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Only a Game

"Hah," She thought, "Here shall be a new game."

Redirecting to Mythology of Evolution

Coming Soon!

Revised and Expanded!
A brand new edition of the original Game Writing how-to guide, out in paperback, hardback, and ebook on 28th January 2021
Evan Skolnick
"Comprehensive coverage of writing for games. Other books have been published since the first edition came out, but none have surpassed it."

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Read my 'Wikipedia in Exile' Entry
Michael Moorcock
"a genuine philosophy for the 21st century"
Mary Midgley
"this matters - read it!"
Kendall Walton
"wonderfully refreshing and inventive"

Recent Comments

Chris on What is Pseudoscience?
Chris on Citizens
Nathan Frost on Citizens
Chris on Player Motives, Player Practices
Paul Gestwicki on Player Motives, Player Practices
Chris on Citizens
Chris on Concerning Your Opinion
Chris on Game Dissonance (2): The Aesthetic Flaws of Videogames
Nathan Frost on Citizens
Chris Billows on Game Dissonance (2): The Aesthetic Flaws of Videogames

Recent Posts

What is Pseudoscience?
Slowly Awakening
Player Motives, Player Practices
Limited Service
Write To Me
Game Dissonance (3): Elegant Narrative Design
Game Dissonance (2): The Aesthetic Flaws of Videogames
Game Dissonance (1): What is Game Dissonance?
Please Wait...Shuffling the Deck
Return to the Green Room

Out Now!

Jane McGonigal
"immerse yourself in the strange new dilemmas of the future with this wonderful, mind-bending book"
Michaël Samyn, Tale of Tales
"Cyberspace is as good a place as any to start finding our way back to who we really are, and to who we can be"
Babette Babich
"a fresh and vigorous philosophical voice"
Justin Robertson
"casts a critical but optimistic eye on the important choices we must make"

How do you 'know'?

Zero Books Trilogy

Foreword

A Brief Introduction to My Philosophy
Player's Handbook
Trouble Commenting?

Republic of Bloggers

What is the Republic of Bloggers?
Prelude: Virtuous Discourse
Taxation as Injustice
Games, Guns, and Gender
The Rules of Game Worlds
The Value of Art
The Dragon of Chaos
Expertise as Involvement
The Echoes of Genre
Latour contra Badiou
The Merit of Letters
Horror and Punishment (Silent Hill 2)
The Politeness of Tutorials (Japanese vs. Western Game Design)
Knowing That We Know
The Game of Art
Wisdom in Practice
Beyond Space

My Blogs

Only a Game (Philosophy)
ihobo (Games and Game Design)
Shadowtail (Squirrels!)

Game Design

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Moorcock's Metaphysics
Religion in Science Fiction
Orthodox Science Fiction
Moorcock on Fiction (Interview)
Cyberpunk is Dead
Faithful Adaptation and The Hobbit
Fifty Differences Between The Desolation of Smaug and Tolkien's Work
Exterminate! The Dalek and the Drone Assassin
Corporate Megatexts
A Study in Psylocke

Philosophy: Fictionalism

Mimesis as Make-Believe (Serial)
Game Design as Make-Believe (Serial)
Walton on Make-Believe (Interview)
Pluto and Eris - a dialogue
The Authorized Stories
Yablo on Fictionalism (Interview)

Philosophy: Epistemology

Why the Wikipedia Knows Nothing
Knowledge as a Practice
Knowing That We Know
The Subjective Knowledge of Squirrels

Philosophy of Mind

Voiding The Hard Problem of Consciousness
Is Free Will Too Cheap?

Philosophy: Ethics

Preface
Relative Ethics
The Golden Rule
Duty, Virtue and Consequences
Tit for Tat (Selfishness)
Kant's Yardstick
Ethics of Metaphysics
Future Ethics (Consequentialism)
Freedom of Belief
Abortion vs Suicide
Joanna Zylinska on Bioethics (Interview)
Enemy: A Morality Tale (Pentenary Special)
Midgley on Philosophy (Interview)
A Categorical Imperative for the Other
Alain Badiou's Truth
The Ultimate Moral Computer?
Getting Wasted (A Moral Question)
Allen Wood on Ethics (Interview)

Philosophy: Metaphysics

Introduction
Popper's Milestone
Marxism
A Deck of Realities
Fate
Ethics of Metaphysics
Rumours of God's Death
Absurd Doubts
Immortality
Kant's Critique of Judgement
Midgley on Philosophy (Interview)
Immortality Stories

Political Philosophy

Hannah Arendt's "The Human Condition"
The Mandate of Heaven (Political Legitimacy)
The Prime Directive
Civil Disobedience
Ethics of War
Global Population
Freedom of Belief
The Activist's Argument (Everything is Political)
Creedism
No-one is Independent
The Seduction of Facts

Philosophy of Language

Language Games
This is Not a Tomato
The Power of Words (Hypnosis)
The Stories We Tell

Philosophy of Science

Farewell to Reason
Skeptics
Popper's Milestone
Cognitive Dissonance
The Boundary of Science
Teleological Games
Trust in Science
Genes and Behaviour
The Mythology of Science
Ethics of Science
Science vs Creationism
Myths of Evolution
Midgley on Philosophy (Interview)
Reiss Against Adaptation (Interview)

Idealistic Themes

Bucky's Big Idea (a Global Energy Network)
Mutual Respect & Communal Autonomy (Kant's Ethics)
Freedom of Belief

Temperament

Preamble: The Human Operating System
Introduction to Temperament Theory
Justifications and Criticisms
Statistical Disclaimer
1. Rational
2. Guardian
3. Artisan
4. Idealist

Religion/Non-religion

Einstein & God
Sufi
The Religious Cold War
Pascal's Wager & the Agnostic's Lemma
Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling"
The Meaning of Life
God's Dice
Hemp: The Illegal Sacrament
Christianity & Contraception
Don't Talk About Creationism, Or Else
Charles Taylor's "A Secular Age"
Islamophobia!
Religion in Science Fiction
Creedism
Science and the Sacred
Immortality Stories
Haught on Theology (Interview)
Ontology as Non-Theology

Rambling Nonsense

The Science Pope?
Don't Believe in Cthulhu
Reality, Optional
Considering Politics
Thought for Food

Other Curiosities

Categories

Dialogues/Interviews

Game Philosophy

Political Philosophy

Religion/Non-religion

Republic of Bloggers

Science Fiction/Fantasy

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