Navigating the in-between: liminal spaces in video game geographies

This study analyzes liminal spaces in video games using a geographical framework and comparative methodology, focusing on three distinct released between 2007 and 2008. By examining three different video games the research identifies four foundational blocks that shape liminal spaces and the player’s experience, despite the games’ disparate genres and typologies: procedural rhetoric, worldview introspection, glitch spaces and digital ruins, and soundscapes of liminality. The study argues that these elements are crucial for creating immersive and engaging liminal spaces, and the absence of any one of them significantly alters the overall game experience. The research illuminates how spatial interactions in virtual environments shape players’ perceptions of space. The study also interprets the prevalence of liminal spaces in video games as mirroring wider cultural concerns about globalization and changing concepts of space and identity.