Introduction to digital tourism about:reader?url=https://www.roughguides.com/articles/introduction-to...

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Introduction to digital tourism

6-8 minutes

Have you ever watched a TV advert for a new computer game and
struggled to tell the difference between the gameplay graphics and
real life?

Continue reading to find out more about...

If your answer is yes, then you could well be onto something.

Thanks to recent mind-bending developments in software modelling
and in-game design, the digital worlds of today’s games have
become so detailed, realistic and vast that an exciting new trend
has emerged: digital tourism.

What is digital tourism?

Digital tourism allows “travellers” to recreate all the experiences

and feelings of real world exploration, with the small difference that
each epic voyage takes place in a digital dimension. It is the
crossover between tourism as we know it – or have known it – and
gaming. Because over time, the once obvious boundaries between
what is “real” and what isn’t have been gradually eroded by
developments in technology. These changes have given rise to a
brave new world – one that is freed from the laws we are familiar
with and is defined by endless possibilities. The thrill you get when
you step off a plane or the buzz of exploring somewhere completely
new are no longer the exclusive preserve of well-heeled
holidaymakers. Instead, digital tourism offers a groundbreaking and
thrilling new way to travel.

More and more gamers are choosing to go off the beaten track,
becoming fully immersed in their virtual worlds. From the dense
overgrown jungle and epic temples of Shadow of the Tomb Raider
and the vast open expanses of Metro Exodus’s former Russian
Federation to the otherworldly, volatile planet of Anthem and the
futuristic, war-torn Halo 5: Guardians, digital tourism caters for all
types of travellers.

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Tyrant Mine, Anthem

Reality as we know it happens in a flash – and a big part of what

makes an experience seem “real” is how we feel, experience and
remember it. Thanks to technological constraints, video games
have not been able to get close to replicating a “real” experience.
Until now. Virtual reality and other ground-breaking technologies
are driving force behind this change. Now that gamers are starting
to experience similar feelings in the virtual world to ones they
undergo in the “real” world, who’s to say what’s real and what isn’t?

Why not just go there in real life?

Part of the appeal of digital tourism is its ready availability. Granted,

consoles and games aren’t cheap these days, but neither are flights
and hotels. You can engage in digital tourism from the comfort of
your own living room, you don’t have to take time off work, get any
vaccinations or visas, or deal with any other tiresome travel-related
admin – and it’s environmentally friendly too.

There’s also the social factor. Okay, so you don’t meet the people
you are gaming with face-to-face, but you can talk to gamers from
all over the globe whilst exploring a faraway new world together.
Technology has come a long way since the days of dial-up
modems and painfully slow internet connections.

But digital tourism is not all about convenience and cost. Due to the
variety of games and the vastness of the worlds within, digital
tourism provides gamers with a unique chance to have a truly
bespoke travel experience. Imagine being able to travel the world –
and in some cases entirely new planets – without having to leave
your own living room. That’s what digital tourism is all about and
why it’s so popular. With so many worlds to choose from, digital
tourism offers the user more choice than the real world does, where
fantasies run really, really wild.

In-game photography

Digital tourism has become so popular that sub-trends have begun

to emerge, such as in-game photography. Travel and photography
have always been closely linked – if you don’t have a picture of you
standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, did you even go? This
relationship, coupled with the huge variety of digital landscapes and
the new opportunities presented by them, helps to explain why
gamers are taking in-game screengrabs to document their digital
travels.

In fact, in-game photography is becoming something of an art form:

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there are dedicated Instagram accounts and even gallery

exhibitions documenting some of the world’s finest in-game snaps.
Duncan Harris, who goes by the name Dead End Thrills, is one of
the best-known in-game photographers around. He has been
“photographing” game scenes for more than ten years, from epic
abstract vistas to up-close-and-personal portraits.

Of course, this trend in particular begs the question, are these in-
game screen grabs actually photographs? Not in the traditional
sense of the word, as they are essentially capturing images of the
work done by the game’s developers and designers. However,
traditions, words and technologies are all changing, and there is a
strong case that they do constitute art. After all, in-game
photographers have the same motivation as real-world
photographers: to document a moment in time, capture striking
images of landmarks and to preserve memories. In-game
photography is another example of how technology is changing the
way we perceive and experience the world.

Find out more

Rough Guides have partnered with Xbox to produce The Rough

Guide to Xbox, a pioneering new guide that embraces digital
tourism. The guide documents and explores the in-game worlds of
eight Xbox One X Enhanced games: Forza Horizon 4, Sea of
Thieves, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, Shadow of the Tomb
Raider, Anthem, Halo 5: Guardians, Metro Exodus and
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Using Rough Guides’ unique “tell it
like it is” ethos and user-friendly format, the guide features maps for
each game, along with in-game photography and other useful
features, helping to bring each virtual world to life for the reader.

Noctus, Halo 5: Guardians

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created 20/10/2020

updated 20/10/2020

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