Emptiness Beckons: The Allure of Space in Speculative Game Fictions

This paper proposes applying Graham Harman's concept of "allure," drawn from Speculative Realism and specifically Object-Oriented Ontology, to explain why in-game spaces attract players and function as attractive elements of games in their own right. Harman's allure describes how concrete objects signal hidden depths beyond their immediately perceptible qualities, a relational phenomenon grounded in the premise that objects always withdraw from full comprehension. The author argues that this framework is especially suited to science fiction and fantasy games, where the appeal of non-mimetic worlds often drives commercial and critical success, including in seemingly unremarkable settings such as desolate landscapes and abandoned buildings.

The argument is developed through a close analysis of Mass Effect (BioWare, 2007) and its franchise. The author contends that the trilogy's most distinctive strength lies less in its characters or narrative, which have received critical attention elsewhere, than in the sense of vastness with which its universe is invested. Despite the tendency of many games to conservatively circumscribe their locations, the paper identifies specific in-game settings, including empty moons and planets, abandoned bases and warehouses, and the protagonist's apartment, as examples where aesthetic representation and narrative embeddedness produce this allure.

The paper's scope is theoretical and interpretive rather than empirical. It draws on a bibliography spanning game studies, philosophy, and narrative theory, and it does not report survey data, sample sizes, or quantitative findings. Its evidentiary basis is the author's reading of a single game series, supplemented by references to prior scholarship on spatiality in games. The work is framed as a conceptual contribution to the study of virtual space, one that extends a philosophical vocabulary, originally developed for physical objects, to digital environments.