Digital Library Keyword Archives

space

- 17 articles or papers

 

Dots, Fruit, Speed and Pills: The Happy Consciousness of Pac-Man

Wade Alex
2014 DiGRA '14 - Proceedings of the 2014 DiGRA International Conference

Spanning 30 years and 40 individual videogames across a range of platforms, Pac-Man is one of the most recognizable of all videogame characters and a pop–culture icon. In spite of its widespread popularity, the game receives little sustained academic engagement or analysis. In an attempt to address this, the paper argues that in its classic iterations Pac-Man generates complex notions of space and time which are indicative of changing cultural, ethical and political considerations in wider society. This is explored through recourse to Borges’ work on labyrinths, Bauman’s discussion of the ethical position of videogames, Poole’s rejoinder and Ritzer’s critique of consumerism, ultimately arguing that the dynamics, themes and leitmotifs evident in Pac-Man are experienced by gamers, consumers and citizens described in Marcuse’s One Dimensional Society, whereby the welfare and warfare state coalesce to generate the Happy Consciousness.

 

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

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.

 

Mapping Time in Video Games

Nitsche Michael
2007 DiGRA '07 - Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play

Video games can position players in a specific time and space. This paper will argue that the experiences of both are closely interdependent. As a consequence, we need to re-evaluate our models of time in video games. The discussion will exemplify the suggested interdependencies of temporal and spatial experience. The result is a playercentered perspective towards time in game spaces.

 

Teleporters, Tunnels & Time: Understanding Warp Devices In Videogames

Gazzard Alison
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

The warp is a device that reframes notions of time and space. It is a common cultural artefact, one that audiences have come to recognise and believe in through various media. We accept the bed in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the Tardis in Doctor Who, the supralight speed engines of science fiction, as time/space travel devices in order to get characters from A to B, to advance their progress along the story path. The warp as a path device can also be seen in board games such as Snakes and Ladders, where both the snake and ladder sections break the linearity of moving the character piece from square to square regularly up and down the game-board. It is therefore natural that such a time/space device has continued and been reconstructed within videogames. The virtual gameworld is itself a place able to reconstruct time and space; both Juul and Atkins discuss how players’ perceptions of time and narrative elements within the videogame can be rearranged, but the warp, a significant ‘re-arranger’, is rarely discussed further or in detail. The warp is used as a common device within videogames to transport the player from their location to somewhere else within the gamespace. Although commonly acknowledged through the hidden tunnels within Super Mario Bros, the warp is not a straightforward device, and can manifest itself in various ways during gameplay. It may be found in deliberately installed puzzles, and by the ‘aberrant player’. It may be a way of avoiding danger, of ‘jumping’ over sections previously achieved, or even of cheating. It may be the punishment for straying from a ‘good path’, or the reward for a particular act. Whatever its use or function, the warp exists within the virtual world as a means of managing time, space and narrative. The warp turns paths experienced by the player into fixed ‘tracks’, where navigational control is removed whilst in the warp sequence, and understanding the warp in this way allows us to further understand the player’s relationship with the game paths they are moving along, the stories they move within. This paper discusses the multiple characteristics of the warp by identifying its use in contrasting videogame genres. These characteristics open up ways of discussing the aesthetics of the warp experience for the player and how its use affects path structures as well as time and narrative elements within videogames. The discussion will include both the built in, deliberately installed ‘puzzle-based’ warps and the ‘inadvertent warps’ sought by those seeking to discover more of the games ‘algorithm’.

 

Situations of Play: Patterns of Spatial Use in Videogames

McGregor Leigh Georgia
2007 DiGRA '07 - Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play

Gameplay always occurs somewhere. Any discussion of situated play therefore should consider the actual spaces in which we play. Yet everyday real space is also deeply embedded in the games themselves. Videogames take patterns of spatial use from reality and situate them in their spatial structure. This paper explores these "situations of play" and their implementation in representational video game environments, seeking to understand game space through its connection to real space. But because play does not exist in isolation from its surroundings this paper takes into account the way videogames are situated in the world. How game space is presented, from screen-mediated game to pervasive games, affects how the patterns of spatial use are implemented. Game space also feeds back into real space, where their intersection forms what can be termed as played space. To understand the transfer of patterns from reality to games this paper examines games as spatial constructs, arguing that game space is architectural. Investigating the nexus between architecture and games, and using architecture as a tool to unpack spatial conditions in videogames, this paper explores how games are structured by their spatial qualities.

 

Stepping Back: Players as Active Participators

Nitsche Michael Thomas Maureen
2003 DiGRA '03 - Proceedings of the 2003 DiGRA International Conference: Level Up

Instead of confining the player to a single role, the active participator model positions the player in a more flexible position towards the fictional gameworld: involved and immersed in its various events without being limited to one role. The research project Common Tales explores this model in a serial game structure that stages the flexible relationship between the two game heroes. Players can change controls from one character to the other, guiding them through their adventures, and shaping their relationship with each other. Enabled through interactive functionality and expressed though cinematic mediation and spatial organisation, the character-driven gameworld engages the player as the central addressee and originator at the same time.

 

Connecting Worlds. Fantasy Role-Playing Games, Ritual Acts and the Magic Circle

Copier Marinka
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

From a cultural history and game theoretical perspective my work focuses on the relationship between the fantasy subculture, fantasy role-playing games and the daily life of their participants in the Netherlands. Main research themes are the construction of game/play space and identities. Within this context I elaborate in this paper on the usefulness of the term magic circle (Johan Huizinga). I will argue why in game research the current use of the term magic circle is problematic. We can understand the term differently when returning to the context in which Huizinga introduced the magic circle as ritual play-ground. According to him ritual is play and play is ritual. Referring back to his work Homo Ludens (1938) I will discuss the various relationships between role-play and ritual performance. I will argue that fantasy role-playing consists of collections of performances or ritual acts, in which players construct the game/play space, identities and meaning.