‘Language, Ethics, & Fiction’ seminar, with the patronage of LEMMings. In collaboration with PhilTech.
Enrico Terrone (University of Genoa), “To Live and Die in Video Games”
Joint work with Louis Rouillé (LanCog, University of Lisbon)
Abstract: Life and death in a virtual world is manifestly different from real life and death. Indeed, it is even puzzling to explicitly unpack the death and rebirth mechanics that is so typical of many video games: should we say that Super Mario re-incarnates after being hit by an anvil? And if he does not have multiple lives in his world, what is all this talk about Mario dying and living? An intuitive way out of this puzzle consists in holding that talk of life and death in video games is a metaphorical way of talking about success and failure in the real world. However, we argue, this simple metaphorical meaning of virtual death meets several objections. By contrast, we hold that virtual death points to a three-layered informational model for video games: we identify a third, structured layer of representation, i.e. the fictional periphery, that mediates the real-world rules and the avatar’s virtual actions; the periphery crucially carries content (guidance, warnings, counters) which is integral to play. This periphery model explains life and death in video games as modal notions: the life counter registers fictional deeds in a rule-governed format and makes visible modal resources for branch exploration.
The seminar will be held in a hybrid mode, in person (Sala Martinetti, Via Festa del Perdono 7, Dipartimento di Filosofia “Piero Martinetti”) and online (Microsoft Teams). All are welcome!
Please, register here.
Organisers: Elisa Paganini and Laura Caponetto.
For any further information, feel free to contact Laura Caponetto at laura.caponetto1@unimi.it
