Issue 07: The Great Outdoors

The Great Outdoors

EAGLE HUNTERS ON THE KAZAKH STEPPE, THOREAU’S POND REBUILT IN CODE, THE CHERNOBYL EXCLUSION ZONE TURNED PROXY CITY, AND ONE MAN WHO WALKED EAST IN MINECRAFT FOR FIFTY-EIGHT DAYS.

Editor's Letter: The Great Outdoors

Ken Burns told me games will always be abstractions. This issue is the argument back.

The Desert of the Real

Games look more lifelike than ever, but they rarely feel like it. Why copying nature isn’t enough.

A vast concrete structure curves overhead against a bright cloudy sky, photographed inside the game Rage.

Photo Bomb

A new generation of photographers is exploring the vast unknowns of your favorite games

An orangutan reaches a hand through the bars of an enclosure toward a researcher holding a touchscreen device.

Do Orangutans Dream of Electric Bananas?

A conversation with the game designer who is teaching more great apes to play.

A grey infographic radiating from a central virus, linking catapults, rats, fleas, lungs and a covered wagon.

Cabin Fever

How historical pandemics have spawned the most infectious trope of indoor games and given players the best reason to stay inside.

An astronaut aboard the space station grins behind a floating sphere of water that magnifies his face.

You Come Back, But You're Never the Same

A meditation on playing in zero-gravity.

A small orange cabin under a bare tree, both dissolving into green and yellow pixels.

The Life He Imagined

Henry David Thoreau is our national prophet of nature and simple living. Can a videogame capture his spirit?

A floodlit soccer stadium at dusk, smoke plumes rising from the stands beyond the corner flag.

Pitch Perfect

Playing FIFA doesn’t feel like TV, and it doesn’t feel like a live match. Here’s why it feels just right.

The World is Flat

One man’s journey to the end of Minecraft.

A lone horseman crosses an open Mongolian steppe under a wide blue sky as a bird circles overhead.

Eagle Scouts

The last game on Earth with the horsemen of Kazakhstan.

A watercolor of a pink lowrider crashed on a hillside, a shopping cart tumbling through the air above it.

Myths and Modders

Meet the Bigfoot Hunters of San Andreas.

For Kong and Country

Why your favorite SNES title was a love letter to the highs and lows of the English countryside.

A stylized figure in uniform leans over a table, drawing on a large sheet of paper with a ruler.

Making, Believe

Security specialist Eleanor Saitta tinkers with Burning Man, Nordic larp, war games, and prototyping the future.

A painted portrait of composer Gustavo Santaolalla emerging from a dark red background.

Beautiful Apocalypse

Composer Gustavo Santaolalla scores the end of man.

The Play After Tomorrow

What will our consoles do without us?

Dense grass and foliage in a dark forest clearing lit by a low sun, from the game Miasmata.

Lost in Plain Sight

Miasmata makes survival a real concern.

A flat illustration of a climbing wall's angled panels studded with colorful holds and a green rope.

Get a Grip

Hidden life lessons in digital rock walls.

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty coiling out into the pale shallows of the Great Salt Lake.

Earth-Bound

What do video games and 20th century contemporary art have in common? Simple: Roller Coaster Tycoon.

The Architect's Dream

An ambitious project with UN Habitat and Minecraft studio Mojang seeks to change the face of public architecture around the world. Will it work?

The Chernobyl reactor building seen across an overgrown field, a figure in camouflage in the foreground.

Chernobyl Stalks

Two decades after the reactor blew, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans slip past the checkpoints to play the game in the real ruins, and the guards chase them for sport.