The Aesthetics of Games – Special Issue of the Journal of the Philosophy of Games
https://journals.uio.no/JPG/index
Guest editors: Alexandre Declos (Neuchâtel) and Nathan Wildman (Tilburg)
Abstract: Whether games qualify as artworks remains a matter of debate. It is, however, uncontroversial that games can possess aesthetic value and exhibit aesthetic properties. But what is distinctive about the aesthetic appeal of games, and how should we theorize it? Several influential answers have been proposed. Some argue that the distinctive aesthetics of games lies in their interactivity (Tavinor 2009; Lopes 2010) or in the sculpted agencies they afford (Nguyen 2020). Christopher Bartel has recently argued that the aesthetics of videogames depends not only on their formal features, but also on players’ attitudes, distinguishing several aesthetically relevant modes of play (goal-seeking, narrative, or “dollhouse” play). Frank Lantz (2024), by contrast, maintains that games exhibit a sui generis form of beauty grounded in their systemic features. It remains an open question how these approaches can be reconciled, and where they fundamentally diverge.
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