On Striated Wilderness and Prospect Pacing: Rural Open World Games as Liminal Spaces of the Man-Nature Dichotomy

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Marc Bonner argues that rural open-world games such as Horizon Zero Dawn and Assassin's Creed Origins carry a long Western tradition of staging a constructed, pristine 'striated wilderness,' tracing its lineage to Puritan man-nature dichotomy thinking, colonial terra nullius logic, and the U.S. Wilderness Act of 1964.
02
The paper's core concept, 'prospect pacing,' describes how staggered horizons and vantage points structure navigation and evoke a tourist-style romantic gaze, offering players an illusion of free, smooth roaming while channeling them through designed patterns, waypoints, and markers.
03
Drawing on historical scholarship, Bonner notes the Americas were far more densely populated before European contact than romantic wilderness imagery suggests, with indigenous populations falling by roughly 90 percent through disease.
04
Horizon Zero Dawn is the principal case study, read through Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis, which identifies cyclical structures such as Tallnecks, Cauldrons, and Bandit Camps alongside variable linear repetitions that together produce a striated yet explorable landscape.
05
The paper concludes that Horizon Zero Dawn's ecopunk setting, 'BBC-realism' aesthetic, and alternation of hazard and refuge spaces make it a liminal space for reflecting on the man-nature dichotomy, though deeper ecological or postcolonial readings depend on individual players.
06
Bonner observes that vertical climbing for prospect vistas and recurring outpost conquest became established open-world conventions, and suggests such games may heighten players' environmental sensitivity while presenting biomes only at the surface level.

Summary

Marc Bonner's paper examines rural open-world games such as Horizon Zero Dawn and Assassin's Creed Origins as contemporary carriers of a long Western tradition that stages a constructed, pristine "striated wilderness." Its argument traces this lineage to Puritan notions of a man-nature dichotomy, colonial terra nullius logic, and the U.S. Wilderness Act of 1964, drawing on historical scholarship that shows the Americas were far more densely populated before European contact than romantic wilderness imagery suggests, with indigenous populations falling by roughly 90 percent through disease. The central claim is that games use prospect-based vastness, varied biomes such as deserts, and recreational design to regulate how players understand landscape and nature, in ways comparable to landscape gardens and national parks.

The analysis develops through the concept of "prospect pacing," in which staggered horizons and vantage points structure navigation and evoke a tourist-style romantic gaze. Drawing on Appleton, Urry and Larsen, and Deleuze and Guattari, the paper argues that these games offer an illusion of free, smooth roaming while channeling players through designed patterns, waypoints, markers, and modular algorithmic systems. Horizon Zero Dawn serves as the principal case study, read through Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis, which identifies cyclical structures such as Tallnecks, Cauldrons, and Bandit Camps alongside variable linear repetitions that together produce a striated yet explorable landscape.

The paper concludes that the game's ecopunk setting, its "BBC-realism" aesthetic, and its alternation of hazard and refuge spaces make it a liminal space for reflecting on the man-nature dichotomy, though deeper ecological or postcolonial readings depend on individual players. Bonner also observes that the open-world mechanics of vertical climbing for prospect vistas and recurring outpost conquest became established conventions, and he suggests that such games may heighten players' environmental sensitivity while also presenting biomes only at the surface level.