Landscape Theory for Computer Games

The analysis of landscape in computer games has had a brief but productive history in game studies. This paper clarifies how the term ‘landscape’ should be used, and updates the references to landscape theory that are both appropriate and useful to computer game studies. The focus in computer game studies on the phenomenology of player experience would benefit from a consideration of how landscape theory balances phenomenological approaches with the wealth of contextual histories they have accrued. Often referred to as “the backcloth of human history”, landscape theory brings together fields such as geography, anthropology, art history and philosophy to discuss the processes by which societies shape the physical environment and how the physical environment shapes them. I demonstrate the methodological congruence of these two areas of study, and how landscape theory can greatly enrich the field of computer game studies.