While it is important to acknowledge that contemporary Games Studies scholarship has moved beyond analysis of triple-A titles towards new developments in areas like indie gaming and ownership (see Lipkin, 2013 Parker et al., 2018, for example), gender politics ( Fisher and Harvey, 2013), fan studies and modding communities ( Stanfill, 2019), our return to triple-A titles is useful for two reasons. The first is a top-down set of rules implemented by planners, designers and, in this case, software developers the second is symbolic space, experienced through signs and symbols the third can be understood as a bottom-up set of initiatives and directions made by the inhabitants of a space. 266) and he develops a set of tools not to categorise, but to decode social spaces – his ‘spatial triad’ ( Lefebvre, 1991) – which includes conceived space, lived space and perceived space. Lefebvre (1991) tells us that ‘social space multifaceted: abstract and practical, immediate and mediated’ (p. Research using Lefebvre and video games to date has been almost exclusively theoretical, so following Murphy’s (2004: 228 emphasis added) assertion that ‘questions of how gamers identify while playing a game are incredibly complicated’, we offer an empirical test of players’ interactions in the game space of RDR2, which are explored in order to understand how ‘gamer identification sutures the gamer to the game’ ( Murphy, 2004: 235). In utilising The Right to the Virtual City and our players’ tendency to retreat into the wild spaces of our case study game, Red Dead Redemption 2, we evoke the same alienating forces of commodification and capitalism to which Lefebvre spoke, positioning open-world video games as both contested spatial experiences and opportunities to challenge spatialised inequalities. We use qualitative gameplay data ( n = 15), unpacking players’ journeys through Lefebvre’s conceived, lived and perceived spaces, to show, respectively, how open-world games can be (1) fundamentally about space, (2) spaces interconnected with the non-virtual world and (3) disruptive spatial experiences. This article uses Lefebvre’s spatial triad and his concept of The Right to the City to categorise open-world video games as contested virtual spatial experiences, interconnected with the non-virtual spaces in which they are produced and played and replete with the same spatial, capital forces of alienation to be negotiated and maintained. All subjects Allied Health Cardiology & Cardiovascular Medicine Dentistry Emergency Medicine & Critical Care Endocrinology & Metabolism Environmental Science General Medicine Geriatrics Infectious Diseases Medico-legal Neurology Nursing Nutrition Obstetrics & Gynecology Oncology Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine Otolaryngology Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care Pediatrics Pharmacology & Toxicology Psychiatry & Psychology Public Health Pulmonary & Respiratory Medicine Radiology Research Methods & Evaluation Rheumatology Surgery Tropical Medicine Veterinary Medicine Cell Biology Clinical Biochemistry Environmental Science Life Sciences Neuroscience Pharmacology & Toxicology Biomedical Engineering Engineering & Computing Environmental Engineering Materials Science Anthropology & Archaeology Communication & Media Studies Criminology & Criminal Justice Cultural Studies Economics & Development Education Environmental Studies Ethnic Studies Family Studies Gender Studies Geography Gerontology & Aging Group Studies History Information Science Interpersonal Violence Language & Linguistics Law Management & Organization Studies Marketing & Hospitality Music Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution Philosophy Politics & International Relations Psychoanalysis Psychology & Counseling Public Administration Regional Studies Religion Research Methods & Evaluation Science & Society Studies Social Work & Social Policy Sociology Special Education Urban Studies & Planning BROWSE JOURNALS
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