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By Root 414 0

but rather “human parcels … untouched by the space traversed” (p. 39). The easy, comfortable, and cheap accessibility of expedient travel robs destinations of their previous value as remote and out-of-the-way places. Analogous to a work of art, the unique, inimitable experience of a place is also the condition of its genuineness. In the words of Castells, places lost in a network of destinations tend towards “architecture whose forms are so neutral, so pure, so diaphanous, that they do not pretend to say anything” (p. 420). The meaning of a place—and therefore environmental presence within that place—is inescapably diminished in a space of flows.

Simply put, convenience is a poor substitute for continuity of space. As Marcel Proust so eloquently observed:

The special attraction of the journey lies not in our being able to alight at places on the way and to stop altogether as soon as we grow tired, but in its making the difference between departure and arrival not as imperceptible but as intense as possible, so that we are conscious of it in its totality, intact, as it existed in our mind when imagination bore us from the place in which we were living right to the very heart of a place we longed to see, in a single sweep which seemed miraculous to us not so much because it covered a certain distance as because it united two distinct individualities of the world. (Quoted in The Railway Journey, pp. 39-40)

By emphasizing destination over the places in between, warping encourages a “quick visit, move-on-to-the-next-place” mentality that frames space as disposable. Steven Johnson therefore underestimates videogame worlds when he writes, “But most of the time, when you’re hooked on a game, what draws you in is an elemental form of desire: the desire to see the next thing.” 15 The somewhat fleeting reward of seeing the next place pales in comparison to uncovering more facets of an already familiar environment. In short, instantaneous travel facilitates a kind of escapist virtual tourism that is pleasant, but ultimately shallow.

But if players care about environmental presence, can’t they simply choose not to use the Ballad of Gales? Not quite; the very existence of such a choice colors the experience of space. Distance traveled will always be viewed in context of the distance that could have been traveled. By encouraging players to warp between islands, the game designers effectively imply that the places between islands are ancillary to the next dungeon, the next challenge, the next objective. Because most other items and abilities are necessary for progressing through the game, the Ballad of Gales carries a certain weight of inevitably (“if I have this ability, I should probably use it”). Contrary to traditional game design principles that tout player choice, the very possibility of instantaneous travel degrades environmental presence.

Warping and Abstract Map Space

The process of using the Ballad of Gales is itself a telling example of the tension between environmental presence and instantaneous travel. After playing the Ballad on Link’s magical baton (… don’t ask), we are taken to a view of the World Map. Using the map, we are able to select from a number of predetermined locations—represented as grid squares—scattered around the world. With a simple press of a button, we are then transported directly to a new place.

A map-based interface is used to select one of the preset warping destinations (The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Nintendo).

It’s no coincidence that the warping ability is performed through a map-based interface. Instantaneous travel is by its very nature reliant on a map-like conception of space; in teleporting to a distant place, we’re forced to consider a space outside of and above our immediate surroundings. Borrowing from Michel de Certeau, we can understand the juxtaposition of 2D map and 3D space as the opposition between “panoptic” (overhead) and “everyday” (in-the-thick-of-it) experiences of place. The panoptic experience—as exemplified by looking out over a city from atop