Strategies for Analyzing the City in Games

My last post was made during the formative stages of my proposal draft. Thanks to the input of a number of people and some more intense musings on the topic, I’ve already made a few major changes. The first of these is the framework by which space is constructed. Originally I used the terms action, architecture, and culture. However, I’ve been using Kevin Lynch’s Image of the City as my basis for exploration, so I felt that adhering better to his work would help me organize my thoughts. Lynch sees space as being organized by identity, structure, and meaning. It is through these three three lenses that we create mental maps of our surroundings.

Identity
Identity implies an objects’ “distinction from other things” and recognition as a separate entity (Lynch 8). An object can be as small as a box or as large as a city itself and is designated by utility. The distinction between one building and the next might be useful for someone walking a city block but not someone driving.

Structure
Structure is the arrangement of objects in the world. The construction of the game’s world, structure is meant to refer to the layout of objects and 3D modeling of environments. As a kind of architecture, Suzanne Langer writes, “it is the total environment made visible.” It is intended to describe the landscape and the space of play. In the city that could mean streets, building exteriors, building interiors, lampposts and park benches, bridges, hills, water, ramps and ladders, and so on. These are diagetic machine objects rendered by the software for the player to interact with.

Meaning
An environment is brought to life through the context in which it is experienced. In terms of a game, meaning in a three-dimensionally modeled space comes from a handful of places. There is a setting that develops the personality of the space. There is often a narrative which inscribes specific meanings. There is the player as someone who takes action in the environment–whether this be a desire to complete goals on a purely gamic level, the result of narrative triggers, or emergent play.

Action
In addition to these three points from Lynch, I’ve added a term from Alexander Galloway to adopt the framework to games. A term used by Galloway to describe the basic interaction with a video game, action refers to active participation by a player in enacting the software (game) that runs on the hardware (platform). Galloway discusses four types of action: operator, machine, diagetic, and nondiagetic. Operator action is that performed by the player whereas machine is performed by the software and hardware. Diagetic action occurs within the game’s world whereas nondiagetic action might refer to menus, cheats, or other processes related to the game that are outside of the “pretend world of character and story” (Galloway 8). In addition to character and story, I would like to amend the definition to include those processes that construct the gaming plane.  ‘Action’ provides a tangible series of definitions of gameplay, which is often a fuzzy term. The term gameplay, for this research, describes the diagetic operator actions as defined by control mechanisms. It is meant to refer to the range of actions a player can take. Examples include, but are not limited to: moving a character’s body, interacting with other characters, combat, manipulating the environment, and methods of achieving goals.

Beginning with these four lenses and creating a sample of games based in or on New York City, I can begin to explore the ways the city experience is represented in video games. The purpose of this inquiry is both reflexive and prescriptive. The textual analysis of a range of games provides insight into these objects as cultural texts. We can search for common themes, common concerns, and common allusions. I also am looking at the techniques designers use for navigating and reading the city. It provides the opportunity to not only identify well-crafted examples that can be repeated, but also to take critical theory about city and urban design and apply it to game-making.

Next step? Assembling a list of games to explore. Keep the suggestions coming.