Beyond Virtual Landscapes: How Video Games Construct Destination Appeal through Visual, Narrative, Cultural, and Ludic Design

Xinrui Li

doi:10.47297/wspciWSP2516-252706.20261004

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Beyond Virtual Landscapes: How Video Games Construct Destination Appeal through Visual, Narrative, Cultural, and Ludic Design

Volume 10, Issue 4

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Beyond Virtual Landscapes: How Video Games Construct Destination Appeal through Visual, Narrative, Cultural, and Ludic Design
Beyond Virtual Landscapes: How Video Games Construct Destination Appeal through Visual, Narrative, Cultural, and Ludic Design
School of Management, Sichuan University of Science & Engineering, Yibin, Sichuan, 643002, China
Vol. 10, Issue 4, Pages: 28-33(2026)
Published：30 August 2026
DOI：10.47297/wspciWSP2516-252706.20261004
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Li Xinrui.Beyond Virtual Landscapes: How Video Games Construct Destination Appeal through Visual, Narrative, Cultural, and Ludic Design[J].Creativity and Innovation,2026,10(04):28-33.
DOI：

Li Xinrui.Beyond Virtual Landscapes: How Video Games Construct Destination Appeal through Visual, Narrative, Cultural, and Ludic Design[J].Creativity and Innovation,2026,10(04):28-33. DOI： 10.47297/wspciWSP2516-252706.20261004.

摘要

Abstract

This study examines how video game design encodes destination-related appeal through a qualitative multimodal analysis of Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. With the game rather than player response as the unit of analysis

it investigates the campaign's visual

narrative

cultural

and ludic organisation. Recurring landmarks and mission routes render Mogadishu recognisable and its routes functionally learnable

while military narrative and repeated traversal attach danger

loss

and conflict memory to place. Cultural details provide local specificity but are largely subordinated to tactical functions

marginalising everyday Somali life. The resulting appeal is therefore ambivalent: the game affords landmark recognition

historical curiosity

and imagined re-enactment without presenting Mogadishu as conventionally attractive or welcoming. The study opens the game-content "black box" in video game-induced tourism research and distinguishes encoded destination affordances from players' actual destination images and travel intentions.

关键词

Keywords

references

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