How to Cite

The World-Shaped Hall: On the Architectonics of the Open World Skybox and the Ideological Implications of the "Open World Chronotope", in Bonner, Marc (Ed.): Game | World | Architectonics: Transdisciplinary Approaches on Structures and Mechanics, Levels and Spaces, Aesthetics and Perception, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2021, p. 65–98. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.752.c10380

License (Chapter)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Identifiers (Book)

ISBN 978-3-96822-047-5 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-3-96822-048-2 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-114-4 (Softcover)

Published

04/29/2021

Authors

Marc Bonner

The World-Shaped Hall

On the Architectonics of the Open World Skybox and the Ideological Implications of the "Open World Chronotope"

Abstract This chapter is a transdisciplinary study on the architectonics of open world games and has a twofold aim. First, the game intrinsic space of open world games and their function as illusionary space will be analysed based on technological and structural aspects of the skybox and its non-linear interior landscape. Thus, open world games will be defined as world-shaped hall. Second, the spatiotemporal dynamics within the world-shapedhall, namely the differential of power between player-induced courses of action and developer-induced guidance systems and governing strategies will be explored. They embody the topology and topography of what will be defined as the open world chronotope. Consequently, the world-shaped hall and the open world chronotope are interrelated and define the media-specific characteristics of open world games. This chapter then lays the foundation for further studies of open world games specifically and game space in general.

Keywords Open world, skybox, world-shaped hall, architecture, Crystal Palace, chronotope, space-time, ideology, game design, Deleuze and Guattari, Bakhtin