Ludotopia: Spaces, Places and Territories in Computer Games

Open Access Published by transcript Verlag 2019

Ludotopia

Spaces, Places and Territories in Computer Games

Edited by: Espen Aarseth and Stephan Günzel

Volume 63 in the series Edition Medienwissenschaft

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839447307

Overview
Contents

About this book

Where do computer games »happen«? The articles collected in this pioneering volume explore the categories of »space«, »place« and »territory« featuring in most general theories of space to lay the groundwork for the study of spatiality in games. Shifting the focus away from earlier debates on, e.g., the narrative nature of games, this collection proposes, instead, that thorough attention be given to the tension between experienced spaces and narrated places as well as to the mapping of both of these.

Author / Editor information

Espen Aarseth, born in 1965, is Professor of Game Studies at the IT University of Copenhagen. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Game Studies, a journal he co-founded in 2001. In 2016 he received an ERC Advanced Grant for the project »MSG - Making Sense of Games«.
Stephan Günzel (Dr. phil. habil.), born in 1971, is Professor of Media Theory at the University of Applied Sciences Europe in Berlin and currently head of the Media Studies Master Program at the Technical University of Berlin. He co-founded the Digital Games Research Center at the University of Potsdam and is specialized in the fields of Spatial Theory, Image Studies, and Computer Game Research. As Visiting Professor for Spatial Studies at the Humboldt-University in Berlin and the University of Trier as well as in numerous publications within the past years he surveyed the interdisciplinary discourse on space and gathered its origins in Anthologies and Encyclopaedias.

Reviews

»Ein Sammelband, der das relativ breite Forschungsfeld zur Räumlichkeit digitaler Spiele um interessante Ansätze und Thesen erweitert.«
Markus Spöhrer, MEDIENwissenschaft, 2-3 (2020)

Supplementary Materials

Leseprobe

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	1
Content Open Access Download PDF	5
Introduction Space – The Theoretical Frontier Open Access Download PDF	7
I. Spaces
What Do They Represent? Computer Games as Spatial Concepts Stephan Günzel Open Access Download PDF	13
Playing with Sight Construction of Perspective in Videogames Stephan Schwingeler Open Access Download PDF	41
From Background to Protagonist Spatial Concepts in ‘Portal’ and ‘Echochrome’ Karla Theilhaber Open Access Download PDF	61
The Art of Being There Artistic Practices of Presence in Narrative Media Teun Dubbelman Open Access Download PDF	75
Space and Narrative in Computer Games Sebastian Domsch Open Access Download PDF	103
II. Places
Ludoforming Changing Actual, Historical or Fictional Topographies into Ludic Topologies Espen Aarseth Open Access Download PDF	127
There’s No Place Like Home Dwelling and Being at Home in Digital Games Daniel Vella Open Access Download PDF	141
Videogame Wastelands as (Non-)Places and ‘Any-Space-Whatevers’ Souvik Mukherjee Open Access Download PDF	167
The Game and ‘The Stack’ The Infrastructural Pleasures of ‘Pokémon Go’ Bjarke Liboriussen Open Access Download PDF	185
No End of Worlds Michael Nitsche Open Access Download PDF	201
III. Territories
Itineraria Picta Itineraria Scripta Mathias Fuchs Open Access Download PDF	215
Distance and Fear Defining the Play Space Sebastian Möring Open Access Download PDF	231
The Rhetoric of Game Space Lotman’s Spatial Semantics as a Method for Analysing Videogames Niklas Schrape Open Access Download PDF	245
Morphology and Meaning in ‘Castle Wolfenstein 3D’ Paul Martin Open Access Download PDF	271
Combinatorial Explorations A Brief History of Procedurally-Generated Space in Videogames Mark J.P. Wolf Open Access Download PDF	295
Authors Open Access Download PDF	311

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: transcript Verlag
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 316
Keywords: Place; Maps; Computer Games; Media; Media Aesthetics; Media Theory; Media Studies

eBook

Published: August 27, 2019
ISBN: 9783839447307