Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds (Hardcover)

The move to 3D graphics represents a dramatic artistic and technical development in the history of video games that suggests an overall transformation of games as media. The experience of space has become a key element of how we understand games and how we play them. In Video Game Spaces, Michael Nitsche investigates what this shift means for video game design and analysis. Navigable 3D spaces allow us to crawl, jump, fly, or even teleport through fictional worlds that come to life in our imagination. We encounter these spaces through a combination of perception and interaction. Drawing on concepts from literary studies, architecture, and cinema, Nitsche argues that game spaces can evoke narratives because the player is interpreting them in order to engage with them. Consequently, Nitsche approaches game spaces not as pure visual spectacles but as meaningful virtual locations. His argument investigates what structures are at work in these locations, proceeds to an in-depth analysis of the audiovisual presentation of gameworlds, and ultimately explores how we use and comprehend their functionality. Nitsche introduces five analytical layers--rule-based space, mediated space, fictional space, play space, and social space--and uses them in the analyses of games that range from early classics to recent titles. He revisits current topics in game research, including narrative, rules, and play, from this new perspective. Video Game Spaces provides a range of necessary arguments and tools for media scholars, designers, and game researchers with an interest in 3D game worlds and the new challenges they pose.

3D圖形的應用代表了電子遊戲歷史上一個戲劇性的藝術和技術發展，暗示了遊戲作為媒體的整體轉型。空間體驗已成為我們理解遊戲和玩遊戲的關鍵元素。在《電子遊戲空間》一書中，Michael Nitsche探討了這一轉變對遊戲設計和分析的意義。可導航的3D空間使我們能夠在想像中活躍於虛構世界中，爬行、跳躍、飛行，甚至傳送。我們通過感知和互動來體驗這些空間。Nitsche借鑒了文學研究、建築學和電影學的概念，主張遊戲空間能夠喚起敘事，因為玩家需要解讀它們以便與之互動。因此，Nitsche將遊戲空間視為有意義的虛擬位置，而非純粹的視覺奇觀。他的論點探討了這些位置中所起作用的結構，深入分析了遊戲世界的視聽呈現，並最終探討了我們如何使用和理解它們的功能。Nitsche引入了五個分析層次——基於規則的空間、媒介空間、虛構空間、遊戲空間和社交空間——並將它們應用於從早期經典作品到最新遊戲的分析中。他從這個新的角度重新審視了遊戲研究中的當前話題，包括敘事、規則和遊戲。《電子遊戲空間》為媒體學者、設計師和對3D遊戲世界及其帶來的新挑戰感興趣的遊戲研究人員提供了一系列必要的論點和工具。