Christopher Bartel is a Professor of Philosophy at Appalachian State University whose research interests include aesthetics and ethics. He is the author of Video Games, Violence, and the Ethics of Fantasy: Killing Time, which addresses the question: is it ever morally wrong to enjoy fantasizing about immoral things? He's working on an upcoming book, Aesthetics and Video Games. Chris and I had a long-ranging conversation about player and designer ethics in video games, the purpose of art and what moral considerations there are for open-world games.
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Substack: https://gameoflifepod.substack.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophdeng
Email: golifepod@gmail.com
"Game of Life Podcast" is produced by Sophia Deng; visuals by Alonzo Felix; music is from Anchor.
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Timestamps
(0:52) Chris's background
(06:49) Violence in video games
(20:36) Ethical considerations for video game designers
(25:10) Why we find video games aesthetically engaging
(27:52) Quick fire round: Metaverse, open-world games, avatars
(31:19) Takeaways from Chris's class, Philosophy and Video Games
(35:03) 2 final questions
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Chris's recommendations
Games: Agency as Art by C. Thi Nguyen
Half-Real by Jesper Juul
The Art of Failure by Jesper Juul
