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Spellen, gamers, spelen

Lee Sang-woo's "Games, Gamers, Play" is a unique book. It looks like a traditional humanities book, but it's also like an essay, and it seems like a book that thoroughly introduces and analyzes games, but the subject of that analysis is games that you just enjoy without thinking - "Journey" and "StarCraft", for example.  

 
"I have always been caught between two layers. Industry and academia, company and school, literature and games. The last layer was the most unstable area of all. Most people who write literature don't like games. Those who play games aren't very interested in pure literature. The two groups walked parallel lines that could never meet, and I was in the middle. I was lonely. But I thought that connecting the two was also the responsibility of the person who was caught in the middle. In that sense, the word 'hybrid' seems like a fitting name for this book." - From the afterword
 
I too have often felt this emotion while enjoying literature and games for a long time. In fact, in the case of the adventure game genre, storytelling is so important that it's as close to storytelling as it gets. Nevertheless, because of the lightness (?) of games themselves, I thought that the mainstream literary world had never properly dealt with the stories of games. The appearance of this full-fledged game review collection was enough to pique my interest.

Especially, the parts I found interesting were the "Games and Time" section and the "Games and Space" section.
Time in the game and time in the real world where you play are quite different. I have always thought that the gap was interesting, and the author also delves into that point and relentlessly pursues the meaning of time in games from various angles. Real-time / None-Realtime and Pure fictional Time / Realtime-induceed fictional Time are used to classify games as RR, NR, RP, NP.

According to the author's explanation, RR refers to games where the player's playing time and the time in the game coincide. In other words, RR refers to games where you have to complete tasks within a time limit. RP is a combination of real-time games and pure fictional time. Time in the game flows invisibly without putting pressure on the player. This is the time method for action, shooting games, etc., where most stories can exist independently of play.
So what are NR and NP? You should check the book for the answer. For those who have been immersed in games, it may seem a bit difficult, but it will definitely be an interesting classification once you understand it.
Space is also an interesting issue. A playground that doesn't exist in the world, but that I'm definitely experiencing right now. The virtuality of space, along with time, sometimes triggers a strange feeling for the player.

All games are space machines. Once the long loading is over, the player, that's us, is suddenly somewhere. We've fallen from the sky and there's only one thing we know. That this body is the protagonist in the game. It doesn't matter if you don't know your name, even if you're not a human but a monster, a monster that's not even a monster, even if you're just a pixel, it's okay. I'm the protagonist, and the protagonist moves according to my control, so it's okay.

However, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't much content about the space in the game compared to time. As a reader, I wish the author had analyzed it a little more. However, I was very happy that he pointed out the unforeseen temporality and spatiality, giving us a lot of food for thought.