Terra ludus, terra paidia, terra prefab: spatialization of play in videogames & virtual worlds

• Authors: Georgia Leigh McGregor
• Venue: IE '08 Proceedings of the 5th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment
• Year: 2008

Videogames and virtual worlds are a rich source of spatial interaction. These digitally coded environments have been specifically constructed to host particular forms of activity. They range from single player games to vast social networks. But how is play spatialized in videogames and virtual worlds? Roger Caillois introduced the terms paidia and ludus in his seminal work, Man, Play and Games, to describe an axis of play between structured rule-driven games and freeform imaginative play. This paper examines how paidia and ludus are spatialized in videogames and virtual worlds through formal goals and spatial rules. This paper articulates the spatialization of play as terra ludus and terra paidia, where spatial goals, resources and player agency channel play. Yet other games appear to offer freeform play but instead constrain the player to pursue implicit goals and restrict play to a selection from a series of prefabricated choices. Situated between the control of a terra ludus and the spatial freedom of a terra paidia, this paper describes an intermediate construction of space, a terraprefab. As a conceptual tool terra ludus, terra paidia and terra prefab allow us to understand and compare how videogames and virtual worlds spatially manipulate and control play.