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Table of contents
6
Table of contents: Essays, Statements, Interviews
8
Table of contents: Game Reviews
9
Table of contents: Project Descriptions
10
Introduction
Friedrich von Borries,
Steffen P. Walz,
Matthias Böttger
Level 1
14
THE ARCHITECTURE OF COMPUTER
AND VIDEO GAMES
A SHORT SPACE-TIME HISTORY OF
INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT
Level 2
138
MAKE BELIEVE URBANISM
THE LUDIC CONSTRUCTION OF
THE DIGITAL METROPOLIS
Level 3
216
UBIQUITOUS GAMES
ENCHANTING PLACES, BUILDINGS,
CITIES AND LANDSCAPES
Level 4
320
SERIOUS FUN
UTILIZING GAME ELEMENTS FOR ARCHITECTURAL
DESIGN AND URBAN PLANNING
Level 5
410
FAITES VOS JEUX
GAMES BETWEEN UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA
488
Author biographies
495
Image copyrights
5
Table of contents
Level 1
16
26
44
56
61
74
88
100
110
118
132
134
Level 2 146
158
164
174
182
186
200
206
214
Essays, Statements, Interviews
PLACES TO PLAY
What Game Settings Can Tell Us about Games
Andreas Lange
A SHORT HISTORY OF DIGITAL
GAMESPACE
Dariusz Jacob Boron
ALLEGORIES OF SPACE
The Question of Spatiality in Computer Games
Espen Aarseth
NARRATIVE SPACES
Henry Jenkins
GAME PHYSICS
The Look & Feel Challenges of Spectacular Worlds
Ronald Vuillemin
LABYRINTH AND MAZE
Video Game Navigation Challenges
Clara Fernández-Vara
STEERING THROUGH THE MICROWORLD
A Short History and Terminology of Video Game
Controllers
Winnie Forster
VARIATION OVER TIME
The Transformation of Space in Single-screen
Action Games
Jesper Juul
LISTEN TO THE BULK OF THE ICEBERG
On the Impact of Sound in Digital Games
Axel Stockburger
WALLHACKS AND AIMBOTS
How Cheating Changes the Perception of Gamespace
Julian Kücklich
FORM FOLLOWS FUN
Working as a Space Gameplay Architect
Olivier Azémar
LOAD AND SUPPORT
Architectural Realism in Video Games
Ulrich Götz
USE YOUR ILLUSION
Immersion in Parallel Worlds
Florian Schmidt
MAKING PLACES
Richard A. Bartle
ACTIVITY FLOW ARCHITECTURE
Environment Design in Active Worlds and EverQuest
Mikael Jakobsson
WHAT IS A SYNTHETIC WORLD?
Edward Castronova, James J. Cummings,
Will Emigh, Michael Fatten, Nathan Mishler,
Travis Ross, Will Ryan
COMPETING IN METAGAME GAMESPACE
eSports as the First Professionalized Computer
Metagames
Michael Wagner
PLAYING WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILIES
Current Scene of Reality-based Games in Beijing
Zhao Chen Ding
NARRATIVE ENVIRONMENTS
From Disneyland to World of Warcraft
Celia Pearce
PLAYING WITH URBAN LIFE
How SimCity Influences Planning Culture
Daniel G. Lobo
NEW PUBLIC SPHERE
The Return of the Salon and the End of Mass Media
Peter Ludlow
6
Level 3 218
230
233
238
248
251
266
276
290
304
312
Level 4 328
332
335
340
351
352
354
358
372
376
380
384
NEW BABYLON RELOADED
Learning from the Ludic City
Lukas Feireiss
PLAY AS CREATIVE MISUSE
Barcode Battler and the Charm of the Real
Claus Pias
UBIQUITOUS GAMING
A Vision for the Future of Enchanted Spaces
Jane McGonigal
CREATING ALTERNATE REALITIES
A Quick Primer
Christy Dena
PERVASIVE GAMES
Bridging the Gaps between the Virtual and the Physical
Steve Benford, Carsten Magerkurth,
Peter Ljungstrand
THE POETICS OF AUGMENTED SPACE
The Art of Our Time
Lev Manovich
URBAN ROLE-PLAY
The Next Generation of Role-Playing in Urban Space
Markus Montola
CHANGING URBAN PERSPECTIVES
Illuminating Cracks and Drawing Illusionary Lines
Staffan Björk
PERVASIVE GAMESPACES
Gameplay Out in the Open
Bo Kampmann Walther
PERSUASION AND GAMESPACE
Ian Bogost
LIFE IS NOT COMPLETELY A GAME
Urban Space and Virtual Environments
Howard Rheingold
PLAY STATIONS
Neil Leach
TACTICS FOR A PLAYFUL CITY
Iain Borden
WHY GAMES FOR ARCHITECTURE?
Ludger Hovestadt
GAME OF LIFE
On Architecture, Complexity
and the Concept of Nature as a Game
Georg Vrachliotis
DESIGN PATTERNS ARE DEAD
Long Live Design Patterns
Jussi Holopainen, Staffan Björk
THE UNINHIBITED FREEDOM
OF PLAYFULNESS
Marc Maurer, Nicole Maurer
VIVA PIÑATA
Architecture of the Everyday
Tor Lindstrand
798 MUTIPLAYER DESIGN GAME
A New Tool for Parametric Design
Kas Oosterhuis, Tomasz Jaskiewicz
RULE-BASED URBAN PLANNING
The Wijnhaven Project, KCAP (Rotterdam)
Kees Christiaanse
TIT FOR TAT AND URBAN RULES
Alexander Lehnerer
LIGHTLY AUGMENTING REALITY
Learning through Authentic Augmented Reality Games
Eric Klopfer
SCENARIO GAMES
Vital Techniques for Interactive City Planning
Raoul Bunschoten
SPACE TIME PLAY
Table of contents
398
401
404
407
Level 5 416
420
425
430
438
441
444
450
452
456
462
466
480
484
Essays, Statements, Interviews
THE NEW MENTAL LANDSCAPE
Why Games are Important for Architecture
Antonino Saggio
“CAN I TELEPORT AROUND?”
Jesse Schell
TOWARDS A GAME THEORY OF
ARCHITECTURE
Bart Lootsma
ACTION IN THE HANDS OF THE USER
William J. Mitchell
WAR/GAMES AFTER 9/11
James Der Derian
WAR PLAY
Practicing Urban Annihilation
Stephen Graham
ENDER’S GAME
Towards a Synthetic View of the World
James H. Korris
FORBIDDEN GAMES
Eyal Danon, Galit Eilat
OUTDOOR AUGMENTED REALITY
Technology and the Military
Wayne Piekarski, Bruce H. Thomas
AFTER NET ART, WE MAKE MONEY
Artists and Locative Media
Marc Tuters
“EASTERN EUROPE, 2008”
Maps and Geopolitics in Video Games
Stephan Günzel
THE GAME OF INTERACTION
Gerhard M. Buurman
ATOPIA (ON VICE CITY)
McKenzie Wark
PLAYING WITH ART
Hans-Peter Schwarz
CHINESE GOLD FARMERS
Immigrant Workers in the Game Land
Ge Jin
ADVERTISEMENT IN VIDEO GAMES
“Sell My Tears,” Says the Game Publisher
Christian Gaca
RE-PUBLIC PLAYSCAPE
A Concrete Urban Utopia
Alberto Iacovoni
GAMESPACE
Mark Wigley
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Table of contents
Level 1
20
24
32
34
36
38
40
42
48
50
52
54
64
66
68
70
78
80
82
84
86
94
96
98
104
106
108
114
116
122
124
126
128
Game Reviews
DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION
Gillian Andrews
Wii SPORTS
Heather Kelley
TENNIS FOR TWO/PONG
Cindy Poremba
ASTEROIDS
Jesper Juul
BATTLEZONE
Andreas Schiffler
DEFENDER
Jesper Juul
WOLFENSTEIN 3D
Alex de Jong
COUNTER-STRIKE
Alex de Jong
MYST
Drew Davidson
SUPER MARIO BROS.
Martin Nerurkar
TETRIS
Katie Salen
ICO
Drew Davidson
ZORK
Nick Montfort
LEMMINGS
Martin Nerurkar
WORMS
Clara Fernández-Vara
MAX PAYNE
Paolo Ruffino
PAC-MAN
Chaim Gingold
DIABLO
Stephen Jacobs
SILENT HILL 2
Frank Degler
SPLINTER CELL
Thé Chinh Ngo
SAM & MAX HIT THE ROAD
Julian Kücklich
KIRBY: CANVAS CURSE
Thiéry Adam
KATAMARI DAMACY
Julian Kücklich
EYETOY PLAY
Heather Kelley
ELITE
Ed Byrne
PRINCE OF PERSIA
Drew Davidson
SUPER MARIO 64
Troy Whitlock
REZ
Julian Kücklich
DESCENT
James Everett
SUPER MONKEY BALL
Troels Degn Johansson
TONY HAWK’S AMERICAN WASTELAND
Dörte Küttler
LEGACY OF KAIN: SOUL REAVER
Phil Fish
RESCUE ON FRACTALUS
Noah Falstein
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130
Level 2 140
142
144
150
152
154
156
168
170
172
178
180
190
192
194
196
198
210
212
Level 3 242
244
316
QUAKE
Patrick Curry
TRON
Rolf F. Nohr
NEUROMANCER
Espen Aarseth
SNOW CRASH
Neil Alphonso
THE SIMS
Mary Flanagan
THERE
Florian Schmidt
ENTROPIA UNIVERSE
Florian Schmidt
SECOND LIFE
Florian Schmidt
LINEAGE
Sungah Kim
KINGDOM HEARTS
Troy Whitlock
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
Diane Carr
SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION
Jochen Hamma
ANIMAL CROSSING
Heather Kelley
DARK CHRONICLE
Dean Chan
THE GETAWAY
Gregory More
GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS
Gregory More
GRIM FANDANGO
Julian Kücklich
PSYCHONAUTS
Drew Davidson
SIMCITY
David Thomas
MAJESTIC
Kurt Squire
I LOVE BEES
Sean Stewart
PERPLEX CITY
Steve Peters
eXistenZ
Adriana de Souza e Silva
Level 4 368
PASSPORT TO …
Ragna Körby, Tobias Kurtz
Level 5 414
WARGAMES
Rolf F. Nohr
KUMA\WAR
Stefan Werning
AMERICA’S ARMY
Stefan Werning
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL
Ernest W. Adams
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
David Thomas
THE TRUMAN SHOW
Rolf F. Nohr
MONOPOLY
Marie Huber, Achim Nelke
434
436
458
460
470
472
SPACE TIME PLAY
Table of contents
Level 1
22
72
Project Descriptions
BREAKOUT FOR TWO
Florian “Floyd” Müller
CHARBITAT
Michael Nitsche
344
346
348
Level 3 222
224
226
228
246
256
258
260
262
264
270
272
274
280
282
284
286
288
294
296
298
300
302
308
310
318
Level 4 322
324
326
GEOCACHING
Jack W. Peters
MOGI
Benjamin Joffe
BOTFIGHTERS
Mirjam Struppek, Katharine S. Willis
THE BEAST
Dave Szulborski
THE ART OF THE HEIST
Dave Szulborski
PIRATES!
Staffan Björk, Peter Ljungstrand
CAN YOU SEE ME NOW
Steve Benford
M.A.D. COUNTDOWN
Steffen P. Walz
PACMANHATTAN
Frank Lantz
TYCOON
Gregor Broll
PROSOPOPEIA 1
Staffan Jonsson
RELIVING THE REVOLUTION
Karen Schrier
EPIDEMIC MENACE
Irma Lindt
URBAN FREE FLOW
Lukas Feireiss
ARQUAKE
Bruce H. Thomas, Wayne Piekarski
CONQWEST
Frank Lantz
WHAVSM?
Martin Budzinski, Henrik Isermann
DEMOR
Claus Pias
INSECTOPIA
Johan Peitz, Staffan Björk
’ERE BE DRAGONS
Stephen Boyd Davis, Rachel Jacobs,
Magnus Moar, Matt Watkins
FAUST – ACOUSTIC ADVENTURE
KP Ludwig John
CATCHBOB!
Nicolas Nova, Fabien Girardin
GEOGAMES
Christoph Schlieder, Sebastian
Matyas, Peter Kiefer
.WALK
a watchful passer-by
MANHATTAN STORY MASHUP
Jürgen Scheible, Ville Tuulos
FIRST PERSON SHOOTER
Aram Bartholl
350
362
364
366
370
388
390
392
394
396
Level 5 412
474
476
478
SAUERBRATEN
Andreas Dieckmann, Peter Russell
TINMITH
Wayne Piekarski, Bruce H. Thomas
IMPLANT
Wayne Ashley
GAMEGAME
Aki Järvinen
SPACEFIGHTER
Winy Maas
KAISERSROT
Alexander Lehnerer
REXPLORER
Rafael Ballagas, Steffen P. Walz
PLASTICITY
Mathias Fuchs
THE HARBOUR GAME
Tobias Løssing, Rune Nielsen,
Andreas Lykke-Olesen, Thomas Fabian Delman
BIG URBAN GAME
Frank Lantz
SUBCITY
Elizabeth Sikiaridi, Frans Vogelaar
SUPERCITY
Troels Degn Johansson
BLINKENLIGHTS
Rahel Willhardt
OPS ROOM
Sabine Himmelsbach
CHANGING THE GUARD
Stephan Trüby, Stephan Henrich, Iassen Markov
THE SCALABLE CITY
Sheldon Brown
THE MINISTRY OF RESHELVING
Jane McGonigal
ARCHITECTURE_ENGINE_1.0
Jochen Hoog
NOZZLE ENGINE
Wolfgang Fiel, Margarete Jahrmann
GAMESCAPE
Beat Suter, René Bauer
9
WHY SHOULD AN
ARCHITECT CARE
ABOUT COMPUTER
GAMES?
10
SPACE TIME PLAY
Introduction
AND WHAT CAN A
GAME DESIGNER
TAKE FROM
ARCHITECTURE?
Computer games are part and parcel of our present; both their audiovisual language and the interaction
processes associated with them have worked their way into our everyday lives. Yet without space, there
is no place at which, in which or even based on which a game can take place. Similarly, the specific space
of a game is bred from the act of playing, from the gameplay itself. The digital spaces so often frequented
by gamers have changed and are changing our notion of space and time, just as film and television did
in the 20th century.
But games go even further: with the spread of the Internet, online role-playing games emerged
that often have less to do with winning and losing and more to do with the cultivation of social communities and human networks that are actually extended into “real” life. Equipped with wireless technologies
and GPS capacities, computer games have abandoned their original location – the stationary computer
– and made their way into physical space as mobile and pervasive applications. So-called “Alternate
Reality Games” cross-medially blend together the Internet, public phone booths and physical places and
conventions in order to create an alternative, ludic reality. The spaces of computer games range from
two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional spaces to complex constructions of social communities to new conceptions of, applications for and interactions between existent physical spaces.
In his 1941 book Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, Siegfried
Giedion puts modern architecture and its typologies in their social and chronological context. Today, we
again face the development of new typologies of space – spaces that are emerging from the superimposition of the physical and the virtual. The spaces of the digital games that constitute themselves through
the convergence of “space,” “time” and “play” are only the beginning.
What are the parameters of these new spaces? To what practices and functional specifications
do they give rise? What design strategies will come into operation because of them?
In Space Time Play, authors with wholly different professional backgrounds try to provide
answers to these questions. Practitioners and theorists of architecture and urban planning as well as of
game design and game studies have contributed to the collection. The over 180 articles come in various
forms; in essays, short statements, interviews, descriptions of innovative projects and critical reviews of
commercial games, the synergies between computer games, architecture and urbanism are reflected
upon from diverse perspectives.
11
Introduction
Space Time Play contains five levels that – played on their own or in sequence – train a variety of skills
and address a range of issues:
The first level,
THE ARCHITECTURE OF COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES,
traces a short, spatiotemporal
history of the architecture of digital games. Here, architects are interested in the question of what spatial
qualities and characteristics arise from computer games and what implications these could have for contemporary architecture. For game designers and researchers, on the other hand, it’s about determining
what game elements constitute space and which spatial attributes give rise to specific types of interaction. Moreover, it’s not just about the gamespaces in the computer, but about the places where the games
are actually played; playing on a living-room TV is different from playing in front of a PC, which, in turn,
is different from playing in a bar.
Many computer games draw spatial inspiration from physical architecture. Like in a film,
certain places and configurations are favored and retroactively shape our perceptions. Computer game
players also experience physical space differently and thus use it differently. Newer input possibilities
like gesture and substantial physical movement are making this hybridization of virtual and real space
available for the mass market, thereby posing new questions to game designers and bringing the disciplines of built and imagined spaces closer together. Computer game design is thus not just about the
“Rules of Play” anymore, but also about the “Rules of Place.”
In the second level,
MAKE BELIEVE URBANISM,
the focus of the texts is shifted to the social
cohesion of game-generated spaces – that is, to the ludic constructions of digital metropolises – and
the question of how such “community spaces” are produced and presented. At the same time, the
central topic of this level is the tension between the representation of the city in games and the city
as metaphor for the virtual spatialization of social relations. How can sociability across space-time
be established, and how will identity be “played out” there? The communities emerging in games,
after all, constitute not only parallel cultures and economies, but also previews of the public spaces
of the future.
The third level,
UBI QUITOUS GAMES,
on the other hand, demonstrates how real space – be it a
building, city or landscape – changes and expands when it is metamorphosed into a “game board” or
“place to play” by means of new technologies and creative game concepts. Here, a new dimension of the
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SPACE TIME PLAY
notion and use of the city becomes conceivable, one which has the potential to permanently change the
composition of future cities. What happens when the spaces and social interactions of computer games
are superimposed over physical space? What new forms and control systems of city, architecture and
landscape become possible?
The migration of computer games onto the street – that is, the integration of physical spaces
into game systems – creates new localities; games intervene in existent spaces. Game designers are
thereby made aware of their social responsibility. Ubiquitous games fulfill not only the utopian dreams
of the Situationists, but also the early 1990s computer-science vision of a “magicization” of the world.
As in simulacra, the borders of the “magic circle” coined by Johan Huizinga blur, and the result is
ludic unification.
In the fourth level, SERIOUS FUN, the extent to which games and game elements also have serious uses – namely, as tools for design and planning processes – is examined through examples from
architecture and city planning. The articles in this level demonstrate how the ludic conquest of real and
imagined gamespace becomes an instrument for the design of space-time. For the playing of cities can
affect the lived environment and its occupants just as the building of houses can. In this sense, playing is
a serious medium that will increasingly form part of the urban planner’s repertory and will open up new
prospects for participation. Play cannot replace seriousness, but it can help it along.
The concluding fifth level,
FAITES VOS JEUX,
critically reflects upon the cultural relevance
of games today and in the future. Which gamespaces are desirable and which are not? Which ones
should we expect? Life as computer-supported game? War as game? The possibilities range from lived
dreams to advertisements in gamespaces to the destruction of cities in games and in today’s reality of
war and terrorism.
What is the “next level” of architecture and game design? Both these creative worlds could
benefit from a mutual exchange: by emulating the complex conceptions of space and design possibilities
of the former and by using the expertise, interaction, immersion and spatial fun of the latter.
Game designers and architects can forge the future of ludic space-time as a new form of interactive
space, and they can do so in both virtual gamespaces and physical, architectural spaces; this is the “next
level” of Space Time Play.
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