Gaming in Cyberspace Challenges Geography

Black Swan

To what extent is gaming challenging the generally accepted definitions of geography? Should there be a new division of the discipline called Virtual Cyberspace Geography?

The current two major divisions of geography are physical and cultural. Physical geography generally pertains to the given natural world (or universe); e.g., mountains, valleys, plains, rivers, oceans, etc. Cultural geography generally concerns the geographical distribution of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought; i.e., generally artificially created by humans within the given physical, natural world they inhabit. Cultural geography also includes those physical changes made by humans that are culturally driven; e.g., damming rivers, creating artificial lakes, etc.

Gamers, or their game developers, can now create and play in virtual physical worlds that may resemble the existent, natural world of physical geography, or very different virtual worlds (or universes) that emerge from creative imagination. These virtual physical worlds can seem to be very real when game playing, providing the environmental conditions that interact with the culture of the game.

Of course a geographer may assign this Virtual Cyberspace Geography as a variation of the existing Cultural Geography division, given that it too is an artificial human creation.

But what is real? Ask a gamer if the virtual physical geography in which he or she plays is as real to them (in the moment of game play), as the physical geography of the natural world when not game playing.

What are your thoughts?

Reference:
Key Methods in Geography (2010), N. Clifford, S. French, and G. Valentine, Editors. London: Sage.

Coles

Fictional geography has been around since the earliest story tellers and artists. Nothing has really changed. To try to equate it in any way to actual real physical geography misses the point about studying the topic in the first place. While I might have enjoyed reading Tolkien I wouldn't let it inform my expectations about the world around me. Having said that, 'virtual reality' can be a brilliant tool for exploring real geography but it's just entertainment when it's fictional.