Psychogeographical Games in "Ludotopia": The exploration ofvirtual worlds in games as a medium for artistic practice

Games have become cultural objects 1 and are popularly regarded as one of the most important aspects of youth culture worldwide 2 .Millions frequent virtual worlds in computer games, where they navigate through what media theorists Espen Aarseth and Stephan Gunzel describe as Ludotopia, a term that they coined to describe "the dialectical entanglement of games and space" 3 .This thesis draws its starting point from Aarseth's assertion that computer game spaces are allegories of space -"figurative comments on the ultimate impossibility of representing real space" 4 ; and Gunzel's suggestion that computer games can become exemplifications of ideas about space.