimCity 3000, Maxis, 1999.
Skate, EA Black Box, 2007.
List of Games 271
Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress, Tarn Adams, 2006.

Soul Caliber, Namco, 1999.
Space Invaders, Taito Corporation, 197.
Space Wars, Cinematronics, 1977.
SSX 3, EA Canada, 2003.
Star Wars Galaxies, Sony Online Entertainment, 2003.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Bioware, 2003.
Starcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, 1998.
Super Mario Bros., Nintendo, 1985.
Table Tennis, Rockstar Games, 2006.
Tabula Rasa, Destination Games, 2007.
Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, 1985.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Bethesda, 2006.
The Elder Scrolls Morrowind, Bethseda, 2002.
1
The Endless Forest, Tale of Tales, 2005.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo EAD, 1998.
The Sims, Maxis, 2000.
The Way of the Exploding Fist, Beam Software, 1985.
There, Makena Technologies, 2003.
Thief Deadly Shadows, Ion Storm, 2004.
TinyMUD, James Aspnes, 1989. 
Titan Quest, Iron Lore, 2006.
Toca Race Driver 3, Codemasters, 2006.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Ubisoft, 2002.
Tomb Raider, Core Design, 1996.
Trackmania, Nadeo, 2004.
Ultima 1, Richard Garriott, 1980. 
Ultima Online, Origin Systems, 1997.
Ultima Online: The Kingdom Reborn, Electronic Arts, 2007. 
Ultima VII, Origin, 1992.
Unreal Tournament 2004, Epic Games, 2004.
Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, Blizzard Entertainment, 2003.
World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, 2004.
Yoshi’s Island DS, Artoon, 2006.
Zoo Tycoon, Blue Fang Games, 2001.
Zoo Tycoon 2, Blue Fang Games, 2004.

Not included in appendices
List of Figures
Unless otherwise indicated all images are in-game screenshots.
Title Page
Heroes of Might and Magic V, Nival Interactive, 2006.
Chapter 1
15 Figure 1 Galloway’s Gamic Action Four Moments. Redrawn from untitled diagram.
Galloway, Alexander R. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture.
Electronic Mediations Vol. 18. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 2006, p.37.
19 Figure 2 A Dog’s Life, Frontier, 2004. Image from GameSpot website.
www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/dogslife/images. Image accessed 22
July 2008.
21 Figure 3 Galloway’s Gamic Action Four Moments as spatial and non-spatial.
Redrawn from untitled diagram in Galloway, Alexander R. Gaming:
Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Electronic Mediations Vol. 18.
24 Figure 4 The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Bethseda, 2006. Imaged extracted from
height editor in game. The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages.
http://www.imgplace.net/files/121/Cyrodiil_hires_notext_nomarkers.jpg.
Image accessed 24 October 2006.
36 Figure 5 Planescape Torment, Black Isle Studios, 1999.
47 Figure 6 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ubisoft, 2003. Image from
GameSpot website.
www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/princeofpersia/images. Image accessed 8
August 2007.
48 Figure 7 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ubisoft, 2003. Image from
GameSpot website.
www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/princeofpersia/images. Image accessed 7
April 2008.
49 Figure 8 The Units of Gamespace Nested. Image by Georgia McGregor.
50 Figure 9 The Spatial Heart of Gameness. Image by Georgia McGregor.
Chapter 2
56 Figure 1 Image assembled from screenshots. World of Warcraft, Blizzard
Entertainment, 2004.
61 Figure 2 Second Life, Linden Research, 2003.
71 Figure 3 Heroes of Might and Magic V, Nival Interactive, 2006.
73 Figure 4 Thief: Deadly Shadows, Ion Storm, 2004.
75 Figure 5 American McGee’s Alice, Rogue Entertainment, 2000.
79 Figure 6 Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, EA Los Angeles, 2006.
List of Figures 262
82 Figure 7 Titan Quest, Iron Lore, 2006.

83 Figure 8 Call of Duty, Infinity Ward, 2003.
85 Figure 9 The Separation of Affordance from Perceptible Information. Image
redrawn from Gaver, William W. "Technology Affordances". SIGCHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New Orleans,
Louisiana, 1991, p.80.
89 Figure 10 World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, 2004.
91 Figure 11 Eve Online, CCP Games, 2003.
102 Figure 12 Arena - Quake Mod, JODI, 2002.
Chapter 3
105 Figure 1 Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, 1985. Image from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GB_Tetris.png. Image accessed 2
March 2006.
Bejewelled, Popcap Games, 2001.
106 Figure 2 Pac-man, Namco, 1979. Image from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pac-man.png. Image accessed 4 July
2008.
106 Figure 3 Adventure, Atari, 1978. Screenshot from Flash version of Adventure,
recreated by Scott Pehnke.
http://www.simmphonic.com/programming/flash.htm#.
107 Figure 4 The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Bethseda, 2002.
111 Figure 5 Dwarf Fortress, Tarn Adams, 2006,
113 Figure 6 Battlezone, Atari, 1980. Image from Gamespot.
http://au.gamespot.com/pages/unions/read_article.php?topic_id=200007
50&union_id=729. Image accessed 12 August 2008
114 Figure 7 Pong, Atari, 1972. Image from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pong.png. Image Accessed 4 July
2008
Table Tennis, Rockstar Games, 2006. Image from Gamespot.
http://au.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/tabletennis/screenindex.html.
Image accessed 28 November 2006.
115 Figure 8 Rez, United Game Artists, 2001. Image from Sonic Team Rez website.
http://www.sonicteam.com/rez/e/visuals/index.html. Image accessed 4
July 2008.
116 Figure 9 Neopets, Neopets Inc., 1999.
119 Figure10 World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, 2004.
125 Figure 14 Battle for Middle Earth 2, EA Los Angeles, 2006.
129 Figure 16 Ultima VI, Origin, 1992.
135 Figure 17 Vertical axis compressed in top-down, isometric and 3D games. Image by
Georgia McGregor
List of Figures 263
135 Figure 18 Vertical axis maintained in side-scrolling, 2D and 3D first and second
person games. Image by Georgia McGregor
136 Figure 19 IL-2 Sturmovik, 1C, 2001.
Chapter 4
150 Figure 1 Tomb Raider, Core Design, 1996.
152 Figure 2 Tomb Raider, Core Design, 1996.
155 Figure 3 Unreal Tournament 2004, Epic Games, 2004.
157 Figure 4 Doom, iD Software 1993. Image constructed by Ian Albert. http://ian-
albert.com/misc/gamemaps.php. Accessed 22 April 2006.
163 Figure 5 The Sims, Maxis 2000.
175 Figure 8 Zoo Tycoon 2, Blue Fang Games, 2004.
177 Figure 9 Toca Race Driver 3, Codemasters, 2006.
184 Figure 10 Shadow of the Colossus, Team Ico, 2005. Image from Games Press.
http://www.gamespress.com/product.asp?c=%25W%2B%2A. Image
accessed 1 March 2007.
186 Figure 11 Shadow of the Colossus, Team Ico, 2005. Image from Games Press.
http://www.gamespress.com/pics.asp?c=%04%A70%81%3C. Image
Chapter 5
195 Figure 1 Habbo Hotel, Sulake Corporation, 2000,
196 Figure 2 There, Makena Technologies, 2003,
198 Figure 3 Second Life, Linden Research, 2003,
204 Figure 4 Second Life, Linden Research, 2003,
210 Figure 5 Entropia Universe, MindArk, 2003,
216 Figure 6 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Rockstar North, 2004.
219 Figure 7 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Bioware, 2003.
224 Figure 8 SimCity 3000, Maxis, 1999.
222 Table 1 Goal and rule conditions for Tombraider and Second Life
223 Table 2 Gaol and rule conditions for World of Warcraft
226 Table 3 Gaol and rule conditions for SimCity3000
229 Table 4 Goal and rule conditions for Entropia Universe
Appendix 1
Experiential and Symbolic Space
This appendix lists a number of videogames played and researched by the author,
including those mentioned in the body of the thesis. Each game is described by its
spatial mode – as experiential or symbolic. Games that operate as hybrids or offer
modes of spatial tourism are noted as such. Each classification refers to the overall
feel of the game. The classification of each game is open to argument1.
Key
E = Experiential space
S = Symbolic space
Adventure Atari 1978 E S

Age of Conan: Hyborian
Adventures
Funcom 2008 E S
Age of Mythology Ensemble Studios 2002 E S
American McGee's Alice Rogue Entertainment 2000 E S
Baldur’s Gate Bioware 1998 E S
Battlefield 2 Digital Illusions CE 2005 E S
Battlezone Atari 1980 E S
Bejewelled PopCap Games 2001 E S
Bioshock 2K Games 2007 E S
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Headfirst Productions
Corners of the Earth /Bethseda Softworks
2006 E S
1
Namely because the length of time needed to master, finish or thoroughly explore each game precludes a
thorough knowledge of each of these games. In the case of games that I have not played extensively I have
supplemented my knowledge with online movies of gameplay, walkthroughs and fan sites.
Appendix 1 276
Call of Duty Infinity Ward 2003 E S

Civilisation III Firaxis Games 2001 E S
Club Penguin New Horizon Interactive 2005 E S
Company of Heroes Relic Entertainment 2006 E S
Computer Space Nutting Associates 1971 E S
Dark Messiah of Might &
Magic
Arkane Studios 2006 E S
Deus Ex Ion Storm 2001 E S
Diablo 2 Blizzard Entertainment 2000 E S
Dog’s Life Frontier 2004 E S
Doom iD Software 1993 E S
Doom II iD Software 1994 E S
Dune II Westwood Studios 1992 E S
Entropia Universe MindArk 2003 E S
Eve Online CCP Games 2003 Hybrid
2
E S
Sony Online
Everquest
Entertainment
1999 E S
Fable Lionhead Studios 2004 E S
FIFA 07 Electronic Arts 2007 Hybrid
3
E S
Gears of War Epic Games 2006 E S
Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas
Rockstar North 2004 E S
Grim Fandango LucasArts 1998 E S
Habbo Hotel Sulake Corporation 2000 E S
Half-Life Valve 1998 E S
Heroes of Might and Magic V Nival Interactive 2006 E S
IL-2 Sturmovik 1C 2001 E S
Katamari Damacy Namco 2004 E S
Lemmings DMA Design 1991 E S
2
Eve Online for the most part offers an experiential space, but reverts to symbolic space in the space stations,
which are unnavigable menu-based constructs.
3
FIFA07 operates as symbolic space in manager mode and as experiential space on the pitch.
Appendix 1 277
Lineage II NCSoft 1998 E S

Lord of the Rings: Battle for
Middle Earth II
Ea Los Angeles 2006 E S
Lost Planet: Extreme
Condition
Capcom 2007 E S
Lumines Q Entertainment 2004 E S
Mass Effect Bioware 2007 E S
Myst Cyan Worlds 1993 E S
Neverwinter Nights Bioware 2002 E S
Nintendogs Nintendo EAD 2005 E S
Pac-Man Namco 1979 E S
Perfect World Beijing Perfect World 2008 E S
Planescape Torment Black Isle Studios 1999 E S
Pong Atari 1972 E S
Portal Valve Software 2007 E S
Prey Valve Corporation 2007 E S
Prince of Persia - Sands of
Time
Ubisoft 2003 E S
Psychonauts Double Fine Productions 2005 E S
Ratchet and Clank Insomniac Games 2002 E S
realMyst: Interactive 3D
Edition
Cyan, Sunsoft 2000 E S
Red Light Centre Utherverse 2007 E S
Rez United Game Artists 2001 E S
Rfactor Image Space Inc 2005 E S
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at Stainless Steel
War Studios/Midway Games
2006 Hybrid
4
E S
Rise of Legends Big Huge Games 2006 E S
Spatial
Rome Total War Creative Assembly 2004
Tourism
5 E S
Runescape Jagex Ltd 2001 E S
Second Life Linden Labs 2003 E S
4
In Rise and Fall players can conduct traditional strategy game activities in symbolic space but can also join in
battles in experiential space during hero mode.
5
In Rome: Total War gameplay is conducted in symbolic space but players can also zoom in on the action.
Appendix 1 278
Shadow of The Colossus Team Ico 2005 E S

Silent Hill 2 Konami 2001 E S
Sim City 3000 Maxis 1999 E S
Skate EA Black Box 2007 E S
Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf
Fortress
Tarn Adams 2006 E S
Soul Caliber Namco 1999 E S
Space Invaders Taito Corporation 1978 E S
Space Wars Cinematronics 1977 E S
SSX 3 EA Canada 2003 E S
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Ubisoft 2002 E S
Sony Online
Star Wars Galaxies
Entertainment
2003 E S
Star Wars: Knights of the
Old Republic
Bioware 2003 E S
Starcraft Blizzard Entertainment 1998 E S
Super Mario Bros Nintendo 1985 E S
Table Tennis Rockstar Games 2006 E S
Tabula Rasa Destination Games 2007 E S
Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1985 E S
The Elder Scroll: Morrowind Bethseda 2002 E S
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Bethseda 2006 E S
The Endless Forest Tale of Tales 2005 E S
The Legend of Zelda: The
Ocarina of Time
Nintendo EAD 1998 E S
The Sims Maxis 2000 E S
The Way of the Exploding
Fist
Beam Software 1985 E S
There Makena Technologies 2003 E S
Thief: Deadly Shadows Ion Storm 2004 E S
Titan Quest
6
Iron Lore 2006 E S
6
Games like Titan Quest and Ultima VII are symbolic rather than experiential because they offer space as a series
of containers that hold loot and enemies, rather than focusing on any significant experience of spatial qualities.
Appendix 1 279
Toca Race Driver 3 Codemasters 2006 E S

Tomb Raider Core Design 1996 E S
Trackmania Nadeo 2004 Hybrid
7
E S
Ultima Online Origin Systems 1997 E S
Ultima VII Origin 1992 E S
Unreal Tournament 2004 Epic Games 2004 E S
Virtual MTV MTV Networks 2008 E S
Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos Blizzard Entertainment 2004 E S
Wolfenstein 3D id Software 1992 E S
World of Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment 2004 E S
Yoshi’s Island DS Artoon 2006 E S
Zoo Tycoon Blue Fang Games 2001 E S
Spatial
Zoo Tycoon 2 Blue Fang Games 2004
Tourism
8 E S
7
Trackmania is unequivocally experiential in race mode but also operates as symbolic space in build mode.
8
In Zoo Tycoon 2 you build and manage the zoo in symbolic space, but players can also enter and interact with the
zoo in the first person.
Appendix 2
Experiential and Symbolic Space by Genre
including those mentioned in the body of the thesis. This appendix sorts the games
by genre, describing them as experiential or symbolic. The genres used are widely
adopted, though there are discrepancies in their usage. The most popular
classifications for each game have been used. Some games are classified as
belonging to two genres and have been included in both genre samples. Some
genres have only a small representative sample and are therefore limited in their
accuracy. A wider survey would need to be done to substantiate the findings of this
appendix. The classification of each game is open to argument1.
Key
E = Experiential Space
S = Symbolic Space
Summary
Adventure & Action Games E S Dominated by E
Fighting Games E All E
FPS and Shooters E S Dominated by E
MMORPGs E S Both found, more E
Platform Games E All E
Puzzle games E S Both E and S
Racing Games E S Dominated by E
RPG’s E S Even mix of E and S
Sim Games E S Both found, more S
Social Worlds E S Both found, more E
Sport Games E S Dominated by E
Strategy Games S All S
1
Appendix 2 281
Adventure (A), Action Adventure (AA) Games

An adventure game privileges exploration and puzzle-solving within a narrative. An action game
emphasises challenges that involve hand-eye co-ordination and reaction time.
An action/adventure game is an action game with a narrative storyline.
Grim Fandango A E S
Pac-Man A E S
Psychonauts A/Platform E S
Deus Ex A/RPG E S
Diablo 2 A/RPG E S
Fable A/RPG E S
Mass Effect A/RPG E S
Adventure AA E S
American McGee's Alice AA E S
Call of Cthulhu: AA E S
Dogs Life AA E S
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas AA E S
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time AA E S
Shadow of the Colossus AA E S
Silent Hill 2 AA E S
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time AA E S
Thief: Deadly Shadows AA E S
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell AA E S
Tomb Raider AA E S
Fighting Games
Fighting games are a tightly focused type of game in which two characters fight each other in
unarmed combat.
The Way of the Exploding Fist Fighter E S

Soul Caliber Fighter E S
First Person Shooters (FPS) and Shooters

A shooter features weapons-based combat, testing player speed, accuracy and reaction times.
A first-person shooter is a popular form of shooter that uses a first-person point of view.
Battlefield 2 FPS E S
Bioshock FPS E S
Call of Duty FPS E S
Doom FPS E S
Doom 2 FPS E S
Half-Life FPS E S
Portal FPS E S
Prey FPS E S
Unreal Tournament 2004 FPS E S
Wolfenstein 3D FPS E S
Appendix 2 282
Entropia Universe FPS/MMO E S

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic FPS/RPG E S
Battlezone Shooter E S
Computer Space Shooter E S
Gears of War Shooter E S
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Shooter E S
Space Invaders Shooter E S
Space Wars Shooter E S
Rez Shooter E S
Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMO’s)

An online videogame with large numbers of players interacting. A MMORPG is massive
multiplayer online role-playing game and an MMOFPS is a first-person shooter MMO.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures MMORPG E S

Eve Online MMORPG E S
Everquest MMORPG E S
Lineage II MMORPG E S
Perfect World MMORPG E S
Runescape MMORPG E S
Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG E S
Tabula Rasa MMORPG E S
Ultima Online MMORPG E S
World of Warcraft MMORPG E S
Entropia Universe MMO/FPS E S
Platform Games
Platform games are characterised by their environments, which place obstacles to player
movement. They often require the player to jump from platform to platform, hence their name.
Ratchet and Clank Platform E S

Super Mario Bros Platform E S
Yoshi’s Island DS Platform E S
Puzzle Games
Puzzle games are games that focus on puzzle-solving.
Bejewelled Puzzle E S
Katamari Damacy Puzzle E S
Lemmings Puzzle E S
Lumines Puzzle E S
Myst Puzzle E S
Tetris Puzzle E S
realMyst: Interactive 3D Edition Puzzle E S
Appendix 2 283
Racing Games
Racing games are games that feature vehicles. Players compete against the clock or against
other racers.
Rfactor Racing E S
Toca Race Driver 3 Racing E S
Trackmania Racing E S
Role Playing Games (RPG)

Role playing games players take on the control of one or more characters, where the player is
in control of the characteristics of those characters, and where gameplay is determined in part
by those characters characteristics.
Baldur’s Gate RPG E S

Neverwinter Nights RPG E S
Planescape Torment RPG E S
Star Wars: Knights/Old Republic RPG E S
The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind RPG E S
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion RPG E S
Titan Quest RPG E S
Ultima VII RPG E S
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic RPG/FPS E S
Deus Ex RPG/A E S
Diablo 2 RPG/A E S
Fable RPG/A E S
Mass Effect RPG/A E S
Sim Games
Sim games are those that attempt to model the real world in some manner. This genre category
is diverse, ranging from construction and management sims (C/M) to sims about raising pets.
Zoo Tycoon SIM C/M E S

Zoo Tycoon 2 SIM C/M E S
SimCity 3000 SIM C/M E S
Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress SIM C/M E S
IL-2 Sturmovik SIM Flight E S
Nintendogs SIM Life E S
The Sims SIM Life E S
Appendix 2 284
Social Worlds
Social worlds are non-gamic online worlds that focus on enabling social interaction.
Club Penguin Social World E S

Habbo Hotel Social World E S
Red Light Centre Social World E S
Second Life Social World E S
The Endless Forest Social World E S
There Social World E S
Virtual MTV Social World E S
Sport Games
Sport games model sports from real space, including team sports like soccer and individual
sports like golf and snowboarding.
FIFA 07 Sport E S
Pong Sport E S
Skate Sport E S
SSX 3 Sport E S
Table Tennis Sport E S
Strategy Games
Strategy games focus on planning and strategy. Strategy games include real-time strategy
(RTS) & turn-based strategy (TBS).
Age of Mythology RTS E S

Company of Heroes RTS E S
Dune II RTS E S
LOTR Battle for Middle Earth 2 RTS E S
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War RTS E S
Rise of Legends RTS E S
Starcraft RTS E S
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos RTS E S
Civilisation III TBS E S
Heroes of Might and Magic V TBS E S
Rome Total War TBS E S
Appendix 3
including those mentioned in the body of the thesis. This appendix lists the dominant
patterns of spatial use found in each game. An example is shown on the next page.
The status of each pattern, as primary or secondary, is noted. Minor or limited
iterations of patterns found in each game are not included. Navigational challenges
have been listed separately from other spatial challenges. Backdrops have only
been included if they function to support gameplay in a significant manner. Virtual
worlds are included; some of these do not use any of the gamic patterns. These
classifications are open to argument1.
Key
1 = Primary Pattern Primary patterns operate as a principal component in gameplay
2 = Secondary Pattern Secondary patterns are used to support the primary pattern
1
Appendix 3 286
Example: Bioshock
This category acts as a principal component of gameplay.
Contested space is a primary pattern in Bioshock,

where fights against AI controlled opponents form
the major part of gameplay.
These categories act as secondary components in gameplay.
Bioshock allows the player to use environmental

elements as weapons (for example players can electrify
pools of water or throw found objects at their enemies).
Deciding how to use the environment creates a form of
challenge space. But as a weapon the environmental
challenge is used within and supports the primary
pattern of contested space.
Contested Space
Challenge Space
Creation Space
Codified Space
Nodal Points
Navigation
Backdrop
Bioshock 2 1
These categories are not used as principal parts of gameplay.
Navigational challenge is limited in Bioshock. Players are

confined to relatively linear predefined pathways. At any point
the player can bring up a map of each area that sets out the
route to be followed.
Nodal space is not utilised in Bioshock, space is not organised
through social patterns.
Creation space is not part of Bioshock. Players cannot
significantly alter space except through pre-scripted events or as
minor damage by weapons.
Isolated instances of codified space can be found in Bioshock
(such as the med-stations) but are trivial within gameplay.
Backdrops are minimal in Bioshock. There are some backdrops,
such as the view of the city from the elevator, but they are not
endemic in gameplay. The majority of spaces are playable.
Appendix 3 287
Contested Space
Challenge Space
Creation Space
Codified Space
Nodal Points
Navigation
Backdrop
Adventure 1 1
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures 1 1 1 2 2
Age of Mythology 2 3
1 1 1
American McGee's Alice 1 1 1
Baldur’s Gate 1 1 1
Battlefield 2 2 4
1
Battlezone 1 2
Bejewelled 1
Bioshock 2 1 5
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth 1 1 1

Call of Duty 1
Civilisation III 2 1 1 1 6
Club Penguin 2 2 1 1 7 8
Company of Heroes 2 1 1 1
Computer Space 1
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic 2 1 1 9
Deus Ex 2 1 1 10
Diablo 2 1 1 1
Dogs Life 1 1 1 1
Doom 1 1
Doom 2 1 1
2
Guilds can create battlekeeps and city strongholds, but not design them.
3
Fog of war limits initial knowledge of game-space.
4
Knowledge of map gives players an advantage in contests.
5
As environmental weapons used in contests.
6
7
As mini-games embedded within Club Penguin.
8
As mini-games embedded within Club Penguin.
9
As environmental weapons used in contests.
10
As an environment enabled for emergent gameplay.
Appendix 3 288
Contested Space
Challenge Space
Creation Space
Codified Space
Nodal Points
Navigation
Backdrop
Dune II 1 2 11
1 1
Entropia Universe 1 1 1
Eve Online 1 1 1 1 2
Everquest 1 1 1 1
Fable 1 1 1 2
FIFA 07 1 2
Gears of War 1 1
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2 1 1 12
Grim Fandango 1 2 2
Habbo Hotel 1 1
Half-Life 1 2 1
Heroes of Might and Magic V 1 1 1 1 2
IL-2 Sturmovik 1 1 2
Katamari Damacy 1 1
Lemmings 1 2 13
Lineage II 1 1 1
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 1 1 1 2
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition 2 1 1 14
Lumines 1 2
Mass Effect 1 1
Myst 1 1 2
11
12
As an environment enabled for emergent gameplay outside of the official missions and goals.
13
Creation space used as a tool in challenge space.
14
Heat loss in the open environment acts as a challenge that creates additional urgency to fights.
Appendix 3 289
Contested Space
Challenge Space
Creation Space
Codified Space
Nodal Points
Navigation
Backdrop
Neverwinter Nights 1 1 1 2 15
Nintendogs 2 16
1 2
Pac-Man 1
Perfect World 1 1 1
Planescape Torment 1 1
Pong 1
Portal 1 1 1 2 17
Prey 1 1 1
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 1 1 1
Psychonauts 1 1 1
Ratchet and Clank 1 1 1
realMyst: Interactive 3D Edition 1 1
Red Light Centre
Rez 1 2
Rfactor 1 1 2
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War 1 1 1
Rise of Legends 2 1 1 1 18
Rome Total War 1 1 1

Runescape 1 1 1
Second Life 1
Shadow of the Colossus 1 1 1
Silent Hill 2 1 1 1
15
The Neverwinter Nights Toolset is an important part of the game, allowing player to create their own game-space.
16
During dog agility trials.
17
The ability to create portals through walls, albeit temporary ones, acts as an integral part of gameplay.
18
Appendix 3 290
Contested Space
Challenge Space
Creation Space
Codified Space
Nodal Points
Navigation
Backdrop
SimCity 3000 1 19
1 1 1
Skate 1 1 1
Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress 2 1 20
1
Soul Caliber 1 2
Space Invaders 1
Space Wars 2 1 21
SSX 3 1 1 2
Star Wars Galaxies 1 1 1
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 1
Starcraft 2 1 22
1 1
Super Mario Bros 1 1 2
Table Tennis 1 2
Tabula Rasa 1 1 1
Tetris 1
The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind 1 1 1
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion 1 1 1
The Endless Forest
The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time 1 1 1 1

The Sims 1 1 1
The Way of the Exploding Fist 1 2
There
Thief: Deadly Shadows 2 1 1 23
19
Combating entropy is a continual environmental challenge.
20
Complex physics enable emergent gameplay.
21
The gravity well around which the ships fly is a challenge to negotiate.
22
23
Negotiating light and dark is an environmental challenge that operates as a subset of contested space.
Appendix 3 291
Contested Space
Challenge Space
Creation Space
Codified Space
Nodal Points
Navigation
Backdrop
Titan Quest 1 1 1
Toca Race Driver 3 1 1 2
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 1 1 1
Tomb Raider 1 1 1
Trackmania 1 1 1 24
Ultima Online 1 1 1 1
Ultima VII 1 1 1
Unreal Tournament 2004 2 1 25
Virtual MTV
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos 2 26

1 1 1
Wolfenstein 3D 1 1
World of Warcraft 1 1 1
Yoshi’s Island DS 1 1 1 2
Zoo Tycoon 1 1
Zoo Tycoon 2 1 1
24
In multiplayer mode.
25
Learning the layout of different arenas enhances player performance.
26
Appendix 4
Patterns of Spatial Use by Genre
including those mentioned in the body of the thesis. This appendix sorts the games
by genre, noting their dominant patterns of spatial use. The status of each pattern,
as primary or secondary, is noted. The genres used are widely adopted, though
there are discrepancies in their usage. The most popular classifications for each
game have been used. Some games are classified as belonging to two genres and
have been included in both genre samples. Some genres have only a small
representative sample and are therefore limited in their accuracy. A wider survey
would need to be done to substantiate the findings of this appendix. The
classification of each game is open to argument1.
Key
= Major Trend (100% of surveyed games) 1 = Primary Pattern
= Secondary Trend (50% and over of surveyed games) 2 = Secondary Pattern
Summary
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Adventure & Action Games

Fighting Games
FPS and Shooters
MMORPGs
Platform Games
Puzzle games
Racing Games
RPG’s
Sim Games
Social Worlds
Sport Games
Strategy Games
1
Appendix 4 293
Adventure (A), Action Adventure (AA) Games

An adventure game privileges exploration and puzzle-solving within a narrative. An action game
emphasises challenges that involve hand-eye co-ordination and reaction time (as such is
closely related to platform games). An action/adventure game is an action game with a narrative
storyline.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Grim Fandango A 1 2 2
Pac-Man A 1
Psychonauts A/Platform 1 1 1
Deus Ex A/RPG 2 1 1
Diablo 2 A/RPG 1 1 1
Fable A/RPG 1 1 1 2
Mass Effect A/RPG 1 1
Adventure AA 1 1
American McGee's Alice AA 1 1 1
Call of Cthulhu: AA 1 1 1
Dogs Life AA 1 1 1 1
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas AA 2 1 1
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time AA 1 1 1
Shadow of the Colossus AA 1 1 1
Silent Hill 2 AA 1 1 1
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time AA 1 1 1 1
Thief: Deadly Shadows AA 2 1 1
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell AA 1 1 1
Tomb Raider AA 1 1 1
Fighting Games
Fighting games are a tightly focused type of game in which two characters fight each other in
unarmed combat.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Soul Caliber Fighter 1 2

The Way of the Exploding Fist Fighter 1 2
Appendix 4 294
First Person Shooters (FPS) and Shooters

A shooter features weapons-based combat, testing player speed, accuracy and reaction times.
A first-person shooter is a popular form of shooter that uses a first-person point of view.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Battlefield 2 FPS 2 1
Bioshock FPS 2 1
Call of Duty FPS 1
Doom FPS 1 1
Doom 2 FPS 1 1
Half-Life FPS 1 2 1
Portal FPS 1 1 1 2
Prey FPS 1 1 1
Unreal Tournament 2004 FPS 2 1
Wolfenstein 3D FPS 1 1
Entropia Universe FPS/MMO 1 1 1
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic FPS/RPG 2 1 1
Battlezone Shooter 1 2
Computer Space Shooter 1
Gears of War Shooter 1 1
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Shooter 2 1 1
Rez Shooter 1 2
Space Invaders Shooter 1
Space Wars Shooter 2 1
Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMO’s)

An online videogame with large numbers of players interacting. A MMORPG is massive
multiplayer online role-playing game and an MMOFPS is a first-person shooter MMO.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures MMORPG 1 1 1 2

Eve Online MMORPG 1 1 1 1 2
Everquest MMORPG 1 1 1 2
Lineage II MMORPG 1 1 1
Perfect World MMORPG 1 1 1
Runescape MMORPG 1 1 1
Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG 1 1 1
Tabula Rasa MMORPG 1 1 1
Ultima Online MMORPG 1 1 1 1
World of Warcraft MMORPG 1 1 1
Entropia Universe MMO/FPS 1 1 1
Appendix 4 295
Platform Games
Platform games are characterised by their environments, which place obstacles to player
movement. They often require the player to jump from platform to platform, hence their name.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Ratchet and Clank Platform 1 1 1
Super Mario Bros Platform 1 1 2
Yoshi’s Island DS Platform 1 1 1 2
Puzzle Games
Puzzle games are games that focus on puzzle-solving.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Bejewelled Puzzle 1
Katamari Damacy Puzzle 1 1
Lemmings Puzzle 1 2
Lumines Puzzle 1 2
Myst Puzzle 1 1 2
realMyst: Interactive 3D Edition Puzzle 1 1
Tetris Puzzle 1
Racing Games
Racing games feature vehicles. Players compete against the clock or against other racers.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Rfactor Racing 1 1 2
Toca Race Driver 3 Racing 1 1 2
Trackmania Racing 1 1 1
Appendix 4 296
Role Playing Games (RPG)

Role playing games players take on the control of one or more characters, where the player is
in control of the characteristics of those characters, and where gameplay is determined in part
by those characters characteristics.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Baldur’s Gate RPG 1 1 1
Neverwinter Nights RPG 1 1 1 2
Planescape Torment RPG 1 1
Star Wars: Knights/Old Republic RPG 2 1
The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind RPG 1 1 1
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion RPG 1 1 1
Titan Quest RPG 1 1 1
Ultima VII RPG 1 1 1
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic RPG/FPS 2 1 1
Deus Ex RPG/A 2 1 1
Diablo 2 RPG/A 1 1 1
Fable RPG/A 1 1 1 2
Mass Effect RPG/A 1 1
Sim Games
Sim games are those that attempt to model the real world in some manner. This genre category
is diverse, ranging from construction and management sims (C/M) to sims about raising pets.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Zoo Tycoon SIM Business 1 1

Zoo Tycoon 2 SIM Business 1 1
SimCity 3000 SIM City 1 1 1 1
Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress SIM Civilisation 1 1
IL-2 Sturmovik SIM Flight 1 1 2
Nintendogs SIM Pet 2 1 2
Appendix 4 297
Social Worlds
Social worlds are non-gamic online worlds that focus on enabling social interaction.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Club Penguin Social World 2 2 1 1
Habbo Hotel Social World 1 1
Red Light Centre Social World
Second Life Social World 1
The Endless Forest Social World
There Social World
Virtual MTV Social World
Sport Games
Sport games model sports from real space, including team sports like soccer and individual
sports like golf and snowboarding.
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
FIFA 07 Sport 1 2
Pong Sport 1
Skate Sport 1 1 1
SSX 3 Sport 1 1 2
Table Tennis Sport 1 2
Appendix 4 298
Strategy Games
Strategy games focus on planning and strategy. Strategy games include real-time strategy
(RTS) & turn-based strategy (TBS).
Navigation
Backdrops
Contested
Challenge
Creation
Codified
Nodal
Age of Mythology RTS 2 1 1 1
Company of Heroes RTS 2 1 1 1
Dune II RTS 2 1 1 1
LOTR Battle for Middle Earth 2 RTS 1 1 1 2
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War RTS 1 1 1
Rise of Legends RTS 2 1 1 1
Starcraft RTS 2 1 1 1
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos RTS 2 1 1 1
Civilisation III TBS 1 1 1
Heroes of Might and Magic V TBS 1 1 1 1 2
Rome Total War TBS 1 1 1
Appendix 5
Terra-Ludus, Terra Paidia & Terra Prefab
This appendix lists goal and rule conditions for a selected number of videogames
and virtual worlds, separating games into categories of terra ludus, terra paidia and
terra prefab. The goal and rule conditions describe refer to the dominant mode of
play in the game; some games will alternate between different modes of play. The
classifying of each game as terra ludus, terra paidia or terra prefab refers to the
overall feel of the game. Some games appear in different classifications, or are
footnoted as operating under a different classification during a particular mode of
play. The classification of each game is open to argument1.
Key
◄ Moves toward terra ludus
terra ► terra Moves towards terra paidia
ludus ◄► paidia Instigates elements of both terra paidia and terra ludus
▼ Moves towards terra prefab with implicit goal or prefab acts
terra
prefab
Terra Ludus
Bioshock,
Call of Duty,
Myst
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Toca Race Driver 3
Tomb Raider,
Yoshi’s Island DS.
Goals
Predetermined Informal Spatial Goals ◄

Restrict Move Acts ◄
Rules

Deny or Restrict Creation Acts ◄
1
Appendix 5 300
Terra Ludus
Deus Ex
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Mission-based play2)
Goals
Rules
Restrict Move Acts ►
Restrict Expressive Acts ►
Katamari Damacy
Goals
Predetermined Informal Spatial Goals ▼

Rules

Deny or Restrict Creation Acts ►
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2

Rise of Legends
Starcraft
Goals

Rules

Deny or Restrict Creation Acts ▼
Shadow of the Colossus

Predetermined Official Spatial Goals ►
Goals

Rules

World of Warcraft
Goals
Predetermined Informal Spatial Goals ►

Restrict Move Acts ◄►
Rules
Restrict Expressive Acts ◄►

2
See also Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Free-play) where the game operates as a terra paidia.
Appendix 5 301
Terra Paidia
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Free-play3)
Goals
Gamespace Supports Goals ►
Rules Restrict Expressive Acts ►
Habbo Hotel
Goals

Rules

Nintendogs
Predetermined Official Spatial Goals ►4
Goals

Rules

Second Life
Goals

Rules

There.com
Goals

Rules

3
See also Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Mission-based play) where the game operates as a terra ludus.
4
With the exception of dog training trials, where both formal and informal spatial goals are in play. During dog trials
Nintendogs operates more as a terra ludus.
Appendix 5 302
Terra Prefab
Civilization III
Formal Spatial Goals ▼5
Goals
Informal Spatial Goals /Defined Spatial Challenges ►
Space supports Game Goals ▼
Rules Restrict Expressive Acts ◄
Slaves to Arnok: Dwarf Fortress

Formal Spatial Goals ►
Goals
Informal Spatial Goals /Defined Spatial Challenges ▼ 6

Rules

SimCity 3000
Formal Spatial Goals ▼
Goals
Informal Spatial Goals /Defined Spatial Challenges ▼

Rules

The Sims
Goals
Informal Spatial Goals /Defined Spatial Challenges ►

Rules

Zoo Tycoon
Goals
Informal Spatial Goals /Defined Spatial Challenges ◄ 7

Rules

5
Civilization does have some formal spatial goals (it can be won by reaching the star system of Alpha Centauri) but
they are so far-reaching as to render the more implicit goals of controlling and managing the land more significant.
6
Dwarf Fortress has no official goals; simply surviving in the tough environment is an implicit goal.
7
Zoo Tycoon contains a number of non-spatial goals (e.g. monetary aims and the breeding of rare animals), but
these goals cannot be reached with unhappy animals, therefore good housing of animals acts as an informal goal.

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Gamespace

Play & Architecture in Videogames

Georgia Leigh McGregor

Chapter 1 Units of Gamespace 14

1.1 Space & Actions 15

Chapter 2 Dissociation & Reconstitution 56

2.1 Sensory Dissociation 57

Chapter 3 Spaces and Objects 110

3.1 Representation, Abstraction, Simulation & Transformation 111

Chapter 4 Situations of Play 153

4.1 Patterns in Gamespace 154

Chapter 5 Terra Ludus, Terra Paidia & Terra Prefab 199

5.1 Virtual Worlds 200

List of Games 269

List of Figures 272

Appendix 1 Experiential & Symbolic Space 275

I would like to thank the following:

My previous supervisor, Professor James Donald, for encouraging my initial ideas.

The Australian Government for my Australian Postgraduate Award, at least some of

My parents, John and Joan McGregor, who listened nonplussed to me reading

My partner, David Griffiths, for believing I can do anything.

As an architecture student playing videogames I often pondered the difference

After my architecture degree finished I decided to study architecture in videogames,

Videogames set play in a construction of space. Created for the purpose of

Space is important in videogames. Espen Aarseth declares “videogames are

expansive12. Gamespace is an important component of videogames, yet relatively

To understand videogames fully it is essential to understand how gamespace is

Gamespace refers to the representation of space encountered in videogames. As a

tied, first and foremost, to a general notion of dimensionality”19. Gamespace is a

space; it is physically dependant on real space. Gamespace operates as a subset of

Videogames are a particular form of media and gamespace is a media-specific

The media-specific nature of gamespace is part of why a straightforward translation

“architectural space is different from the void of the philosophers. It is palpable

An architectural analysis of videogames ties in with Henri Lefebvre‟s‟ refutation of

Architecture can also be understood as a metaphor for systems. „Architecture‟ is

As an umbrella term ‘videogame‟ is used to refer to all types of computer controlled

A number of researchers stipulate that videogame studies are best approached as a

constructed for play. Understanding the environments of videogame as part of a

This thesis looks at architecture in gamespace and the architecture of gamespace,

Videogames are a significant form of popular culture. In Australia 68% of all

The buildings in videogames might not stand up to the rigorous scrutiny of an

1.1 Spaces and Actions

For Alexander Galloway “videogames are actions”5. A videogame cannot be played

Galloway goes on to distinguish between diegetic and non-diegetic acts in

2. Diegetic machine acts or the diegesis produced by the technology of videogames,

Acknowledging the idiosyncrasies of the medium, from lag to cheats, is essential in

There are counterparts to cheats and glitches in primary space. A blackout in

By the same process of disguise, or metaphoric patching, architecture can be part of

Placing a new spatial

Games-as-actions situate videogames as temporal objects. Actions happen across

The potentiality of gamespace is a product of the algorithmic nature of the medium,

Galloway‟s scheme is significant in that it incorporates all of the aspects of gaming

1.2 Landscape as Architecture

Every landscape is engineered from scratch by human involvement. Even those

The understanding of gamespace as architecture is in part reliant on an

There are other compelling reasons for understanding game landscapes as

and „landscape‟, while recognising that in videogames both are artificial

1.3 Stratified Approaches

In Computer Game Analysis: A Method for Computer Game Criticism42 Lars

Architecture is dependent on hardware and program code, both of which operate at

Architecture in referentiality is of interest, particularly in relation to a study of the

Espen Aarseth suggests that Konzack‟s methodological framework should be used

Aarseth, in examining the elements that computer game researchers choose to