Video Games and Virtual Tourism

Video Game Playing as Virtual Tourism

In this paper the author discusses similarities and differences between playing certain video games and the practices of tourism. He claims that playing is a type of virtual tourism. Video games often simulate the real world. Thanks to the interactivity of the video game as a medium, in certain aspects, the player's experience is similar to that of a traveler’s or a tourist’s. Video games and tourism both give mediated experiences. The experience of a video game player is simulated, but at the same time actual experience; the experience of a tourist is actual, but at the same time simulated experience. The main difference between them is that video games cannot hide their constructed nature, while the constructed characteristic of real-world tourism is less prominent.

Released: Replika 96–97, 163–170.