i have always been fascinated by the idea of virtual spaces, 3d ones in particular
games like doom create 3d spaces that exist only as 1s and 0s, but our credulous brains grant them the benefit of the doubt, interacting with these spaces as if they were real
a single hard drive can contain countless square miles of these virtual places. untold expanses
as time goes by fewer and fewer people visit, until places that may have been bustling once are akin to forgotten ghost towns
we create more and more of these spaces every year. there are so many to explore. so many sights to see
i remember the ones that strike me, as if it was a place i'd really been
@alyx i relate to this hugely and, as a very 'place-focused' person, it's the no.1 emotional connection i have with video games
@jk it's be interesting to compare notes sometime
i have very concrete "conceptions" of places in my brain that are formed on first visit. kind of a way i look at things re: physical orientation of the place vs. its surroundings. i will think, "this is north" (it may or may not be) and that affects how i see everything surrounding.
or like, going UP this hill feels THIS way. going DOWN this hill feels THAT way. some day i may prefer going one way or the other just due to that feeling.
it's really hard to put into words, or even understand it myself
@alyx yes, i'm totally like this! also, i often have a strong sense of being in a 'place i know' even when it's somewhere i've never been, and i have to really think about why i feel that way, until i realise there's some characteristic of the layout or topology or arrangement of things (furniture, doors, roads, buildings) that's the same as a familiar place