AFK Away From Keyboard, Place In The Sims Online
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Abstract
The Sims Online computer game engages ideas of place where construction of a place is contingent on the conceptual fusion of space and experience. This paper discusses the ways in which this fusion occurs in this exceptionally popular digital environment. I explore how both the space and the subject (required to mediate, record and name experience) are represented. Two familiar architectural devices are used to construct space in the game; the map and the axonometric, as historical tropes that remain active in digital space. An avatar or Sim operates as the experiencing subject in the game and the oscillating relationship between the body of the Sim and the body of the player is teased out. Finally, the place that results from the fusion of space and experience in this particular environment is described and analysed.
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