De Principiis Video Venatus

If you return from the beachside Light-Hearted Philosophers Conference seeking another way to avoid using philosophy to solve more pressing ethical problems, consider the 6th International Conference On the Philosophy of Computer Games , to be held in Madrid in January. The conference is looking for papers that treat the always-relevant questions of “time in computer game play” and “emotions and player experience,” but not to the exclusion of “methodological and epistemological considerations on studying player experience.”

While a conference on the philosophical analysis of humor might have its redeeming qualities, it is harder to see why studying the experiential and philosophical implications of non-reality is helpful. Since there are over 190 million households with next-generation video game consoles, and a majority of excessively violent games sold, a conference of philosophers studying the cultural and moral outcome of immoderate amounts of violent game-play, on the other hand, really might be worthwhile.