HALO and Philosophy

I'm going to miss this, sadly. Luke Cuddy put forward a cfa for a collection of philosophical essays on Halo. Great topic and I'm sure I'll have loads of linkages to make but I've seen this too late and am tired from my last battle with Deleuze and videogames for the Ludotopia paper. Three days are just not enough for me to get an abstract together given the turmoil that's ongoing at my day-job. Other game-philosophers (or anyone else who's interested) please have a think. This looks like it's going to be a book in the must-have's category. See below:

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS!

Title: Halo and Philosophy

Editor: Luke Cuddy

Abstracts are sought for a collection of philosophical essays related to the Halo series of video games, particularly the First Person Shooters (though an essay on Halo Wars will not be turned away). While the focus of the book will be the Halo games, I would like to extend the possible themes covered to other First-Person Shooter games in general such as Wolfenstein, the Doom series, Half-Life, Golden Eye, Time Splitters, etc. Discussions of the Halo universe that reference existing Halo fiction (The Flood, First Strike, etc.) are also welcome.

This volume will be published by Open Court (the publisher of The Simpsons and Philosophy, The Matrix and Philosophy, etc.) as part of their successful Popular Culture and Philosophy series. This is their third foray into a gaming-related book, the first two being The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy andWorld of Warcraft and Philosophy (which I edited and co-edited, respectively). I am seeking abstracts, but anyone who has already written an unpublished paper may submit it in its entirety. Potential contributors may want to examine other volumes in the Open Court series.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone writing within a philosophic (or philosophically-inclined) discipline who might be interested in contributing.

Possible Topics Include (but are not limited to):

• Halo and Religion (Forerunners, the Halo structures as salvation, etc.)
• Science fiction and gaming
• Life as parasitic, different forms of intelligent life
• Considerations of Personhood (Cyborg’s and Personal Identity, etc.)
• Storyline Play vs. Live Play
• Limiting choices to enhance gameplay (e.g. limiting weapons, grenades)
• Teamwork
• Levels of Freedom
• Halo and Art/Creativity (atmosphere, music, etc.)
• Is Cortana conscious?
• First Person Shooters as cathartic
• Politics: Humans vs. the Covenant (“us” vs. “them”)
• The learning of virtual skills and abilities
• Death/Resurrection/Infinite Lives
• The power of game addiction
• Halo and Violence (as it connects to violence and video games generally)
• Other ethical issues
• Cultural Influences and Crossover (upcoming Halo movie, etc.)

Contributor Guidelines:

• Abstract of paper (100–750 words)
• Brief paragraph biography for each author/co-author of the paper
• Submissions must be by e-mail with MS Word attachment

Abstract Submission Deadline: Currently open until May 15th, 2010 (my initial decisions will be made around this date, with abstracts (or papers) received afterwards being considered on an as-needed basis). Email Submissions to: lcuddy12@gmail.com