1st Edition

The Aesthetics of Videogames

Edited By Jon Robson, Grant Tavinor Copyright 2018
    244 Pages
    by Routledge

    244 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    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

    Biography

    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.

    "The editors deserve praise for bringing together a mix of junior and senior scholars, all of whom write with an accessibility and flair that make this book a pleasure to work through . . . For anyone interested in the philosophy of games in general or of videogames in particular, this volume is absolutely essential reading. It is also an important contribution to the interdisciplinary field of game studies, as well as to aesthetics and the philosophy of art more generally."Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

    "Given the depth of discussion, the book is very accessible, generally describing and discussing the views of sources rather than assuming the reader is already familiar with them . . . Summing Up: Recommended."CHOICE REVIEWS