There is a theme of space in both Interactive Experience Design (CTIN 532) and Experiments in Interactivity (CTIN 534). Here is some related articles that have caught my eye. The outstanding Jenkins article was brought to our attention by Peggy Weil.
Henry Jenkins, "The Art of Contested Spaces" (2002)
While I differ in a few details, his starting point needs to be repeated loudly:
Most often, critics discuss games as a narrative art, as interactive cinema or participatory storytelling. Perhaps, we should consider another starting point, viewing games as a spatial art with its roots in architecture, landscape painting, sculpture, gardening, or amusement park design.
My summary is:
- Videogames are defined by ''contests of space'', in which agents resolve disputes over territories (politically in Civilization, or viscerally in Half-Life). Rather than emphasize the literary elements, the nature of these contests over space is a solid premise from which to critique this medium.
- The design of space in some videogames (such as Black & White and Sacrifice) embodies principles of romanticism and expressionism. In doing so, such a videogame "maps emotions onto physical space" and "endows landscapes with moral qualities".
- Videogame criticism can be founded directly on the videogames, rather than shadowing the criticism of noninteractive media.
I thought Flynn's article was a relevant application of much of Jenkins' thesis on space. In "Imaging Gameplay – The Design and Construction of Spatial Worlds" (2005?), Bernadette Flynn, "a lecturer in screen media at The Griffith Film School" (old?), examines the construction of space in videogames and analyzes its implications for the user's psychology.
In "Games are Spatial Stories" (June 2006), Ninox cites Flynn, Jenkins, and offers a few more places to go with this line of thinking.
Not related to the space portrayed by a videogame, in "Video Games and the New Look Domesticity" (BadSeed Issue #57, October 2001) Flynn also considers the cultural impact of moving videogames from the public arcade to the private home.