The influence of architectural discourse on video games: A review on the book learning from Las Vegas

Architectural discourse affects many different artistic and technical disciplines as well as architectural practice. This thesis study was conducted to examine the impact of architectural discourse on video games and to create a literature from architectural discourse gains on the concept, story, atmosphere and environmental design of video games which have become one of the largest entertainment sectors in the world today. The architectural discourses examined in the study were handled within the scope of the 20th century as a period. In the thesis, firstly, the definition of architectural discourse is made. Information about the theoretical architectural environment of the 20th century is given. Discourses that have influenced architectural practice in this century, such as the Modern and Post-modern architectural discourses, are explained with their prominent examples. From the second half of the 20th century to the present, the birth of video games, their becoming a sector, the changes they have undergone with technological developments over the years, and the process of inclusion of architectural discourse in video games are explained. Then the 20th century discourses; Early Modern, Modern Rationalism, Brutalism, Architectural Utopias and Post-Modern Period were grouped under five titles, and games that were influenced by the discourses related to these titles were examined. Then the book Learning from Las Vegas, written by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour in 1972, and the symbolic commercial Las Vegas discourse, which is the main teaching of this book, are examined in detail. Eight criteria have been identified that characterize the Las Vegas architectural discourse through the analysis of the book's content. These are; diversity of symbols, mnemonic architectural elements, advertising message and propaganda, focus of speed, location system, front facade, lighting and architectural inconsistency. In the last chapter of the thesis, five video games (Fallout: New Vegas, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Sunset Overdrive, Cyberpunk 2077, Grand Theft Auto V) which have fictional worlds designed with the focus of consumer society and commercial architecture were examined by the criteria determined in the previous chapter. As a result of this examination, it has been seen that the elements that define the commercial symbolic architecture of Las Vegas are used in similar ways in the fictional worlds in the sample group. As a result of this research on the architectures of video games, the main hypothesis of the thesis, the architectural discourse influence on video games has been proven. In the last chapter of the thesis, findings with examples obtained from the comparison of architectural discourses and video games in the study were evaluated.