"I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit."
J.R.R. Tolkien
Last year, I loved the academic keynote of Phil Jones at the first TMGeographyIcons event.
He was speaking about video gaming and the link with place.
This article, via Canadian Geographic, explores the fundamental importance of the map to these games. The early text based adventures were all about the map of course, as this dictated where places could and could not go and ultimately led to each action, and the development of any narrative.
Plotting alternative routes through choose your own adventure game books has also been done.
This video shows the potential for exploring landscapes, and the research that is done to bring them to life, although always with a bit of artistic license to fit the game dynamics one supposes.
More to come on this area...
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