Game space topology revisited: A review of labyrinthine terminology

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Bakkerud Frederik
2022 DiGRA ’22 – Proceedings of the 2022 DiGRA International Conference: Bringing Worlds Together

This paper addresses the concept of game space topology – the arrangement of space in games – with regard to the established literature’s dependence on spatial metaphors such as labyrinths or mazes. I argue that despite their prevalence in humanistic game studies, these metaphors widely conflate space topologies with aspects of representation, perspective, teleology, and sequentiality. One can rarely tell what specific aspects of the game are addressed by research on this subject. Indeed, labyrinths are ambiguous and highly connotative words, and as such they are unproductive for the classification of game space topology. This paper intends to facilitate more rigorous research on the subject, starting by building on clearly delineated elements of the game world.

 

Beyond God’s Eye: on the Reliability of Gameworld Images

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Fragoso Suely Freitas Fabiana Amaro Mariana
2019 DiGRA '19 - Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo-Mix

This article questions the influence of visual enunciation of gameworlds on players’ spatial practices. It begins with a reminder that images are not naïve, followed by a brief review of the literature about the modernist ideological charge of two types of images widely used in games: maps and perspective projections. Considerations about the mediating role of game images leads to the hypothesis that games highlight the inseparability of the spatial practices known as mapping and touring (de Certeau 1984; Lammes 2008, 2009, 2015, 2018). The ideas are exemplified by the combined uses of maps and perspective images in 5 games. Results indicate that maps and central perspective reify Modern values and beliefs. They are more likely to challenge the stratification of spatial practices when encountered in combination or in intermediate forms such as oblique projections. Their potential is intensified by synchronicity and by releasing control of the point of view.

 

“Who Am ‘I’ in the Game?”: A Typology of the Modes of Ludic Subjectivity

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Vella Daniel
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

In order to arrive at an understanding of the formal structures by which an ‘I’ is established for the player towards the gameworld, this paper proposes a typology of the various modes of ludic subject-positioning. It highlights the ways in which each mode of ludic subject-positioning uses specific formal mechanisms to structure the player’s experience of the gameworld around a particular subjective , presenting relevant examples in each case.

 

From Euclidean Space to Albertian Gaze : Traditions of Visual Representation in Games Beyond the Surface

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Arsenault Dominic Larochelle Audrey
2014 DiGRA '13 - Proceedings of the 2013 DiGRA International Conference: DeFragging Game Studies

In this paper, we examine the two highly relevant traditions of the simulation of space, and the simulation of the gaze, to develop an art history approach to video games rooted in the relationship of a gamer to the visual and play space implemented in the game through its surface and diegetic spaces. Parallel projection and perspective are both examined from their philosophical roots in Greek antiquity to their technological implementation in 2D game engines; the many techniques employed to simulate a third dimension out of the bidimensional surface of the screen (namely parallax scrolling, occlusion, depth cues and ray casting) help influence the player’s engagement with the game space, and his positioning on the continuum opposing contemplative immersion and interactive engagement. We finally present an original model of Axial-Spatial Play to account for the mapping of diegetic and surface spaces in 2D video games.

 

Cinematic Camera as Videogame Cliché

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Thomas David Haussmann Gary
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Because the videogame camera is not an optical camera, it can be programmed to represent a potentially infinite number of perspectives beyond the classic, representational linear perspective. However, an ongoing collusion of the optical camera and the videogame camera leads videogame designs to favor cinematic visual patterns. Classic videogames show a strong tradition of non-optical, non-cinematic perspectives and prove the potential for the videogame medium to expand beyond optically-true perspectives. In fact, this paper argues the development of videogames as an expressive medium depends on an understanding of cinematic perspective as a form of visual cliché’