376438414X Space Time Play pdf

SPACE TIME PLAY

  SPACE TIME PLAY

COMPUTER GAMES,

ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM:

THE NEXT LEVEL

  Edited by Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz, Matthias Böttger In collaboration with Drew Davidson, Heather Kelley, Julian Kücklich Birkhäuser Basel _ Boston _ Berlin Design : onlab, Nicolas Bourquin Prepress : Sebastian Schenk Translation from German into English

  : Jenna Krumminga, Ian Pepper Translation from Italian into English : Federico Roascio Copyediting : Jenna Krumminga, Tobias Kurtz, Ian Pepper Proofreading : Lucinda Byatt (Edinburgh) Fonts

  : Grotesque MT, Walbaum Printed on acid-free paper produced from chlorine-free pulp. TCF ∞ www.spacetimeplay.org Library of Congress Control Number: 2007933332 Bibliographic information published by the German National Library. The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned. Specifically, the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other formats, and storage in data bases are reserved. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained. © 2007 Birkhäuser Verlag AG Basel _ Boston _ Berlin P.O. Box 133, CH-4010 Basel, Switzerland Part of Springer Science+Business Media ©

  2007 Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz, Matthias Böttger, au- thors and individual copyright holders. © 2007 for images see detailed list in the appendix. Images not oth- erwise indicated are the property of the named project authors, text authors and game developers.

  ISBN: 978-3-7643-8414-2 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 www.birkhauser.ch Imprint

  Space Time Play would not exist without the help, inspiration and sup- port of many colleagues and friends. Our deepest thanks go out to all the authors of the book, without whose contributions this compen- dium could not have come into being. We would also like to thank the studios and publishers that granted us the right to print pictures of their games.

  We thank Ludger Hovestadt, Hans-Peter Schwarz, Gerhard M. Buurman financial commitment, without which we would not have been able to produce this book. We owe the selection of Game Reviews collected in this book, as well as our connections to many authors, to Drew Davidson, Heather Kelley and Julian Kücklich. We thank Nicolas Bourquin for the design and the patience with which he conducted his work. With much dedication, Jenna Krumminga edited the diverse texts into an easy-to-read whole. Monika Annen, Tobias Kurtz, Anne Mikoleit, Caroline Pachoud and Sibylla Spycher supported us in the editorial work with great dedication and great exertion, for which we would like to thank them sincerely. We thank our editor Robert Steiger for his faith, without which this experimental project would not have materialized; we thank Nora Kempkens for a smooth work flow. In addition to the many whom we unfortunately cannot name here, we also thank Ulrich Brinkmann and Katrin Schöbel for their encourage- ment, guidance and counsel. This book has been sponsored by: ETH Zurich, Institute of Building Technology, Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design, Switzerland. Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Switzerland. ZHdK, Department of Design, Interaction Design & Game Design Study Program, Switzerland. ETH Zurich, Institute for Urban Design, Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, Switzerland. KCAP, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. ASTOC, Architects and Planners, Cologne, Germany.

  The editors’ work on this book has been partially funded by the National Competence Center in Research on Mobile Information and Communication Systems (NCCR-MICS), a center supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant number 5005-67322 and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Acknowledgements

  Interaction Design _{Game Design} Table of contents

  6 Table of contents: Essays, Statements, Interviews

  8 Table of contents: Game Reviews

  9 Table of contents: Project Descriptions

  10 Introduction Steffen P. Walz, Matthias Böttger THE ARCHITECTURE OF COMPUTER

  14 Level 1 AND VIDEO GAMES A SHORT SPACE-TIME HISTORY OF

  INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT MAKE BELIEVE URBANISM Level 2 138 THE LUDIC CONSTRUCTION OF

  THE DIGITAL METROPOLIS UBI QUITOUS GAMES Level 3 216 ENCHANTING PLACES, BUILDINGS,

  CITIES AND LANDSCAPES SERIOUS FUN Level 4 320 UTILIZING GAME ELEMENTS FOR ARCHITECTURAL

  DESIGN AND URBAN PLANNING FAITES VOS JEUX Level 5 410 GAMES BETWEEN UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA

  488 Author biographies 495 Image copyrights

  PLACES TO PLAY What Game Settings Can Tell Us about Games A SHORT HISTORY OF DIGITAL GAMESPACE ALLEGORIES OF SPACE The Question of Spatiality in Computer Games NARRATIVE SPACES GAME PHYSICS The Look & Feel Challenges of Spectacular Worlds LABYRINTH AND MAZE Video Game Navigation Challenges STEERING THROUGH THE MICROWORLD A Short History and Terminology of Video Game Controllers

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  VARIATION OVER TIME The Transformation of Space in Single-screen Action Games LISTEN TO THE BULK OF THE ICEBERG On the Impact of Sound in Digital Games WALLHACKS AND AIMBOTS How Cheating Changes the Perception of Gamespace FORM FOLLOWS FUN Working as a Space Gameplay Architect LOAD AND SUPPORT Architectural Realism in Video Games USE YOUR ILLUSION Immersion in Parallel Worlds MAKING PLACES ACTIVITY FLOW ARCHITECTURE Environment Design in Active Worlds and EverQuest WHAT IS A SYNTHETIC WORLD? COMPETING IN METAGAME GAMESPACE eSports as the First Professionalized Computer Metagames PLAYING WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILIES Current Scene of Reality-based Games in Beijing NARRATIVE ENVIRONMENTS From Disneyland to World of Warcraft PLAYING WITH URBAN LIFE How SimCity Influences Planning Culture NEW PUBLIC SPHERE The Return of the Salon and the End of Mass Media Andreas Lange

  Table of contents

  Claus Pias Jane McGonigal Christy Dena Steve Benford, Carsten Magerkurth, Peter Ljungstrand Lev Manovich Staffan Björk Bo Kampmann Walther Ian Bogost Howard Rheingold Neil Leach Iain Borden Ludger Hovestadt Georg Vrachliotis Jussi Holopainen, Staffan Björk Marc Maurer, Nicole Maurer Tor Lindstrand Kas Oosterhuis, Tomasz Jaskiewicz Kees Christiaanse Alexander Lehnerer Eric Klopfer Raoul Bunschoten

  VIVA PIÑATA Architecture of the Everyday 798 MUTIPLAYER DESIGN GAME A New Tool for Parametric Design RULE-BASED URBAN PLANNING The Wijnhaven Project, KCAP (Rotterdam) TIT FOR TAT AND URBAN RULES LIGHTLY AUGMENTING REALITY Learning through Authentic Augmented Reality Games SCENARIO GAMES Vital Techniques for Interactive City Planning Lukas Feireiss

  NEW BABYLON RELOADED Learning from the Ludic City PLAY AS CREATIVE MISUSE Barcode Battler and the Charm of the Real UBIQUITOUS GAMING A Vision for the Future of Enchanted Spaces CREATING ALTERNATE REALITIES A Quick Primer PERVASIVE GAMES Bridging the Gaps between the Virtual and the Physical THE POETICS OF AUGMENTED SPACE The Art of Our Time URBAN ROLE-PLAY The Next Generation of Role-Playing in Urban Space CHANGING URBAN PERSPECTIVES Illuminating Cracks and Drawing Illusionary Lines PERVASIVE GAMESPACES Gameplay Out in the Open PERSUASION AND GAMESPACE LIFE IS NOT COMPLETELY A GAME Urban Space and Virtual Environments PLAY STATIONS TACTICS FOR A PLAYFUL CITY WHY GAMES FOR ARCHITECTURE? GAME OF LIFE On Architecture, Complexity and the Concept of Nature as a Game DESIGN PATTERNS ARE DEAD Long Live Design Patterns THE UNINHIBITED FREEDOM OF PLAYFULNESS

  SPACE TIME PLAY Essays, Statements, Interviews

  Level 3 Level 4

  Dariusz Jacob Boron Espen Aarseth Henry Jenkins Ronald Vuillemin Clara Fernández-Vara Winnie Forster Jesper Juul Axel Stockburger Julian Kücklich Olivier Azémar Ulrich Götz Florian Schmidt Richard A. Bartle Mikael Jakobsson Edward Castronova, James J. Cummings, Will Emigh, Michael Fatten, Nathan Mishler, Travis Ross, Will Ryan Michael Wagner Zhao Chen Ding Celia Pearce Daniel G. Lobo Peter Ludlow

  Level 1 Level 2

  Essays, Statements, Interviews Table of contents

  398 THE NEW MENTAL LANDSCAPE Why Games are Important for Architecture Antonino Saggio 401 “CAN I TELEPORT AROUND?” Jesse Schell 404 TOWARDS A GAME THEORY OF

  ARCHITECTURE Bart Lootsma 407 ACTION IN THE HANDS OF THE USER William J. Mitchell 416 WAR/GAMES AFTER 9/11

  Level 5 James Der Derian 420 WAR PLAY Practicing Urban Annihilation

  Stephen Graham 425 ENDER’S GAME Towards a Synthetic View of the World James H. Korris

  430 FORBIDDEN GAMES Eyal Danon, Galit Eilat 438 OUTDOOR AUGMENTED REALITY Technology and the Military

  Wayne Piekarski, Bruce H. Thomas 441 AFTER NET ART, WE MAKE MONEY Artists and Locative Media Marc Tuters

  444 “EASTERN EUROPE, 2008” Maps and Geopolitics in Video Games Stephan Günzel 450 THE GAME OF INTERACTION Gerhard M. Buurman 452 ATOPIA (ON VICE CITY) McKenzie Wark 456 PLAYING WITH ART Hans-Peter Schwarz 462 CHINESE GOLD FARMERS

  Immigrant Workers in the Game Land Ge Jin 466 ADVERTISEMENT IN VIDEO GAMES “Sell My Tears,” Says the Game Publisher

  Christian Gaca 480 RE-PUBLIC PLAYSCAPE A Concrete Urban Utopia Alberto Iacovoni

  484 GAMESPACE Mark Wigley

  Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Game Reviews

  54

  Level 1 Table of contents

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  QUAKE TRON NEUROMANCER SNOW CRASH THE SIMS THERE ENTROPIA UNIVERSE SECOND LIFE LINEAGE KINGDOM HEARTS WORLD OF WARCRAFT SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION ANIMAL CROSSING DARK CHRONICLE THE GETAWAY GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS GRIM FANDANGO PSYCHONAUTS SIMCITY MAJESTIC

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  130 140 142 144 150 152 154 156 168 170 172 178 180 190 192 194 196 198 210 212 242 244 316 368 414 434 436 458 460 470 472

  ICO ZORK LEMMINGS WORMS MAX PAYNE PAC-MAN DIABLO SILENT HILL 2 SPLINTER CELL SAM & MAX HIT THE ROAD KIRBY: CANVAS CURSE KATAMARI DAMACY EYETOY PLAY ELITE PRINCE OF PERSIA SUPER MARIO 64 REZ DESCENT SUPER MONKEY BALL TONY HAWK’S AMERICAN WASTELAND LEGACY OF KAIN: SOUL REAVER RESCUE ON FRACTALUS Gillian Andrews Heather Kelley Cindy Poremba Jesper Juul Andreas Schiffler Jesper Juul Alex de Jong Alex de Jong Drew Davidson Martin Nerurkar Drew Davidson Nick Montfort Martin Nerurkar Clara Fernández-Vara Paolo Ruffino Chaim Gingold Stephen Jacobs Frank Degler Thé Chinh Ngo Julian Kücklich Thiéry Adam Julian Kücklich Heather Kelley Ed Byrne Drew Davidson Troy Whitlock Julian Kücklich James Everett Troels Degn Johansson Dörte Küttler Phil Fish Noah Falstein

  DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION Wii SPORTS TENNIS FOR TWO/PONG ASTEROIDS BATTLEZONE DEFENDER WOLFENSTEIN 3D COUNTER-STRIKE MYST SUPER MARIO BROS. TETRIS

  I LOVE BEES PERPLEX CITY eXistenZ PASSPORT TO … WARGAMES KUMA\WAR AMERICA’S ARMY S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS THE TRUMAN SHOW MONOPOLY Patrick Curry Rolf F. Nohr Espen Aarseth Neil Alphonso Mary Flanagan Florian Schmidt Florian Schmidt Florian Schmidt Sungah Kim Troy Whitlock Diane Carr Jochen Hamma Heather Kelley Dean Chan Gregory More Gregory More Julian Kücklich Drew Davidson David Thomas Kurt Squire Sean Stewart Steve Peters Adriana de Souza e Silva Ragna Körby, Tobias Kurtz Rolf F. Nohr Stefan Werning Stefan Werning Ernest W. Adams David Thomas Rolf F. Nohr Marie Huber, Achim Nelke

SPACE TIME PLAY

  Level 5 344 346 348 350 362 364 366 370 388 390 392 394 396 412 474 476 478

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  72 222 224 226 228 246 256 258 260 262 264 270 272 274 280 282 284 286 288 294 296 298 300 302 308 310 318 322 324 326

  Level 1 Level 3 Level 4

  Project Descriptions BREAKOUT FOR TWO CHARBITAT GEOCACHING MOGI BOTFIGHTERS THE BEAST THE ART OF THE HEIST PIRATES! CAN YOU SEE ME NOW M.A.D. COUNTDOWN PACMANHATTAN TYCOON PROSOPOPEIA 1 RELIVING THE REVOLUTION EPIDEMIC MENACE URBAN FREE FLOW ARQUAKE CONQWEST WHAVSM? DEMOR

SAUERBRATEN TINMITH

  INSECTOPIA ’ERE BE DRAGONS FAUST – ACOUSTIC ADVENTURE CATCHBOB! GEOGAMES .WALK MANHATTAN STORY MASHUP FIRST PERSON SHOOTER ARCHITECTURE_ENGINE_1.0 NOZZLE ENGINE GAMESCAPE Florian “Floyd” Müller Michael Nitsche Jack W. Peters Benjamin Joffe Mirjam Struppek, Katharine S. Willis Dave Szulborski Dave Szulborski Staffan Björk, Peter Ljungstrand Steve Benford Steffen P. Walz Frank Lantz Gregor Broll Staffan Jonsson Karen Schrier Irma Lindt Lukas Feireiss Bruce H. Thomas, Wayne Piekarski Frank Lantz Martin Budzinski, Henrik Isermann Claus Pias Johan Peitz, Staffan Björk Stephen Boyd Davis, Rachel Jacobs, Magnus Moar, Matt Watkins KP Ludwig John Nicolas Nova, Fabien Girardin Christoph Schlieder, Sebastian Matyas, Peter Kiefer a watchful passer-by Jürgen Scheible, Ville Tuulos Aram Bartholl Jochen Hoog Wolfgang Fiel, Margarete Jahrmann Beat Suter, René Bauer Table of contents

  Andreas Dieckmann, Peter Russell Wayne Piekarski, Bruce H. Thomas Wayne Ashley Aki Järvinen Winy Maas Alexander Lehnerer Rafael Ballagas, Steffen P. Walz Mathias Fuchs Tobias Løssing, Rune Nielsen, Andreas Lykke-Olesen, Thomas Fabian Delman Frank Lantz Elizabeth Sikiaridi, Frans Vogelaar Troels Degn Johansson Rahel Willhardt Sabine Himmelsbach Stephan Trüby, Stephan Henrich, Iassen Markov Sheldon Brown Jane McGonigal WHY SHOULD AN ARCHITECT CARE

ABOUT COMPUTER

GAMES?

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

  th in the 20 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 communi- ties 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 com- munities 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 superimposi- tion 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. 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 ARCHITECTURE OF COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES

  The first level, , 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 con- temporary 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 interac- tion. 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 dis- ciplines 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.”

MAKE BELIEVE URBANI SM

  In the second level, , 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.

UBI QUITOUS GAMES

  The third level, , 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

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.

SERIOUS FUN

  In the fourth level, , the extent to which games and game elements also have se- rious 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.

FAITES VOS JEUX

  The concluding fifth level, , 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.

  THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES

  A SHORT SPACE- TIME HISTORY OF INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT

  Level

  Text Essay

  Andreas Lange

PLACES TO PLAY

  What Game Settings Can Tell Us about Games

  Increasingly, computer-generated virtual spaces are important elements of every- day life, and computer games are doubtless their most popular manifestations. When these are well designed, users tend to forget that they reside not in an airless void, but are instead surrounded by physical space. The physically existent space is the context for which these games were more or less explicitly created and in of the computer game and to the concrete playing situation. For players and their bodies are indissolubly connected to the physical plane even if their minds are over- whelmingly oriented during playtime to virtual space. By using selected examples, I attempt here to demonstrate the intimate connection between these two planes of reality and, in the process, to provide a brief historical overview of the development of the computer game as a medium.

  Computer games first saw the light of day in the realm of research science at a time when existing computers were as yet incapable of generating virtual spaces. Back then, the spaces constituted by computers were primarily physical and real in nature, a circumstance owing to their considerable bulk and open manner of construction.

  Active in these large computers during periods of operation (which were never, as a rule, interrupted) were operators who shuttled ceaselessly between the indi- vidual structural members in order to engage in programming, identify errors, re- place tubes or control cooling. Only experienced specialists were able, on the basis of a few small lights, to recognize the emerging harbingers of a virtual reality that has today become so complex and painstakingly detailed. And it was precisely such specialists, the architects of the first computers, who recognized and investigated the potential of computer games right from the start: in 1942, on the basis of a chess program, Konrad Zuse demonstrated the strength of his programming language “Plankalkül”; in 1947, Alan Turing developed a chess program, which he processed in his own mind, in order to test its capabilities in matches against opponents; and in 1950, Claude Shannon authored a 12-page article entitled “Programming a Com- puter for Playing Chess” (Shannon 1950) .

  In all three above-named cases, it was the space of the research laboratory that was crucial in the construction of the program, for it was not a question of enter- tainment, but instead of research. In the introduction to his article, for example, Shannon wrote: “Although perhaps of no practical importance, the question [of whether a computer can be taught to play chess] is of theoretical interest, and it is hoped that a satisfactory solution of this problem will act as a wedge in attacking other problems of a similar nature and of greater significance” (ibid.) .

SPACE TIME PLAY

  Interestingly enough, these aspects of greater significance specified by Shannon already constitute the fundamental conditions of possibility for generating virtual worlds as we know them today. Among other things, he mentions “Machines for performing symbolic (nonnumerical) mathematical operations. Machines capable of translating from one language to another. Machines for making strategic deci- sions in simplified military operations. Machines capable of orchestrating a melody.

  

(ibid.)

Machines capable of logical deduction” .

  We fast forward now to the early 1960s. Computers have become smaller and perform better, but nonetheless remain accessible to only a small number of special- ists. We find ourselves in the “Tech Model Railroad Club” at MIT in Cambridge, Mas- sachusetts, where primarily younger scientists are active. The clubrooms are located on the campus of an educational facility, but are clearly marked by an entertainment context. Here, we experience the birth of the first “genuine” computer game, one that still meets today’s criteria. A group of young scientists who met through the D.E.C. firm, one of the first whose monitor is provided with graphic capabilities – and which hence fulfils one of the essential technical preconditions for today’s virtual worlds. On the initiative of Steve Russel, they spend their free time, with no special research contract, programming Spacewar! (1962) , a virtual outer space setting within which two spaceships, each controlled by one player, face off against one another. The game is a big hit right from the beginning, and it spreads like wildfire through the American university landscape to every point where a PDP 1 computer is pres- ent. This circumstance, however, can only be really explained by considering the real space surrounding the players. For computers continue to be highly expensive rarities, and hence accessible only to specialists. They are not designed to be played with simply for fun, and this necessarily leads to conflict. This is also the motive for the invention of the first game joysticks: they make it possible for players to avoid

  (Graetz 1981) damaging keyboards while playing Spacewar! .

  A straight line leads from Spacewar! and the MIT “Tech Model Railroad Club” to the real space of the video arcade, the locale where computer games became commercially established. One of the students who had enjoyed playing Spacewar! during his MIT years was Nolan Bushnell, later a founder of Atari. His automated version of Spacewar!, produced in 1971 by the American video game manufacturer Nutting Associates and dubbed Computer Space, was conceived for the video arcade. The fact that the commercial birth of the computer game took place in a public space had exclusively economic reasons. The then only recently developed integrated circuits (ICs) were still too expensive to allow such consoles to be marketed directly to end users. And although Computer Space (1971) experienced only sluggish sales, Bushnell’s business model met with success just a year later with the Atari PONG

  (1972)

  machines. In just a few months, video game machines had developed into one of the most lucrative businesses and would remain so right into the 1980s. But the physical space of the video arcade not only made possible the commercialization of the computer game, it also influenced the appearance of the early blockbust- ers. The high score list, introduced for the first time in 1978 in Space Invaders, not only offered players an identity going beyond the actual activity of playing, but also

  PLACES TO PLAY Essay

  provided them with an incentive to leave behind their visiting cards as players in the real space of the arcade, where they would be noticed by others. Game construction, too, was determined substantially by this context. It was not extended, epic games that guaranteed high revenues, but instead numerous brief matches. Players had to be induced to toss yet another coin into the slot. The game, then, must never be al- lowed to really come to an end. In one way or another, the narratives games embody are all variations on the Sisyphus motif, with its tendency toward the interminable. An additional motivating factor lay in the social situation of the gaming arcade, where two players would often face off in front of the public.

  On another level as well, the video arcade machines had an essential impact on the medium of the computer game. At least in the German Federal Republic, the installation of video games in public spaces was forbidden in 1984 by amend- ments to the Youth Protection Laws. Along with betting machines, they could only be found from that point onward in locations inaccessible to young people. The new dangerous to young people.

  But in the end, it was not the video arcade, but instead another real space that established itself as the dominant context for games – namely, the private home. This development goes back to the 1960s. In 1968, the inventor Ralph H. Baer reg- istered a patent in the United States for his “Television Gaming and Training Appa- ratus.” In it, he describes the functional principle of the home video game console that was brought onto the market in 1972 by the American firm Magnavox under the

  1 >

  1

  name Odyssey. In typical advertisements for Odyssey, we see a family playing while

  That their price lay

  gathered around the television set in the living room. The living room as a real

  under 100 US Dollars

was made feasible space of play was almost compulsory, since additional television sets were rarely

only by manufacturing

  found in children’s bedrooms at that time. Perceptions of the home video game as

  these devices using the

same traditional analog a toy for children rather than for adults were associated with an additional techni-

components found in

  cal revolution, one that established a new location for playing: the work or hobby all television sets. room. Beginning in 1977, a mass production of new ICs had progressed so far that an entire computer could fit comfortably onto a writing desk, making it possible to market home computers to private individuals. The triumph of the home computer had begun. Thanks to market competition and the falling prices associated with it, home computers such as the C64 were widely disseminated during the 1980s and were frequently used to play games. These developments were also decisive for the appearance of these games. Since an ongoing game could be stored at any moment and resumed later on, games of epic length emerged whose virtual worlds grew larger and more complex than those found in video arcades or in the home video game consoles that succeeded gaming machines.

  Already in preparation at this time was the networking of home computers, which then not only provided the playing field, but could also access virtual realities that were generated somewhere beyond the physical surroundings of the player.

  As distinct from home computers, which had generally been reserved for adults, home video games drifted increasingly into children’s bedrooms during the 1980s. This development was made possible by the growing prevalence of second and third television sets in private homes, and it experienced powerful reinforcement

SPACE TIME PLAY

  via the strategies of the at-the-time market leader Nintendo, which marketed its NES console primarily as a game.

  For our final real space of play, we now enter another public arena, one that succeeded the video arcade, and one which, unlike the latter, is not fixed in space, not clearly localizable. Already by the mid-1970s (Football 1976) , manufacturers had succeeded in establishing a market for mobile pocket video games. Along with their relatively low prices, their in principle unlimited accessibility spoke strongly in their favor. During the past two decades, we have heard a lot about a “Game Boy generation,” referring to young people who have grown up with video games. A decisive turn was taken by mobile games when they were successfully networked in recent years. Fusion with GPS-capable mobile telephones in particular created a fundamentally new space of play. With so-called “pervasive games,” the real space surrounding the player becomes a component of the virtual playing space. Highly conspicuous in comparison to the examples presented above is the interpenetration

  Games have always followed people wherever they have lived, and it seems as though the act of playing necessarily does so as well. In this respect, computer games are indistinguishable from other games. The fact that they generate complex virtual spaces ought not to distract us from the fact that every player finds him or herself simultaneously in a world of play and in the real world.

  Computer Space (1971), developed and published by Nutting Associates. Football (1976), devel- oped and published by Mattel Graetz, J.M. (1981), “The Origins of Spacewar!”, Creative Computing, August 1981. PONG (1972), developed and published by Atari. Shannon, C. (1950), “Programming a Computer for Playing Chess,” Philosophical Magazine, ser.7, vol. 41, no. 314, March 1950. Space- war! (1962), developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  Text Developer Publisher Game Review

  Gillian Andrews Konami Konami, 1998

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION

  Taking Back Arcade Space Dance Dance Revolution (or DDR ) is the best known of a series of rhythm games first marketed by Konami in Asia in the late 1990s. Similar ti- tles from other publishers

  (Andamiro

  include Pump It Up

  1999) (Roxor

  , In The Groove

  Games 2004)

  , and Para Para Par-

  (Konami 2000)

  adise . In these games, the controller is en-

larged to monstrous size, allowing play by “dancing” on a “stage” with in-

set buttons.

  The goal in DDR is to step on the correct buttons in time with

music, indicated by arrows rising to hit targets at the top of the screen.

While the arrows roll over swirling day-glo graphics, dancing anime ava-

tars and music videos, the graphics are little more than a distraction. In

dance games, the images on-screen are mere window dressing. Dance

games take the space of play out of the machine, returning it to the

realm of physical space. Play is writ large on the entire body, not just

the avatar and the frantic movement of players’ thumbs.

  To date, no other post-PONG arcade genre has been as revo-

lutionary in terms of space. Before PONG (Atari 1972), arcades often

had a number of highly physical games: skeeball, whack-a-mole, shoot

hoops to win a teddy bear. And certainly, arcades have long had digi-

tal games in which players use nontraditional controllers: “punching”

opponents, riding motorcycles or shooting guns. But DDR represents a

SPACE TIME PLAY

  www.musicineverydirection.com

much more dramatic expansion of the physical in digital arcade games.

  

The game frees up the player’s head, arms and torso for a nearly full

range of movement. The only obligation players have is pressing the but-

tons in time.

  Players take advantage of this freedom in creative ways, incor-

porating spins, dropping to their knees or even leaping over the safe-

ty bar for a grand entrance. Some players leave stage in the middle of

the song to flirt or “take a phone call” for comic effect. On the website

DDRFreak.com, one commenter recalls a player who left the arcade and

ran all the way across the street in the middle of his performance, re-

turning in time for the next step after a break in the music.

  The old arcade pastime of cheering local pros on as they pound

their way to a high score takes a new shape: now, instead of clustering

close to scrutinize the screen, the audience can follow gameplay from

across the room. Arcade owners sometimes rearrange their space to ac-

commodate DDR’s exuberant overflow, leaving extra room around the ma-

chine or moving it to a more visible location to attract business. In Asia,

dance games have grown far larger than the arcade: at the peak of the

game’s popularity, DDR competitions were sometimes held in stadiums.

  Dance Dance Revolution (US title) was released in Europe under the title Dancing Stage. Text Project Affiliation Project Description

  Florian “Floyd” Müller Florian “Floyd” Müller, Human Connectedness Stefan Agamanolis Group, Media Lab Europe, Dublin, IE, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, US, 2003

BREAKOUT FOR TWO

  Connecting Cities via Distributed Physical Activity

  is a cross between soccer and the pop- networked to support players in different spaces, al-

  Breakout for Two

  ular arcade game Breakout (Atari 1976). Each of two lowing them to experience shared gameplay as part players, who can be miles distant from his/her partner, of the urban environment. We envision setting games kicks a ball against a local, physical wall. On each wall such as Breakout for Two in public places with socializ- is a projection of the remote player, enabling the partic- ing opportunities, allowing inhabitants to engage in so- ipants to interact with each other through a life-sized cial interaction with players from sister cities, in which videoconference. Players feel as though they are sepa- the game provides something to do and to talk about. rated by a glass window that splits the field into two We believe the physical sporting game Breakout for parts. They still hit the ball towards the other player, can enrich the link between sister cities by pro-

  Two

  but it bounces off the wall and is returned. Eight semi- viding inhabitants with a direct personal experience, transparent blocks are overlaid on the video stream, facilitating a sense of shared space and supporting and each player has to strike them in order to score. social connectedness between the remote players. These virtual blocks are connected over the network,

  Thanks to Media Lab Europe and MIT, especially which means they are shared between locations. If one Stefan Agamanolis, Roz Picard and Ted Selker.

  player strikes any of them once, it cracks. On the third hit, the block breaks and disappears. Only then does the player receive a point. This scoring theme makes for a challenging game element because it enables each player to watch what the other one is doing, wait- ing for her/him to hit a block for the second time and then snatching the point by hitting it for the third and final time. The harder the player hits a block, however, the more it cracks, so a player can also choose to crack the blocks more quickly through really hard hits. Physical games such as soccer are known to be social facilitators and icebreakers. They can support social exchange between players who have never met before and who might otherwise never meet at all, if they are

SPACE TIME PLAY

  http://exertioninterfaces.com

  Text Developer Publisher Game Review

  Heather Kelley Nintendo Nintendo, 2006 Wii SPORTS Breaking the Fourth Wall

  Released in 2006 to both ac- claim and speculation, Nin- tendo’s Wii game console attempts to leapfrog its next- gen competitors with its intu- itive control device, the wire- less “Wii Remote,” which resembles a smallish, sim- plified television remote in shape and size. The Remote is a pointing device that can also detect movement on multiple axes. This innova- tive controller represents the heart of Nintendo’s strategy to reach beyond the known market of “core” gamers and appeal to a wider population of potential players, including families, women and seniors.

  Wii Sports is Nintendo’s premiere launch title for the Wii; it is

shipped in the box along with the Wii hardware. The game offers five

popular athletic sports – bowling, tennis, golf, boxing and baseball – all

playable using the natural and characteristic gestures required by each

sport: swinging a bat, punching a boxing glove and so on. As such, the

game could be considered the earliest expression of Nintendo’s vision

for interactive entertainment: it is approachable, sociable and places a

higher value on play accessibility than on graphic resolution.

SPACE TIME PLAY

  http://wii.com

One of the most innovative spatial aspects of the Wii, evident throughout Wii

Sports , is the speaker located inside the Wii Remote. As a feedback chan-

nel, sound naturally supports our perceptions of what is physical and hence

“real.” In Wii Sports, the effect is subtle but undeniable: players can hear the

results of their physical actions at the location of that action. The controller

can’t offer tactile resistance for physical actions (such as the impact of strik-

ing a baseball with a heavy bat), but the audio helps fill these gaps of believ-

ability and controllability. When serving the ball in Wii Tennis, for instance,

players can hear the swishing of their own rackets and time their swings to

generate power serves.

  While naturalistic gestures such as full-ranged golf swings and

bowling ball throws are not absolutely required to play the game, they

are supported by the game and constitute a large part of the game’s fun –

even in the cramped quarters of a typical living space. But the way

Wii Sports encourages players to use their full range of motion and

strength is not without its drawbacks. Perhaps nothing is more indic-

ative of the boundary-crossing “real world feel” of Wii Sports than the

reports that began appearing on the Internet soon after the launch

date, according to which players around the world were accidental-

ly destroying television screens and causing other living room acci-

dents when making enthusiastic physical gestures during play. With-

in weeks, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admitted, “Some people

are getting a lot more excited than we’d expected. We need to better

communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of enter-

tainment.” The early days of the Wii will be remembered as those in