In the first chapter, Cogburn and Silcox discuss notions of the self by dissecting assertions that gamers make when participating in multi-player role-playing games, either in person or online.\u00a0 For example, what does the player mean when she says, \u201cI killed a dozen vampires?\u201d\u00a0 Of course, this person did not literally kill a dozen vampires.\u00a0 However, Cogburn and Silcox take this statement, and others like it, and enter into an absolutely fascinating discussion of the nature of the self, employing the work of philosophers like Descartes, Hume, Andy Clark and David Chalmers.\u00a0 They ultimately conclude that our avatars, be they a character in World of Warcraft<\/em> or our pages on Facebook, are extensions of our real selves.\u00a0 They argue that it is best to think of our selves as jigsaw puzzles with these extensions represent pieces of that puzzle.\u00a0 They write, \u201c[\u2026Through] video games and online communities, we are now developing ways to spatio-temporally extend ourselves that until recently would have seemed implausible in a science fiction novel\u201d (16).<\/p>\n In Chapter 2, the authors take the surprising popularity and success of the Nintendo Wii, which outperformed its Microsoft and Sony competitors, to discuss our relationship with our surroundings.\u00a0 That the Wii, with its less sophisticated graphics, outperformed the XBox 360 and Playstation 3\u2019s, whose graphics are far more photorealistic, leads Cogburn and Wilcox into a discussion of how we as human beings perceive and interact with our surrounding environment.\u00a0 In fact, they question if what we perceive, or even our perceptions, are actually real.\u00a0 Here, they re-hash the philosophical debate between phenomenalism<\/em> and enactivism<\/em> and argue that the latter provides a \u201ccompelling explanation of what Wii game-play is more realistic\u201d (21).<\/p>\n Chapter 3 revives the endless debate concerning violence in video games with the authors asking whether or not violent games make violent gamers.\u00a0 Here, they engage the competing arguments that video games to indeed result in violent gamers versus the notion that they serve a cathartic function, exercising violent tendencies that players might ordinarily enact \u201cin the real world.\u201d\u00a0 While Cogburn and Silcox do see value in the psychological studies of the effects of video game violence on gamers, they are highly skeptical of the ways in which these studies are concocted.\u00a0 Far more interesting than the specific acts of violence within games, Cogburn and Silcox point to the larger, perhaps more dangerous themes that violent video games often engage, particularly notions of xenophobia, xenophilia, and what they refer to as \u201cnormalizing the outrageous\u201d (68-69).<\/p>\n The authors\u2019 discussion of world-builder and tycoon games like Civilization, Age of Empires, SimCity<\/em>, etc. in Chapter 4 is perhaps one of the more interesting, and certainly the most theologically compelling, chapters in the book.\u00a0 Here, they argue that such games allow players to reflect on both ethical systems, the nature of God, and theodicy, to name a few.\u00a0 They use an analysis of these games to \u201c(1) discern the connection (if any) between God and morality, (2) to derive meaningful criteria to differentiate right from wrong, and (3) to describe how video games, properly informed by the answers to (1) and (2), might be designed\u201d (73).\u00a0 These games, by giving players god-like control over nature and civilizations allow them to reflect on notions of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence.\u00a0 Cogburn and Silcox argue that this is a two-way street:\u00a0 these games can help us think theologically, while thinking theologically might help creators better design future iterations of these games.<\/p>\n Chapters 5 & 6 are perhaps the most dense of the lot.\u00a0 Here Cogburn and Silcox discuss the metaphysics of interactive art and artificial intelligence.\u00a0 They discusses the low level of artificial intelligence in video games and suggest that a more sophisticated artificial intelligence is certainly beyond technological capabilities now and perhaps for the near future.\u00a0 In these chapters Cogburn and Silcox evidence a deep knowledge of the inner workings of game engines and the limitations that a coded narrative places on the gamer and the occasional ability of gamers to \u201csolve\u201d games in ways for which their designers did not account.<\/p>\n Cogburn and Silcox conclude their book by reflecting on the ways in which video games might help us think about the ever-present philosophical question, \u201cWhat is the meaning of life?\u201d\u00a0 Here, they are particularly interested in the recurrent themes in RPGs, themes that also re-occur in fantasy literature and mythology.\u00a0 They note striking similarities between our attraction to role-playing games and the everyday role-playing that takes place in our home, professional, and religious lives.\u00a0 They argue, \u201cThe fantasies that we indulge in about ourselves when we pretend to be characters in a fictional world teach us about our place within the \u2018real\u2019 world, and this is precisely the sort of self-knowledge (one must surely assume) that will aid in the pursuit of true autonomy within our lives\u201d (143).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/357\/2010\/10\/Oblivion2007-07-0419-40-40-65.jpg\")
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