The spatial experience of games and other media: notes from a theoretical-analytical model of representations of space

Abstract

This article discusses spatial experience in games, in relation to other media. A brief review of some classic works on spatial experience in literature, photography, cinema and television is presented. A theoretical framework composed of three ‘types of space’ is used for an analysis of a hypothetical simplified gameplay. As a result, the spatial experience of games is understood as a dynamic composition across different levels of materiality and meaning. This practice is made possible, amongst other factors, by fictional capacity, a cultural construction developed over centuries of interaction with media representations.