Spatial Analysis
Zork
Since this is a text based adventure, space is defined through words. Each location is named and given a description, so you track your location based on what the names are and which direction you came from. Often when you enter a new area you are made aware of special objects in the room or places you can go, such as a door or hallway. You have to be careful to read the description thoroughly to catch all the keywords.
The objects in the room follow the theme set by the type of room you are in. For instance, when you enter the kitchen, you are told there are a bottle of water and a sack of peppers on the table. These are objects you expect to find in a kitchen. Since they are named, it becomes apparent that you can interact with them. You can pick up the bottle of water and sack of peppers and carry them with you.
If you decide to take the stairs up from the kitchen you end up in the attic, which makes sense to anyone who knows the basic design of a one-story house. In addition the attic is dark because attics do not typically have windows or lights. The game relies on the description of the room to create the environment. Another example of this is when you stand at the edge of the cliff. The game "paints" a vivid picture of the sprawling mountains and rivers, as well as the rainbow across the beach. We draw the space in our minds as we travel.
Lastly, the game makes all possible paths visible to the player. You are told in the text that "there is a narrow passageway leading north." You now know that you can travel north to another room. Once you enter this room you know that if you go south, you will end up back where you started. The game relies on your sense of cardinal directions to draw a mental map of your travels.
Myst IV: Revelation
Myst relies on static images and keen eyes for you to explore your environment. As you move your cursor around the screen it changes shape to indicate objects you can click on to interact with or a direction you can travel in. Like Zork, you can only interact with specific objects and travel is limited to fixed paths. However, now that you have images, you can see what your environment looks like, and there is no need to let your mind drift into a fantasy world.
When you click on an object it is brought into focus, allowing you to see up close what the object is like. No description of the object is ever given; you need to judge what it is and how to use it based on its appearance and where you found it. Since the environments of Myst are anything but ordinary, there are no expectations on what types of items you will find in any of the locales.
When you move in a specific direction in the game the character you control moves on a fixed path to another fixed location. From this new location you can head in another direction, interact with a new set of objects, or head back the way you came. You maneuver and interact in the same way you do in Zork, except now it's done visually instead of textually. If there is a door to the north, click to the north to head in that direction (in Zork, type 'go n').
Like Zork, Myst is a large world. Both games allow you to explore this world, but they do it by limiting your spatial focus. You deal with the game one fixed location at a time. Myst is known for its challenging puzzles, and it uses them to contain the player and make them focus on the problem at hand. The game emphasizes complete exploration and attention to every possible detail in a room, and this is why only certain objects can be interacted with and only certain directions can be traveled in. Space is presented as long an narrow in Myst; only one room at a time, and move along the paths with all the knowledge and objects from previous rooms with you. It wants you to explore a small space but think across all of them.
(Note: The Myst game is completely devoid of NPCs. I believe this is done purposefully to put emphasis on the environment and not on characters. The focus of the game is on you and your surroundings rather than other characters and whatever mischief they might be up to.)
GTA: San Andreas
Quite different from the previous two, GTA emphasizes free roaming. Since the game is not detail or puzzle oriented, players are allowed to free reign to go where they want and do what they want. The game also chose a third person perspective because it wanted maintain that you are not the character, but rather you simply control the character. This is an implied fourth wall to keep us separated from the virtual world (not to mention the fact the main character is black, and I'm white, so that's enough of a reality check).
The objects in the game are made to reflect real world objects, such as guns, cars, and people. Hence, the player's first instinct is to see what he can do with these objects. Naturally you can drive cars, shoot guns, and talk to people. But interaction in this game is designed to entice the player to do abnormal things with these objects, such as run over a pedestrian or beat a guy to death with a bat. You find these objects exactly where you would expect: people walking around on the street, guns in a gun shop, and cars parked in parking lots or being driven on the roads.
The character's movement is not restricted to the cardinal directions or fixed paths. The world is mapped out in the form of a city, so with the exception of impassable objects (like buildings and the ocean) you can travel around as if you were in a city. You are not confined to walking along a narrow passageway or going down the trap door to the cellar. Steal a helicopter and fly over buildings. Drive a boat down the river. Go off road in your dirtbike. The options are varied.
The game takes advantage of the city and tries to make you explore the entire virtual space to give you the feeling that you are actually driving through a city. When given a mission, you are encouraged to race all over town to complete it rather than sitting in the same room trying to solve it (a la Myst). There is plenty of space to move through in the game, and exploring and living in that space is part of the game's purpose.
