Over the last decade, computer games have received growing attention from academic fields as diverse as engineering, literary studies, sociology and learning studies. The gamephilosophy initiative aim to broaden the scope of this effort by facilitating discussions dealing with philosophical issues raised by computer games. By doing so, we do not only want to contribute to our understanding of this phenomenon, we also want to contribute to the establishment of a new philosophical discipline, the philosophy of computer games, capable of taking its place alongside such disciplines as the philosophy of film and the philosophy of literature.

The initiative is the result of a seminar held 2005, when Filosofisk Prosjektsenter and the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at University of Oslo, contacted Center for Computer Games Research at the IT-University of Copehagen about organizing a workshop on philosophical problems that arise in games research. Since then, an ever expanding group of partners have been involved in the effort.

The network is still informally organized. The interim steering group has the following members: Olav Asheim, Patrick Coppock, Stephan Günzel, Gordon Calleja, Olli Leino, Anita Leirfall and John Richard Sageng.

The effort is interdisciplinary and the conferences serve as a meeting place for traditional philosophers and scholars from game studies along with many other academic fields.

Advisory board

Stephan Günzel, University of Potsdam
Richard Bartle, University of Essex
Nicolas de Warren, Wellesley College
Edward Spence, Centre for Ethics and Technology, Den Haag
Luciano Floridi, Oxford University
Seth Giddings, University of the West of England
David Myers, Loyola University of New Orleans
Frans Mäyrä, University of Tampere
Kendall Walton, University of Michigan
Ren Reynolds, The Virtual Policy Network