Tourism in Video Games: Experiences in Digital Worlds

This research project investigates the concept of play as travel and the player as a tourist within video games, aiming to bridge theoretical approaches to mediated tourism and games as commodities. It posits that video games are designed to engage players in touristic ways, moving beyond the traditional understanding of "video game tourism" as physical travel inspired by games. The study emphasizes an "inward investigation" of travel within digital spaces, drawing on concepts like "spatial exploration" and the player's immersion.

The project frames play as a tourist experience by applying John Urry and Jonas Larsen's "tourist gaze" and Joseph Pine and James Gilmore's "experience economy" to video games. This perspective views the traversal and appropriation of game spaces as a controlled, artistic endeavor, allowing for a critical assessment of games as products within a mass media consumer culture. Examples such as the Assassin's Creed franchise, Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, and No Man's Sky are cited to illustrate how both real and fictional locales are designed to create engaging, anticipatory experiences for players, often leveraging pop-cultural conventions.

The research will focus on case studies of games featuring "Japanese aesthetics," defined as games set in Japan or incorporating Japanese visual elements to create a specific atmosphere. This approach considers how "staged atmospheres" function as commodities embedded in power relations. Cyberpunk 2077 is identified as a primary case study, exploring how the cyberpunk genre, with its historical appropriation of Japanese aesthetics, influences contemporary sci-fi and cyberpunk games. The study will examine how these aesthetics are embodied in game spaces, player interactions like in-game photography, and the games' implicit and explicit commentary on perceptions of Japan. The project is in its initial stages, with specific case studies and themes subject to refinement.