Mathias Fuchs is Professor at the Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. An artist as well as media scholar, Fuchs pioneered the artistic use of computer games and has exhibited work at ISEA, SIGGRAPH and the Millennium Dome. He is the editor of Diversity of Play (2015) and co-editor of Rethinking Gamification (2014).

• Phantasmal Spaces: Introduction1. The RoadRoad Movies, Photography, Edward Hopper’s RoadsDriving Games and Driving Game InterfacesPsychology of DrivingTransmedia Road Phantasms2. The RuinPainting DecayDigital DustSigmund Freud’s Death Drive and the Opponents ThereofS.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Tarkovsky’s Wastelands3. The CaveCave MenUnreal Tournament Design Philosophy, Boolean SubtractionsFrightened to DeathC-movies4. The CloudThe Beauty of Clouds and Industrial SteamCloud RenderingHead in the Clouds: DaydreamingTransmedia Cloud Formations5. The CliffRunning and FallingPhysics EnginesPsychology of Risk TakingLeaping from One Medium to Another6. The ForestNibelungen ForestsTree-GeneratorsThe UncannyTale of Tale of Tales7. The PortalDoors, Gateways, PassagesWarp ZonesRites of PassageDoors in Transmedia Spacetelling8. The IslandYou are Alone!Chiselling Mountains – Fetching Pretty SunrisesReally Alone!!!Robinson CrusoeAtmospheric Places: ConclusionReferencesLudographyIndex

Mathias Fuchs ventures into a fascinating range of art-historical, literary, film and philosophical references to analyse the function of archetypal experiences of various spatial environments commonly found in computer games.