Mathias Fuchs

Phantasmal Spaces (eBook, PDF)

Archetypical Venues in Computer Games

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Recognizable, recurring spatial settings in video games serve not only as points of reference and signposts for orientation, but also as implicit sources of content. These spatial archetypes denote more than real-world objects or settings: they suggest and bring forward emotional states, historical context, atmospheric "attunement," in the words of Massumi, and aesthetic programs that go beyond plain semiotic reference.

In each chapter, Mathias Fuchs brings to the fore an archetype commonly found in old and new digital games: The Ruin, The Cave, The Cloud, The Portal, The Road, The Forest, and The Island are each analysed at length, through the perspectives of aesthetics, games technology, psychoanalysis, and intertextuality. Gridding these seven tropes together with these four analytical lenses provides the reader with a systematic framework to understand the various complex considerations at play in evocative game design.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 176
• Erscheinungstermin: 13. Juni 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781501332944
• Artikelnr.: 56887380

Autorenporträt

Mathias Fuchs is Professor of Culture and Aesthetics of Media at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. An artist as well as media scholar, Fuchs pioneered the artistic use of computer games and has exhibited work at ISEA, SIGGRAPH and the Millennium Dome. He is the editor of Diversity of Play (2015) and co-editor of Rethinking Gamification (2014).

Inhaltsangabe

Phantasmal Spaces: Introduction 1. The Road Road Movies, Photography,
Edward Hopper's Roads Driving Games and Driving Game Interfaces Psychology
of Driving Transmedia Road Phantasms 2. The Ruin Painting Decay Digital
Dust Sigmund Freud's Death Drive and the Opponents Thereof S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
and Tarkovsky's Wastelands 3. The Cave Cave Men Unreal Tournament Design
Philosophy, Boolean Subtractions Frightened to Death C-movies 4. The Cloud
The Beauty of Clouds and Industrial Steam Cloud Rendering Head in the
Clouds: Daydreaming Transmedia Cloud Formations 5. The Cliff Running and
Falling Physics Engines Psychology of Risk Taking Leaping from One Medium
to Another 6. The Forest Nibelungen Forests Tree-Generators The Uncanny
Tale of Tale of Tales 7. The Portal Doors, Gateways, Passages Warp Zones
Rites of Passage Doors in Transmedia Spacetelling 8. The Island You are
Alone! Chiselling Mountains - Fetching Pretty Sunrises Really Alone!!!
Robinson Crusoe Atmospheric Places: Conclusion References Ludography Index