What is it like to be a (digital) bat?

Could a person ever transcend what it is like to experience and understand the world as a human being? Could humans ever know what it is like to be another entity? In the last century, similar questions about human subjectivity have often been raised within the context of post-metaphysical thinking. In particular, the ones presented at the beginning of this paragraph were tackled from the perspective of philosophy of mind by Thomas Nagel in his 1974 essay What is it Like to Be a Bat? Nagel’s reflections and answers to those interrogatives were elaborated before the diffusion of computers and could not anticipate the cultural impact of a technology capable of disclosing interactive and persistent experiences of virtual worlds as well as virtual alternatives to the ‘self’. This paper utilizes the observations, the theoretical insights and hypothetical suggestions offered in What is it Like to Be a Bat? and Martin Heidegger’s framework for a philosophical understanding of technology as its theoretical springboards. The scope of my reflection is precisely that of assessing the potential of interactive digital media for transcending human subjectivity. The chosen theoretical perspectives lead to the preliminary conclusion that, even if there is no way of either mapping or reproducing the consciousness of a real bat, interactive digital technology can grant access to experiences and even systems of perception that were inaccessible to humans prior to the advent of computers. In this context, Heidegger’s analysis of Dasein is employed in order to define in which specific ways the experience of virtual worlds enables humans to experience and understand previously unattainable aspects of reality. What is it Like to Be a (Digital) Bat? proposes a modal realist perspective, where digital media content is recognized as having an expanding and fragmenting influence on ontology. At a higher level of abstraction, this paper advocates the use of digital technology as a medium for testing, developing and disseminating philosophical notions which is alternative to the traditional textual one. Presented as virtual experiences, philosophical concepts cannot only be accessed without the mediation of subjective imagination, but take an entirely new projective dimension which I propose to call ‘augmented ontology’.peer-reviewe

Self-transformation through game design

This paper presents the results of a pioneering, experimental study that tracked certain psychological and behavioural changes in a group of game designers during the development of their serious games. The study was conducted with the help of the Behavioural Science Institute of Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) and focused on implicit attitudes: psychological assessments that take place without one’s conscious awareness. With the goal of validating the idea of game design as a self-fashioning activity, we observed the implicit attitude towards sugary and fatty foods of a group of master’s students in game design at the University of Malta. As part of their coursework, and mentored by a researcher in behavioural psychology, the students were asked to conceptualize, design, and develop small videogames that aimed at changing the implicit psychological assessment of unhealthy food of their players over a five-month period. Taking overweight European teenagers who are regularly followed by a dietician as their target audience, the principal task of the designers was that of translating behavioural psychology methods to change people’s implicit attitudes concerning sugary and fatty food into game design decisions on the basis of the existing literature in the field. The designers’ own weight, their dietary habits, and their implicit attitude towards food were measured before being briefed about their design task and were eventually measured again, five months later, upon the delivery of their finished, serious game. Although changes in the students’ weight did not show large variations on average, their implicit attitude towards sugary and fatty foods (the psychological evaluation the games they designed aimed to correct) changed in the direction of a healthier dietary approach. These transformations are suggestive of a trend that could confirm our hypothesis: game design might indeed be a transformative experience that changes the designers through cognitive elaboration and self-persuasion in ways that are analogous to the changes that they intended to cause in the players.peer-reviewe

Freer than we think

The purpose of this paper is that of exploring and framing what is – in my opinion – a quality of the process of game design that was largely overlooked by academia: its capability to function as a liberation practice. In pursuing this goal, this text will present arguments and observations that build on two fundamental beliefs: an understanding of ‘play’ as a transformative practice (section 1), and the embracing of the practice of design as a ‘technique of the self’ (section 2). Proceeding from those premises, a synthetic claim on (game) design as a way of practicing freedom will be offered in the concluding section of this paper (section 3).peer-reviewe

Issues for consideration to adopt educational computer games for learning and teaching

Computer games have started to gain attention in the domain of learning and teaching. The integration of computer games for education in the classroom has starting to gain acceptance in some countries. However, for schools which have never used computer games in the classroom, study still need to be conducted to investigate the teachers' belief and attitude toward the usage. The purpose of this paper is to examine issues for consideration when adopting educational computer games for learning and teaching. This paper also examines the concepts that related to educational computer games and aspects of learning and teaching. In addition, the theories of technology acceptance which use to assess the perception, belief and attitude of teachers and students have also been investigated

Effective Affective User Interface Design in Games

It is proposed that games, which are designed to generate positive affect, are most successful when they facilitate flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1992). Flow is a state of concentration, deep enjoyment, and total absorption in an activity. The study of games, and a resulting understanding of flow in games can inform the design of nonleisure software for positive affect. The paper considers the ways in which computer games contravene Nielsen’s guidelines for heuristic evaluation (Nielsen and Molich 1990) and how these contraventions impact on flow. The paper also explores the implications for research that stem from the differences between games played on a personal computer and games played on a dedicated console. This research takes important initial steps towards defining how flow in computer games can inform affective design

On the ontological status of musical actions in digital games

This paper aims to discuss the ontological status of digital game players’ musical activities. Although in specific cases digital game play appears to be comparable to other musical forms of actions, for instance in the case of so-called music games, its complexities make for a variety of challenging cases. In fact, digital games engage with musical content in widely different ways, often affording players the possibility to interact with music. Popular examples of that are music games such as the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, in which players act in musical performances that have been defined as schizophonic (Miller, 2009, 2012). In these cases, original compositions and ad-hoc peripherals are provided to mimic emblematic musical actions of rock performers. However, digital games that are arguably not primarily focused on music seem to involve degrees of musical action, too. For example, player’s activities affect the playback of music compositions in the cases of dynamic and adaptive music (Collins, 2008), commonly present in very different digital game genres. Moreover, it has been observed that procedural music “evolves in real time according to specific sets of rules” (Collins, 2009) in reaction to player’s inputs, further complicating the musical status of player’s actions. A similar occurrence has been noted in relation to the notion of diegesis. Imported from film studies, diegesis has been adapted in different ways to digital games. This has brought to analyses of players’ action in relation to their diegetic placement (Collins, 2008; Grimshaw & Schott, 2007; Jørgensen, 2007). For instance, a player can act within the diegetic space following extradiegetic musical cues such as “background music”, short-circuiting the clear cut distinction of diegetic space (Jørgensen, 2007). According to these diverse examples, player’s actions have often meaning in a musical sense. Players, willingly or less so, control parts of musical content, juxtaposing them during gameplay. What are the musical actions of players? What is the ontological status of such interactions? In other words, what is the relationship in between digital game players musical activities and those of instrumentalists, conductors, listeners, or any other kind of musical performer? To answer these questions, this paper will look into resources ranging from philosophy of music, to musicology and ethnomusicology. In fact, the analysis of musical action is already well debated within these fields. Several key references in this regard consider musical actions, such as improvisation, as an under-researched kind of musical activities, with the bulk of attention mostly devoted to analyses of musical works. As such, the dichotomy in between musical work and music-as-action assumes central role. According to Alperson, “Anglophone philosophy of music [...] has seen music as an aesthetic practice centered on the creation of objects - musical works of art” (2018). His concern is clearly shared by Small, who criticise musicology for its tendency to equal “music” with “musical work” (1998). Instead, he argues that music should be understood as a range of activities: "to music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance (composing), or by dancing" (Small, 1998). These actions, and more, are to be considered “musicking”. This paper therefore argues that digital game players often act in ways that are musically meaningful, whether the musical action in question is more or less self-standing (such as in music games) or it is connected to other in-game actions. The concept of “playing” - ideally, the quintessential action of the game player - has already been considered as a broad umbrella term, which cannot accurately describe the diverse actions players perform, such as labor-like activities (Calleja, 2011). This paper explores the musical side of the spectrum of actions afforded by digital games, by providing an initial overview of the musical facets of game playing. To do that, the paper inscribes the ontological status of digital game playing within the ongoing research on musicking and musical performancespeer-reviewe

Situated knowledges through game design : a transformative exercise with ants

The increasing body of knowledge in fields like animal ethology, biology, and technology has not necessarily led to the improvement of animal welfare. On the contrary, it has enabled humans to exploit animals more functionally and on increasing scales of magnitude. Building on approaches that stem from posthumanism and critical animal studies, we argue that instead of aiming for more general production of scientific knowledge, what is needed to counter exploitation and oppression is an increased sensitivity towards animals that arises from local, partial, and ‘situated knowledges’. In the first part of this paper we articulate an argument that proposes how such knowledges can arise from the practice of game design as a form of ‘doing multispecies philosophy’. The second part of this work expands this notion with an understanding of design as a practice of configuring and prefiguring situations in which we can enter in a relationship of response and attention with other ‘selves’, in other words, with entities that are alive. To explore the practical consequences of this framework, in the third part of this paper we discuss a game design project that involves some unexpected designerly negotiations with a colony of black ants. We conclude that our wider perspective concerning notions of knowledge, (game) design, and selves could elicit changes in our empathy towards other beings and help us develop new ideas and knowledges that favour less anthropocentric futures.peer-reviewe

Edutainment in cartography

Edutainment is a mixture of education and entertainment. In the software industry edutainment was very popular in the 80’s and the first part of the 90’s when the graphic capabilities of PC-s were very limited. The early computer games were based on textual information. From the second part of the 80’s low resolution pictures became a part of a computer game, but that was still quite far from the so called multimedia. As the CPUs and graphic cards became more powerful computer games started to develop rapidly. Nowadays the 3D, the virtual reality, the real time animation and the high quality sound are the essential parts of computer games. The computer games in edutainment are nearly totally disappeared. In the last some years the internet games turned to be more popular: the relatively low bandwidth and the lack of web multimedia standards gave new opportunities for the edutainment in this environment. Cartography can profit form this revival because maps are very popular content of the web

Felino : the philosophical practice of making an interspecies video game

This paper describes the design process of an interspecies video game that has its foundations in the field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), but is inspired by philosophical notions and approaches including Jos De Mul’s work on biohermeneutics (De Mul 2013), Pierce’s theory of semiotics (Pierce 1931-35), and the work of Helmuth Plessner in the field of philosophical anthropology (Plessner 2006). Our approach serves to better design playful artefacts (video games among them) that take the animal's reactions and preferences into account in the research phase, the conceptualization phase, and the iteration phase of the design process. Our tablet game, called Felino, is merely a digital toy that aims at facilitating the emergence of ‘play’ between humans and domestic cats, and allows humans and animals to play together simultaneously. The design and development of Felino is not only informed by advancements in the field of ACI, but is first and foremost a critical artefact that materializes our philosophical approach, making it an object for critical evaluation.peer-reviewe