Perspectives of navigation

City”, “Battlefield”). “Minecraft” and “Sim City” as construction games, offer the possibility to the player do build objects based specific tools offered by the game or to build a city and its infrastructure, while in

Battlefield, player destroys environmental elements such as walls, buildings, fences etc. Space is dynamic

and is subject to constant change.

Figure 135 Dynamic space : build in Minecraft and destroy in Battlefield

Perspectives of navigation

Game space is experienced and understood through player’s movement and the perspectives of

navigation. The perspective of navigation and the experience gained in the game world contribute in

shaping space. It defines the vantage point in which actions and events are experienced in a disjoined

way. In videogames there are different perspective of navigation, depending on the game type and the

effect produced to the player. The following view perspectives refer to 3-dimensional space.

1. God view perspective. This perspective of navigation sees the player as an all-seeing force in the

game world. It is usually used in simulation and management games like SIMCITY, Cities in

motion, strategy games like Civilization, Black and White or puzzle games with static

environment such as Chess or Tetris. In these type of game space, player do not act directly as an

avatar, but as a force that control and act on multiple levels. This point of view, impossible in real

life, offers a large perspective, being distant from the field of the game space. It has control over

large space and data. Player look into the game space, but is not present in the field. This occurs

also in partly system games, in which the player takes control of different characters at the same

time. Player has an overview of the whole environment and is able to transform multiple things

at the same time, understanding the impact on the whole. This approach is typically used in

collaborative urban planning in which multiple actor need to have an overview of the city,

impossible from personal first person perspective.

2. First-person navigation. In this case, the scene is shown through the first-person of the main

player-character as he is walking. The scene is explored as in the real physical situation and show