Theorizing navigable space in video games
- Space is understood best through movement, and complex spaces require not only movement but navigation. The theorization of navigable space requires a conceptual representation of space which is adaptable to the great malleability of video game spaces, a malleability which allows for designs which combine spaces with differing dimensionality and even involve non-Euclidean configurations with contingent connectivity. This essay attempts to describe the structural elements of video game space and to define them in such a way so as to make them applicable to all video game spaces, including potential ones still undiscovered, and to provide analytical tools for their comparison and examination. Along with the consideration of space, there will be a brief discussion of navigational logic, which arises from detectable regularities in a spatial structure that allow players to understand and form expectations regarding a game’s spaces.
Author details: | Mark J. P. Wolf |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-49809 |
ISSN: | 1867-6219 |
ISSN: | 1867-6227 |
Title of parent work (German): | DIGAREC Series |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Publication year: | 2011 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release date: | 2011/05/18 |
Issue: | 6 |
First page: | 18 |
Last Page: | 49 |
Source: | Digarec Series, 06 (2011), S. 018 - 049 |
RVK - Regensburg classification: | AP 15963 |
RVK - Regensburg classification: | SU 500 |
Organizational units: | Philosophische Fakultät / Institut für Künste und Medien |
DDC classification: | 7 Künste und Unterhaltung / 79 Sport, Spiele, Unterhaltung / 793 Spiele und Freizeitaktivitäten für drinnen |
Collection(s): | Universität Potsdam / Schriftenreihen / DIGAREC Series, ISSN 1867-6227 / DIGAREC Series (2011) 06 |
License (German): | Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz |
External remark: | See video recording of this DIGAREC Keynote-Lecture on: Multimediaserver of the Potsdam University Library [urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-mms-73-211-0] |