Philosophy & Gaming? The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy Book Editor Talks Inspiration

by Chad Lakkis on August 13, 2008 at 4:39 pm

I reported on a book titled “The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy” just a few hours ago. After doing so, I decided to reach out to the book’s Editor, Luke Cuddy, a member of the Southwestern College Philosophy Department, to briefly to ask him about his inspiration to do a philosophy book on gaming.

Luke went on to say:

I’ve been a gamer my whole life, whether I was playing Wiffleball, Hero’s Quest, or Zelda. Since I’ve always been a deep thinker, games are fascinating to me on more than one level. Games are separate worlds with separate algorithms; they are systems with which we interact via the avatar. Moreover, as any gamer knows, a well-made game can be a brilliant human creation. Anyone who writes videogames off as frivolous activities hasn’t really considered their components in detail. (Side note: A great book that describes the complexity of games and our interactions with them is Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson.) If we philosophize about films and books without a second thought, why not videogames? There’s a reason why we play so many games in this day and age, and it goes beyond sales.

He then added that while he did contribute an essay and introduction to the book, that the “majority of the credit goes to the other authors”. Intelligent, humble, and passionate about gaming — this guy gets my vote for President.

I will be conducting a full interview with Luke next week. Check back with us on Friday, and in the meantime feel free to visit Luke’s blog at www.neo-philosophy.com.

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