436   ◾    An Architectural Approach to Level Design

1993 2013

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FIGURE 10.3  A recreation of a popular Internet image that describes the seem-
ingly complex nature of older first-person shooter maps compared with the linear
nature of modern ones.

In the next section we further explore the elements of gamespace

that allow players of different types to have their own experiences with
gamespace and how gamespaces use their phenomenological elements to
create emergent experiences.

EMERGENT SPACES
Throughout the book, we have looked at complexity as a byproduct of
contrasting features played off of one another as described by Robert
Venturi. So far, we have used this to describe how contrasts add drama
to space. However, we can extend this to mechanisms and spaces that
support play styles: worlds that reward different types of players are
richer and lead to more attachment. Venturi describes how if systems
are placed adjacent to or superimposed over one another, it creates
increasingly satisfying complexities.19 We have also discussed games as
systems. In Rules of Play, Salen and Zimmerman address the complexity
of systems through the lens of Jeremy Campbell, author of Grammatical
Man.20 Campbell describes complexity in systems as “enabling them to
do things and be things we might not have expected.”21 Part of what
makes games unique is that human players and their wildly divergent
personalities act as part of the interactive systems of games and space.
Putting players among a variety of spaces that reward different behav-
iors is therefore a great way to create complexity. This complexity leads
to an element of systems that Salen and Zimmerman describe as “cru-
cial” for understanding how they become meaningful for players:22
emergence.