Espen Aarseth is an academic who has long been an evangelist for the importance of the concept of virtual spatiality to understanding digital games. I've posted about Aarseth previously in regards to digital games as texts. Aarseth is well-known in game studies for the concept of "ergodicity" in games.
Aarseth tackled the subject in question in "Allegories of Space: The Question of Spatiality in Computer Games" (in Cybertext Yearbook 2000, edited by M. Eskelinen and R. Koskimaa, Jyväskylä Finland: University of Jyväskylä, 2001). In it, he argues that, "the problem of spatial representation is of key importance to the genre’s aesthetics," and that spatiality is, "the defining element in computer games." He analyzed the evolution of digital games with regard to spatiality and concluded that computer games could be classified by how they implement spatial representation. At the end of the article, he lamented that he could not do the task himself, so "a thorough classification… would need much more detailed analysis than there is room for in this study."
A Multi-Dimensional Typology of Games
In 2003, Aarseth partnered with Solveig Marie Smedstad and Lise Sunnanå to write "A Multi-Dimensional Typology of Games" (in DiGRA '03 - Proceedings of the 2003 DiGRA International Conference: Level Up, Utrecht The Netherlands: University of Utrecht, 2003), presented at the first DiGRA conference. As quoted from the paper, this is an attempt to codify a model for classifying different "games in virtual environments." Aarseth et al classify games across 15 "dimensions" that are grouped under five different headings: Space, Time, Player-structure, Control, and Rules.
For my analysis, I focus on the heading of Space, which the paper describes as follows:
Space is a key meta-category of games. Almost all games utilize space and spatial representation in some way, and there are many possible spatial categories we could use, a typical one being the distinction between 2D and 3D games. However, this distinction seems to be mostly historical, since the early games were mostly 2D and the modern games are usually 3D. Also, it does not allow for a good representation of board games, which are two-dimensional in movement, but three-dimensional in representation. This problem holds for many computer games as well.
From this description, the Multi-Dimensional Typology specifically does not deal with the dimensionality of the space presented on the screen (2-D or 3-D). The paper derides the distinction as "mostly historical," with modern games tending to fall into the 3-D category. With the rise of indie games, nostalgic interest in older game styles and aesthetics, and the emergence of new game platforms (such as smartphones), 2-D games have remained in vogue in the years since this paper was published. 2-D spatiality is now a tool for game developers to use in order to best present their creation, rather than a concession to technological limitations.
Aarseth's &co's define three dimensions under the heading of Space: Perspective, Topography, and Environment. Each game may be classified by where it falls on each of these conceptual dimensional axes.
Perspective: Omni-present, Vagrant
The perspective is considered omni-present if the player is free to view the entirety of the game space at will, like in many strategy games. Some of the game may be blocked by "fog of war," for example, but the player may still move around, typically as a disembodied camera.
The perspective is considered vagrant is the player's view is restricted to following a game avatar. These games may be classified by their visual perspectives as either 1st person or 3rd person.
Aarseth's "perspective" dimension deals with the ocularization of the game - who's eyes do we see the game through? Dominic Arsenault and his team at the University of Montreal include this concept of ocularization in their Game FAVR analysis system ("Game FAVR: A Framework for the Analysis of Visual Representation in Video Games," Arsenault, Côté, & Larochelle, 2015), based on the works of François Jost ("Narration(s): En deçà et au-delà," Communications, 38, p. 192-212, 1983) and Stam, Burgoyne, & Flitterman-Lewis (New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, and Beyond, London/New York: Routledge, 1992) in creating tools for studying storytelling in films. Arsenault et al modified the methods to account for digital game scenes like menu screens that do not appear in films.
My typology deals with the construction of virtual spaces and navigation through those spaces, not with ocularization.
Topography: Geometrical, Topological -
A game with continuous freedom of movement is geometrical. The example of Quake Arena allows for player movements "in all directions, with millions of alternative positions, and the player's position in the game-world can be moved one miniscule increment at a time." This is what I call Continuous Spatiality in my own taxonomy.
A game with discrete, non-overlapping positions to move between is topological. The example given in chess, where only one piece may occupy any of the 64 discrete squares on the chessboard. This is what I call Discrete Spatiality that may be further categorized into Grid or Node Network. A chessboard is an example of a grid.
Environment: Dynamic, Static -
A dynamic environment is one where the player can manipulate and modify it during gameplay (such as constructing bridges and digging in the dirt in the game Lemmings).
A static environment cannot be changed by the player. A player opening and closing doors in an environment merely changes the status of those doors, thus the environment would still be considered static. Similarly, environments where the player may build buildings (Warcraft or Age of Empires) without meaningfully changing the environment still count as static.
My typology deals with the construction of a spatial phenomenon experienced by the player, not the ability to change an environment. This dimension does not match anything in my system.
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| Figure 1 from "A Multi-Dimensional Typology of Games" showing titles organized along three dimensions of Perspective, Topography, and Environment |
The other Multi-Dimensional Typology dimensions deal with other aspects of games, such as how time flows, number of players, adversaries, and the ability of the player to save their progress.
The dimensions under the Space heading and my Taxonomy of Virtual Dimensions do not have any overlap except for the concepts of Continuous and Discrete Spatiality. I describe the differences between the two as follows in my paper, A Taxonomy of Virtual Dimensions (Rowe, unpublished):
Two of the earliest contenders for the title of “first video game” are Christopher Strachey’s Draughts (1951) (Figure 4) and Willy Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two (1958). Each title is pioneering in its own right: Draughts is probably the first game a computer game program and the first computer game with graphics on a cathode ray tube while Tennis for Two is the first known two-player action game. Analyzing these two games for their presentation of spatiality would help us articulate what is important about these two works.
Draughts has what Noah Wardrip-Fruin would describe as Discrete Spatiality. The entire game space is “divided into non-overlapping spaces, and each game action involved moving a piece from one discrete space to another with no in-between position available or meaningful” (Wardrip-Fruin, How Pac-Man Eats, 2020). Each square on the checkerboard is a separate point in space. The checkers do not move between the points as there is no “space” to move through. Many strategy games work in this same manner today. Sprites may animate as if they are moving between spaces, but the game only treats them as being in one space or another, never overlapping multiple spaces.
Conversely, Tennis for Two is the first example of Continuous Spatiality in a digital game, which “requires that there be many potential positions in the virtual space (so many that moving between them creates a feeling of continuousness)” (Wardrip-Fruin, 2020). It is also worth noting that time in the game is discrete (time tracked by alternating game turns of any length) or continuous in each example.
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