The Philosophy of Computer Games PDF
Preview The Philosophy of Computer Games
The Philosophy of Computer Games Philosophy of Engineering and Technology VOLUME 7 Editor-in-chief Pieter Vermaas,Delft University ofTechnology, theNetherlands. Editors DavidE. Goldberg,University of IllinoisatUrbana-Champaign, USA. Evan Selinger, Rochester InstituteofTechnology, USA. Ibovan de Poel, DelftUniversity of Technology,theNetherlands. Editorial advisory board Philip Brey,TwenteUniversity, theNetherlands. LouisBucciarelli, Massachusetts InstituteofTechnology, U.S.A. Michael Davis,Illinois InstituteofTechnology, U.S.A. Paul Durbin,University of Delaware,U.S.A. Andrew Feenberg, SimonFraser University,Canada. LucianoFloridi, University ofHertfordshire & University ofOxford,U.K. Jun Fudano,Kanazawa Instituteof Technology,Japan. SvenOve Hansson,Royal InstituteofTechnology, Sweden. VincentF.Hendricks,UniversityofCopenhagen,Denmark&ColumbiaUniversity,U.S.A. Jeroenvan denHoven, Delft University ofTechnology, theNetherlands. DonIhde, StonyBrook University, U.S.A. BillyV.Koen, University of Texas,U.S.A. PeterKroes, DelftUniversity ofTechnology, theNetherlands. SylvainLavelle, ICAM-Polytechnicum, France. Michael Lynch,Cornell University, U.S.A. AnthonieMeijers, EindhovenUniversity of Technology,theNetherlands. SirDuncanMichael, Ove ArupFoundation, U.K. CarlMitcham,Colorado Schoolof Mines,U.S.A. HelenNissenbaum, NewYork University, U.S.A. AlfredNordmann,Technische Universita¨tDarmstadt,Germany. Joseph Pitt,VirginiaTech,U.S.A. Daniel Sarewitz, ArizonaState University, U.S.A. JonA.Schmidt, Burns &McDonnell, U.S.A. Peter Simons,Trinity CollegeDublin,Ireland. JohnWeckert, CharlesSturt University, Australia. For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/8657 John Richard Sageng Hallvard Fossheim l Tarjei Mandt Larsen Editors The Philosophy of Computer Games Editors JohnRichardSageng HallvardFossheim Affiliate Director DepartmentofPhilosophy, TheNorwegianNationalResearch Classics,HistoryofArtandIdeas EthicalCommitteeforTheSocial Oslo,Norway SciencesandHumanities Oslo,Norway TarjeiMandtLarsen AssociateProfessor UiSBusinessSchool UniversityofStavanger Stavanger,Norway ISSN1879-7202 ISSN1879-7210(electronic) ISBN978-94-007-4248-2 ISBN978-94-007-4249-9(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-94-007-4249-9 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergNewYorkLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2012940737 #SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2012 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthe materialisconcerned,specificallythe rights oftranslation,reprinting, reuse ofillustrations,recitation, broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerptsinconnection withreviewsorscholarlyanalysisormaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeingenteredand executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publicationorpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheCopyrightLawofthePublisher’s location,initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.Permissions forusemaybeobtainedthroughRightsLinkattheCopyrightClearanceCenter.Violationsareliableto prosecutionundertherespectiveCopyrightLaw. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Whiletheadviceandinformationinthisbookarebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication, neithertheauthorsnortheeditorsnorthepublishercanacceptanylegalresponsibilityforanyerrorsor omissionsthatmaybemade.Thepublishermakesnowarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothe materialcontainedherein. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Preface Thisbookistheresultofinterdisciplinaryworkdoneonphilosophicalissuesraised bycomputergamesoverthelastfewyears. In2005,agroupofNorwegianphilosopherscontactedtheCenterforComputer Games Research atthe IT-UniversityinCopenhagen,with aview toorganizing a seminar on ontological issues in computer games. The seminar was a success, and from then on a network of philosophers and game theorists emerged as new events were organized in Reggio Emilia, Potsdam, Oslo, Athens and Madrid. (cf.www.gamephilosophy.org). It is remarkable that a phenomenon that has had such significant impact on human culture has not been studied for its philosophical implications to a greater degreethanhassofarbeenthecase.Wehopethepresentcollectionofessaysserves to give an impression of the kind of work that can be done, and, perhaps most importantly,toprovideastartingpointforfurtherdiscussionsinthefuture. Working on this volume has been a joyful, but also a long and demanding, process. We are grateful for the authors’ willingness to contribute, and for their patiencewith ournever endingstream ofqueries anddemands. Thecontributions to this volume have been selected on the basis of blind peer review. We would like to thank the board of reviewers, and Maja S.M. de Keijzer at Springer, who conductedthereviewprocess. JohnRichardSageng HallvardFossheim TarjeiMandtLarsen v Contents 1 GeneralIntroduction.................................................... 1 JohnRichardSageng,HallvardFossheim,andTarjeiMandtLarsen PartI PlayersandPlay 2 IntroductiontoPartI:PlayersandPlay.............................. 11 TarjeiMandtLarsen 3 EntertheAvatar:ThePhenomenologyofProsthetic TelepresenceinComputerGames ..................................... 17 RuneKlevjer 4 ComputerGamesandEmotions....................................... 39 PetriLankoski 5 UntanglingGameplay:AnAccountofExperience, ActivityandMaterialityWithinComputerGamePlay.............. 57 OlliTapioLeino 6 ErasingtheMagicCircle ............................................... 77 GordonCalleja PartII EthicsandPlay 7 IntroductiontoPartII:EthicsandPlay............................... 95 HallvardFossheim 8 DigitalGamesasEthicalTechnologies................................ 101 MiguelSicart 9 VirtualRape,RealDignity:Meta-EthicsforVirtualWorlds ....... 125 EdwardH.Spence vii viii Contents 10 EthicsandPracticeinVirtualWorlds................................. 143 RenReynolds 11 TheEthicsofComputerGames:ACharacterApproach............ 159 AdamBriggle PartIII GamesandGameworlds 12 IntroductiontoPartIII:GamesandGameworlds................... 177 JohnRichardSageng 13 VideogamesandFictionalism........................................... 185 GrantTavinor 14 FictionandFictionalWorldsinVideogames.......................... 201 AaronMeskinandJonRobson 15 In-GameAction.......................................................... 219 JohnRichardSageng 16 Reality,Pretense,andtheLudicParenthesis ......................... 233 OlavAsheim 17 AreComputerGamesReal?............................................ 259 PatrickCoppock Index........................................................................... 279 Chapter 1 General Introduction JohnRichardSageng,HallvardFossheim,andTarjeiMandtLarsen Over the last decade, computer games have received growing attention from academic fields as diverse as engineering, literary studies, sociology and learning studies.Inthisbook,weaimtobroadenthescopeofthiseffortbybringingtogether essays dealing with philosophical issues raised by computer games. By doing so, we do not only want to contribute to the understanding of this phenomenon. We also wish tocontribute to the establishment ofa new philosophicaldiscipline, the philosophy of computer games, capable of taking its place alongside such disciplinesasthephilosophyoffilmandthephilosophyofliterature. Theacademicinterestincomputergamesreflectstheirrapidlyincreasingcultural importance.Economically, they have insome respects overtakentraditionalmedia like film ortelevision. Several online multiplayer versionsofcomputer gameslike WorldofWarcraft(2004)orHappyFarm(2008)havetensofmillionsofplayers,and somegameworldshaverealeconomiesthesizeofsmallcountries(Castronova2001). Within certain age groups, many are likely to use more of their time on computer games than on television or films. The stereotype of computer games constituting the pastime only of adolescent boys is outdated, as players have diversified into differentsegmentsofthepopulation.Accordingtoarecentsurvey,theaverageage ofplayersintheUnitedStatesis34,while26%ofplayersareover50,with40%of theplayersbeingwomen(EntertainmentSoftwareAssociation2010). J.R.Sageng(*) DepartmentofPhilosophy,Classics,HistoryofArtandIdeas,UniversityofOslo, e-mail:johnrs@ifikk.uio.no H.Fossheim TheNorwegianNationalResearchEthicalCommitteeforTheSocialSciencesandHumanities, Prinsensgate18,PB522Sentrum,0105Oslo,Norway e-mail:hallvard.fossheim@ifikk.uio.no T.M.Larsen UiSBusinessSchool,UniversityofStavanger,4036Stavanger,Norway e-mail:[email protected] J.R.Sagengetal.(eds.),ThePhilosophyofComputerGames, 1 PhilosophyofEngineeringandTechnology7,DOI10.1007/978-94-007-4249-9_1, #SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2012
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