The Philosophy of Computer Games
An Interdisciplinary Conference
25-27 January 2007
http//game.unimore.it
Recording of the event 

Conference Aims

The purpose of the conference is to initiate an investigation into how current research on computer games touches upon philosophical issues. In line with this purpose, the conference is interdisciplinary, drawing together researchers from very diverse fields: philosophy, computer game-theory, semiotics, aesthetics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology.

The conference is a collaboration between the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo; the Center for Computer Game Research at the IT-University of Copenhagen; Department of Social, Cognitive and Quantitative Science at the University of Modena/Reggio Emilia and the Philosophical Project Centre (FPS), Oslo.

The conference is the second international instalment of The Third Place, an ongoing project on philosophical problems arising from the increasing cultural/societal significance of computer games. The first instalment of the project, the conference “The Third Place: Computer Games and Our Conception of the Real”, was a shared initiative of FPS in Oslo and the Center for Computer Game Research at the IT-University of Copenhagen. That conference took place at the IT-University of Copenhagen on May 20-21, 2005.

Programme
 
Thursday 25th
COMPUTER GAME ENTITIES
 
10.00    Registration
 
11.00    Introduction
 
11.10    Fictional, Simulated, Real: Towards an Ontology of Game Objects
              Professor Espen Aarseth, Center for Computer Games Research,  IT University of  Copenhagen, Denmark
 
12.00    Lunch
 
13.30    The Reality of Game Objects
               Ph.d. candidate John Richard Sageng, University of Oslo, Norway
 
14.00    Gaming as an Aide to Metaphysical Speculation
               Richard Clarkson
 
14.30    The Temporality of Gaming
               Associate professor Hallvard Fossheim, University of Oslo, Norway
 
15.00    Break
 
16.00    Is our Actual  World Interactive: Some Philosophical Reflections about Videogaming and Life
              Ph.d. candidate Dario Compagno, University of Siena, Italy
 
16.30    The Ludic Parenthesis
              Professor Olav Asheim, University of Oslo, Norway
 
 
Friday 26th
PLAYER EXPERIENCE
 
 
10.00    Videogames, Fiction, and Reality
               Visiting Assistant Professor Jonathan Frome, School of Film and Digital Media, University of Central Florida, USA
 
10.30    On The Phenomenology of Virtual Worlds
               Ph.d. candidate Tarjei Mandt Larsen, University of Tromsø, Norway
 
11.00    The Irreducible Self. Pictorial Studies of First Person Perspective Computer Games
               Dr. Stephan Guenzel, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany
 
11.30    Visual Perception, Motor Action, and the Video Game Experience
               Assistant Professor Ole Ertloev Hansen, VR Media Lab,  Aalborg Universitet, Denmark
 
12.00    Lunch
 
13.30    Goals, Affects, and Empathy in Games
               Research Assistant Petri Lankoski, Media Lab, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
 
14.00    Feeling So Real – a Phenomenological Exploration of the Realities of Emotions in Play
              Olli Leino, Researcher, Dr. of Art candidate, Faculty of Art & Design, Dept. of Media, University of Lapland, Finland.
 
14.30   Ludic Reality: a construct for analysing meaning-mapping and epistemology in play
             Dan Pinchbeck,
 
15.00   Break
 
16.00    Virtual Consciousness and the Imaginary: A Phenomenological Sketch
              Assistant Professor Nicolas De Warren, Wellesley College, UK
 
16.30    Spatial Orientation Without Objects
              Ph.d. candidate Anita Leirfall, University of Oslo. Norway
 
17.00    My Space: Player, Perception and Reality in "Animal Crossing"
              Hanna K. Sommerseth, Graduate School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland
 
17.30    Playing Dress-Up: Costumes, roleplay and imagination
               Ludica: Janine Fron, Independent Artist/Designer, Tracy Fullerton, University of Southern California, Jacquelyn Ford Morie,
               University of Southern California, Celia Pearce, Georgia Institute of Technology (presenter)
 
 
Saturday 27th
THE ETHICS OF COMPUTER GAMES
 
10.00    Gamers and the Good Life
               Adam R. Briggle, The VICI Research Project: The Evaluation of the Cultural Quality  of New Media, Department of Philosophy,  University of Twente, Netherlands
 
10.30    Computer Games and Reality: Transworld Identities
               Patrick Coppock, Researcher, Department of Social, Cognitive and Quantitative Science, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
 
11.00    Virtual Ethics: The Ethics of Virtual Worlds
               Edward H. Spence, The VICI Research Project: The Evaluation of the Cultural Quality of New Media, Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, Netherlands
 
11.30    Targeting the Kids: Computer Games as War Propaganda
               Rune Ottosen, Oslo University College, Norway
 
12.00    Lunch
 
13.30    Severe Pain or Suffering: Videogames, Morality and Torture
               Peter Rauch           
 
14.00    Ethics and Practice in Virtual Worlds
               Ren Reynolds
 
14.30    Instrumentalism and the Ethics of Videogame Play: The Tactical Iraqi Controversy
              Writing Director Elizabeth Losh, University of California, USA
 
15.00-16.00  Closing Session