PERSPECTIVE
The Outer Limits
Journeys to the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment
ALEX SPENCER
Imagine, then, how I react when a bystander is shot in-game, spraying my actual face with fluid
The first properly bright day of summer, and I’m agreeing to be locked inside a shipping container. It’s one of three in this Docklands storage yard-cum-rave venue where Darkfield, proprietor of ‘immersive 360-degree audio experiences’, preps them to tour festivals and arts centres across the country. Each container’s corrugated side is marked with an all-caps name: ‘FLIGHT’, ‘SÉANCE’. This one, a hard-edged bitmap font informs me, is ‘ARCADE’. And sure enough, inside – pressed in back-to-back, in neat rows – are two dozen arcade cabinets.