A Brief Attempt to Diagram Homes in Open World Games
Mingjia Chen
A few weeks ago, I watched Free Guy in the midst of moving to Cambridge. Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, an NPC character living in a fictional open-world game known as Free City. The story unfolds (no spoils here) as Guy interacts with different players in the game. One scene particularly caught my attention during the film – Guy wakes up; greets his pet goldfish; picks his favorite shirt; eats breakfast while watching the morning news. Each time he respawns from his apartment, these mundane rituals repeat.
It made me wonder – in an open-world game where one is able to own homes, what exactly does one experience as a player? What do these homes provide after stripping away our actions in real life, such as eating, cleaning, or sleeping? Here, the definition of home is literal: It does not imply the symbolic meaning of belonging to a player community. Home, here, is also interchangeable with a plethora of synonyms, such as a safe house, hideout, base, home plate, garage, HQ…
Out of my overflowing spatial curiosity (as a first-year architecture student…) and as an attempt to organize thoughts, I started to diagram the different experiences. How to analyze the players’ homes, and illustrate them? One might classify the home as having four basic functions: saving your progress, showcasing achievements, modifying your equipment, and providing grounds for self-expression. One will experience these programs as distinct mechanisms when one encounters them; however, they are not mutually exclusive and often support each other. Most open-world games I played combine or hybridize at least two types of programs. Depending on the game, a home might also provide the player with functions way beyond these four basic ones.
In the field of architecture, the home has always been an experimental ground for understanding the possibilities of alternative livings. The homes in open-world games are interesting in this aspect because they provide us a view of being at home from the opposite end of the screen - as curated mechanisms and interfaces. The following set of abstract architectural diagrams serve as a point of departure for us to dive into the multifaceted relationship between our built environment and the interactive worlds behind the screen this semester.
Type A: Save House
Photos of Vanna Venturi House: Uncube Magazine, Curbed Magazine
Save House is a fundamental feature that the home inside the game provides. Many games ask the players to travel back to their safehouse/hideout before stopping to save progress. In some games, this is the only way to do so. Others also give one access to saving in the menu.
The in-game home need not be complex at all to serve as a space for saving. Some games would model the interiors of the entrance, but a low-res massing model is sufficient for the purpose. (Especially in the early 3D open-world games of the 2000s such as Grand Theft Auto III) The player gets teleported to the save menu to select a slot and record their progress upon entering the doors.
Type B: Show House
Photos of Vanna Venturi House: Uncube Magazine, Curbed Magazine / Video: hydrosaur81
This feature gives players the ability to exhibit their in-game achievements and store the artifacts acquired. Usually, the player can freely roam within their properties interiors and check out their living rooms to use the TV, wardrobes to change outfits, or their kitchens for a quick bite to restore HP.
These homes are modeled hyper-realistically and populated with great detail to mimic real life. A fly-through cutscene of the house accompanies the loading screen. The architecture, however, is sometimes out of proportion because each room, serving different functions only symbolically, does not need precise dimensions. As a result, spaces feel skewed or distorted at times, but overall, the show house feels like a real home the most, as many domestic aspects of living are simulated to some degree of authenticity. One may visit other people's places as well in some games.
Grand Theft Auto V refined and popularized the idea in 2013. Yet, free-roaming home space exists in many earlier games that focus on simulations or narratives rather than violent actions. For example, in the driving simulation game Test Drive Unlimited 2, players can rest from driving when they are at home and view their in-game statistics from the TV or browse through fictional fashion collections that are purchasable in-game. Japanese RPG games (e.g. Persona series) also feature the free-roaming home as a space for the character's self-reflection.
Type C: Workshop
Photos of Vanna Venturi House: Uncube Magazine, Curbed Magazine / Video: Gran Truismo Sport, Polyphony Digital / Photo of Modified Car: r32taka
[The engine] is often obsolete even before being used; the product is literally worn out before being operated…
Paul Virilio, Speed and Politics, 1986
A good set of load-out is essential, and many games provide systems that let the players upgrade their gadgets. For example, in an open-world game, the feature is often programmed in a workshop space in the player’s home. The workshops’ sizes range from a table to a fully equipped garage, and they allow the player access to the game’s crafting system or modifying system. Unlike the show house, the workshop is usually designed to get one back on the road as soon as possible. The open-world is the testing ground. There are also exceptions, where the workshop space experience involves managing the player’s crew and researching & developing new tools. For example, Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain offers its players the management of a “mother base” – an industrial complex with a full range of R&D capabilities.
Type D: Build Your Home
Photos of Vanna Venturi House: Uncube Magazine, Curbed Magazine / Video: Fallout 4, Bethesda Studios /
In recent years, more games start to feature mechanisms that allow players to acquire a lot in the game world and build their designs. Minecraft is probably the most well-known example. One advantage of this: The seamless transition between the home and the environment. The loading screen no longer disconnects the player’s private space from their world. The player can build their house using materials sourced from the environment and design in real-time from a first-person perspective.
Some RPG games, such as Fallout 4, provide you with pre-made modules to renovate an old New England home and focus on the aesthetics. (i.e., the player can survive without having a home). Survival games like Don’t Starve or Rust, on the other hand, provide programmatic blueprints to build shelters. The players will need to rely on their homes and constantly improvise it to resist cold weather or to fortify it and survive.
Depending on the game’s system, the player may build their home with great flexibility - with as many (or little) programs as they wish.
There are way more buildings the player can go to …
I feel like falling down a rabbit hole as I make these diagrams. In some way, they start to become templates for a parti diagram of any interactive building in the open-world game. These diagrams are temporal, but also a bit disjunctive because the player is bouncing between interfaces. Maybe I will look into shops next…
Works cited:
Virilio, Paul. Speed and Politics: An Essay on Dromology. South Pasadena, CA: Semiotext(e), 2006.
“Fallout 4.” Computer software. Bethesda Studio, November 10, 2015.
“Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.” Computer software. Rockstar Games, October 27, 2002.
Yamauchi, Kazunori. “Gran Turismo Sport.” Computer software. Sony Entertainment, October 17, 2017.