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Space and Place As Expressive Categories in Videogames

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Space and Place As Expressive Categories in Videogames Space and place as expressive categories in videogames A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Paul Martin School of Arts Brunel University August 2011 1 Abstract This thesis sets out to explore some of the ways in which videogames use space as a means of expression. This expression takes place in two registers: representation and embodiment. Representation is understood as a form of expression in which messages and ideas are communicated. Embodiment is understood as a form of expression in which the player is encouraged to take up a particular position in relation to the game. This distinction between representation and embodiment is useful analytically but the thesis attempts to synthesise these modes in order to account for the experience of playing videogames, where representation and embodiment are constantly happening and constantly influencing and shaping each other. Several methods are developed to analyse games in a way that brings these two modes to the fore. The thesis attempts to arrive at a number of spatial aesthetics of videogames by adapting methods from game studies, literary criticism, phenomenology, onomastics (the study of names), cartographic theory, choreography and architectural and urban formation analysis. 2 Table of Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Figures ................................................................................................................ 4 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 8 0. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 9 1. Two kinds of expression in videogame space: representation and embodiment ... 15 2. Place....................................................................................................................... 57 First category – sports, mini-games, fitness and dancing ........................................... 63 Second category – fighting, music, racing ................................................................. 64 Third category – story-based games ........................................................................... 66 3. Landscape, toponymy and viewpoint as aesthetic effect ....................................... 92 The landscape in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion .............................................................. 92 Toponymy in GTA IV ............................................................................................... 110 The grid and the viewpoint in Civilization ............................................................... 128 4. Space syntax – morphology as aesthetic effect ................................................... 143 Morphology and meaning in Wolfenstein 3D. .......................................................... 144 Splinter Cell .............................................................................................................. 168 5. Action as aesthetic effect ..................................................................................... 183 Embodiment in skating games .................................................................................. 183 Castlevania: Ambivalence and recursion ................................................................. 213 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 237 Appendix A .................................................................................................................. 242 Appendix B ................................................................................................................... 249 Games Cited ................................................................................................................. 257 Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 264 3 Table of Figures Figure 1: The Aztec setting of Zuma is re-skinned as the Polynesian setting of Zuma’s Revenge! without substantially altering the game. .................................................................. 57 Figure 2: Cover art for UK, US and Japanese versions of the game ....................................... 77 Figure 3: The opening sequence fills us in on the size and state of the country as we are driven from the airport to the hotel .......................................................................................... 82 Figure 4: Oblivion as represented in the game's opening cut-scene. ....................................... 93 Figure 5: The garden city, the pastoral countryside and the sublime landscape in the opening sequence to Oblivion. ............................................................................................................... 93 Figure 6: Avatar as object, not character ................................................................................. 96 Figure 7: The end of the virtual world 2, Robert Overweg, Left 4 Dead 2 ........................... 104 Figure 8: A viewpoint from Assassin's creed in which a 360 degree turn represents the game space as potentially infinite .................................................................................................... 105 Figure 9: The reclaimed countryside in the game‟s closing cut-scene .................................. 107 Figure 10: The map as symbol of conquest in the game's closing sequence ......................... 107 Figure 11: Map of Liberty City, with naming logic of each borough and safehouses from each game. A map with each street named comes with the game and is also available at http://grandtheftauto.ign.com/maps/1/Liberty-City-Map ...................................................... 114 Figure 12: Missions in GTA IV, listed chronologically in groups of eight and by regions featured. Note this refers to one possible order of completion. However, the same general pattern, though with some variation, will emerge regardless of how the game is played. .... 122 Figure 13: Percentage of missions in each game featuring each borough. ............................ 123 Figure 14: The expanding Celtic empire in Civilization III: 4000BC, 50AD and 1410AD .. 129 Figure 15: Civilization I, IBM PC, 1991; Civilization II, Windows PC, 1996; Civilization Revolution, Nintendo DS, 2008. ............................................................................................ 130 Figure 16: Geometric space in Simeon DeWitt‟s 1793 map of New York and in Civilization II. ............................................................................................................................................ 132 Figure 17: The world as a stage in a sixteenth-century map of London from Braun and Hogenburg‟s Civitatis Orbis Terrarum and Civilization Revolution. .................................... 137 Figure 18: The world from on high. Abraham Ortelius‟ sixteenth-century map of the world and Sid Meier‟s Civilization IV.............................................................................................. 138 4 Figure 19: Episode 6, level 3 of Castle Wolfenstein 3-D as seen through MapEdit (left) and on the ground (right). ............................................................................................................. 144 Figure 20: Level 2-8; with this map it is relatively easy to traverse an otherwise impenetrable maze. ...................................................................................................................................... 148 Figure 21: Isovists in a simple corridor system ..................................................................... 151 Figure 22: Expansion and contraction of visual fields as player traverses level 3. The white lines show the most efficient route. ....................................................................................... 152 Figure 23: The unrepeated expansion-contraction motif in level 2, with an indicative route in black. ...................................................................................................................................... 153 Figure 24: Level 1 isovist areas with quickest route in black. .............................................. 154 Figure 25: Graph showing interconnections in 6-3 between entrance and key. .................... 156 Figure 26: Graph of decision points for 6-3 for level after the main key has been found ..... 158 Figure 27: Integration on decision points in 6-3. More integrated points have warmer colours ................................................................................................................................................ 159 Figure 28: Visual integration for a simple corridor. .............................................................. 160 Figure 29: Axial map for simple corridor. ............................................................................. 161 Figure 30: Visual integration (left) and axial integration (right) for level 6-3, with swastikas marked 1-7. ............................................................................................................................ 163 Figure 31: 6-3 with the 10% most integrated lines (integration core) in red and the 10% most segregated lines (segregation core) in blue. ..........................................................................
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