What legacy and computational effects make these virtual space feel real? How do you know where you are? How do you know the relationship of your current location to your previous location? What objects and possible events do you expect to find in these spaces? Analyze how space was traversed in the game. How was space organized, what kind of options for movement did you have? What aspects/objects provided a path or desire to follow a certain direction.
Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda establishes itself as a representation of digital space in much the same way as maps have established themselves as representations of real space. The world is laid out as a series of interconnected maps that the player may walk about as a point upon those maps. Inherited from the tradition of maps comes a strong sense of two dimensionality as the player’s movement is restricted to the cardinal directions, both in terms of the manner the player can move about a single screen and the manner the player may move to the next screen. Departing from the two dimensions of maps, the user may move in and out of doorways on this map that transports the main character (Link) to a separate series of maps through a sort of logical tunnel and back again to the original location. This is a consequence of the nature of the medium and its ability to create logical bridges between seemingly disparate maps. The user may then construct logical continuity of the world by viewing it a set of tiling maps with a series of two-way tunnels (or hyperlinks) to separate regions. Certain regions are also accessible only with certain items, placing restrictions on how and where the player may travel at any particular point in the game. Within this world the primary objects the user comes across are enemy creatures which the user can choose to destroy to acquire useful items and money. The enemies, items, and money are all represented as points upon the map which the player must touch in some way to interact with, whether it be walking over some money to pick it up or touching an enemy with Link’s sword to kill it. Direction is provided to the player through a textual exposition detailing the particular plight that Princess Zelda lay in and the nastiness about Gannon having stolen the Triforce and all. Knowing this the user must then wander around the world looking for dungeons containing Triforce pieces. In this way the game reaches out to the user and demands a large amount of exploration
and suggests that the spatiality of the medium provides much of our purpose for playing.
Zork is a game that also borrows heavily from the legacy of maps but with very different aims and consequences. The world of Zork is laid out and traversed as a set of rooms connected by the cardinal directions augmented by the ability to move up and down. The way these relationships are interpreted then by the user is as a logical map of nodes. Of course, since Zork does not constrain us to a mere two dimensions of directionality, the game is departing from the traditional notion of maps and utilizing the computer’s ability to handle an arbitrary amount of dimensions (at least in terms of calculation and interconnection if not in terms of display). Integral to the ability of the user to construct a logical map is the fact that the game maintains continuity of direction in that the user can reasonably expect to travel west then east and have returned to his or her original location. This expectation is only interrupted when the game’s plot dictates that it should be so as when the user travels down through a trap door in the floor only to find it shut behind him or her and barring any hopes of return. Unlike The Legend of Zelda, however, the world of Zork exists only in text. In this way Zork is inexorably tied to the conventions of print in its manner of portraying objects and actions. Instead of seeing the world of Zork directly, we interpret it through textual descriptions of its places, inhabitants, and activities. Similarly to The Legend of Zelda, a significant portion of the purpose of the game is to explore the environment the user has been placed in. Unlike The Legend of Zelda, Zork does not tie together the experience with main objectives but instead counts on the curiosity of the user to advance the gameplay. When the user descends into the basement through the ominous trapdoor, he or she does so not out of a desire for any particular end goal but rather because the trapdoor was there to be gone through.
While Myst's world is laid out in terms of a logical map much like those of The Legend of Zelda and Zork, the world is portrayed graphically from a first person viewpoint. The user may then click a direction on the screen to go in that direction or click on the side of the screen to turn. In this way, the game is presented as a logical map of still paintings. The representational power of still painting with logical steps between each painting thus creates the impression that the user is an eye moving around this world which it has been placed in. Inherent in this model is the fact that the places the user can move to is entirely dictated by the game creator. While this does allow the creator great control in directing the experience, it simultaneously provides frustration to the user as his or her movement is seemingly arbitrarily controlled by the whims of the designer. The objects you may interact with are also specified by the designer and are mostly limited to items that help you solve one of the game’s many puzzles. Interacting with such items often involves an animation realistically depicting the action the user chose (levers being pulled, cranks turning, etc) and is another way in which old conventions are augmented with the possibilities of digital environments. The procedural nature of computers allows the world to animate itself at the command of the user, furthering the illusion that such interactions are occurring within an actual space. Myst is similar to Zork in that there is no stated goal to the game but rather the user is allowed simply to explore what the environment has to offer. In this respect the designers suggest that the spatial nature of the medium provides the game’s purpose. The user is enticed to maneuver around the world of Myst solving puzzles and traveling to different segments simply because there are puzzles to be solved and segments to travel to.
