Games as Ontology Engines: AI and LLMs Invoke Spatiotemporal and Metaphysical Realities in Virtual Worlds

Contrary to common perception, games are not solely sources of entertainment; they are powerful mediums for modeling and communicating complex relationships. By design, games are composable systems for representing and manipulating interactions, especially the spatiotemporal. Historically, these interactions have been based around causal chains, which determine the sequencing of player actions and outcomes. In this paper, we repurpose games as ‘ontology engines,’ generating new metaphysical relationships and providing tools for experimenting with them. We explore how virtual worlds supported by large language models (LLMs) and real-time object-transformation systems can serve as frameworks for examining both culturally situated and universally recognizable ontologies.