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This collection of essays is devoted to the philosophical examination of the aesthetics of videogames. Videogames represent one of the most significant developments in the modern popular arts, and it is a topic that is attracting much attention among philosophers of art and aestheticians. As a burgeoning medium of artistic expression, videogames raise entirely new aesthetic concerns, particularly concerning their ontology, interactivity, and aesthetic value. The essays in this volume address a number of pressing theoretical issues related to these areas, including but not limited to: the nature of performance and identity in videogames; their status as an interactive form of art; the ethical problems raised by violence in videogames; and the representation of women in videogames and the gaming community. The Aesthetics of Videogames is an important contribution to analytic aesthetics that deals with an important and growing art form.
List of contents
1. Introduction Jon Robson and Grant Tavinor
2. Ontology and Transmedial Games Christopher Bartel
3. Videogames as Neither Video nor Games: A Negative Ontology Brock Rough
4. Videogame Ontology, Constitutive Rules, and Algorithms Shelby Moser
5. Appreciating Videogames Zach Jurgensen
6. The Beautiful Gamer? On the Aesthetics of Videogame Performances Jon Robson
7. Videogames and Creativity Aaron Meskin
8. Interactivity, Fictionality, and Incompleteness Nathan Wildman and Richard Woodward
9. Why Gamers Are Not Narrators Andrew Kania
10. Videogames and Virtual Media Grant Tavinor
11. Videogames and Gendered Invisibility Stephanie Patridge
12. Games and the Moral Transformation of Violence C. Thi Nguyen
13. Videogames and the "Theater of Love" Mark Silcox
14. Pornographic Videogames: a Feminist Examination Mari Mikkola
About the author
Jon Robson is a Teaching Associate at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the co-editor of Aesthetics and the Sciences of the Mind and Co-author of A Critical Introduction to the Metaphysics of Time. He has contributed to the Routledge Companion to Comics.
Grant Tavinor is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Lincoln University, New Zealand. He is the author of The Art of Videogames and has contributed essays to The Routledge Companion to Games Studies and The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics.
Summary
This collection of essays is devoted to the philosophical examination of the aesthetics of videogames. As a burgeoning medium of artistic expression, videogames raise entirely new aesthetic concerns, particularly concerning their ontology, interactivity, and aesthetic value.
