Games as Inhabited Spaces

This paper introduces questions about how space might be considered in studying computer games. It argues that established concepts of media aesthetics and narrative are no longer adequate for understanding the inhabited spaces of the computer screen. First, it considers a communications ‘post-narrative spatialisation’ as a foundation for game play. Second, it reads the work of social space theorists Lefebvre, Massey and De Certeau into a discussion of how the navigation of space is a cultural act. Third, building on the evidence of role-playing games and Merleau Ponty's notion of embodiment, the paper suggests that gameplay is a form of spatial practice that is grounded in the player's lived-in bodily experience and subjective viewpoint.