This paper looks at the design of “place” in a game-environment. It sets out to present a way of analyzing and evaluating game environments using Brian Sutton-Smith's seven rhetorics of play as a framework. The question this paper investigates, is what can be learnt from our intrinsic ability to navigate our environment in relation to play? Physical architecture offers the game designer metaphors for virtual worlds that have meaning based on experiences people associate with them. True innovation in game-world design requires an understanding of our built environment that extends beyond the surface aesthetic appeal of architecture, through concentration on the way we experience architecture and interact with our built environment.
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