CfP: World of Warcraft and Philosophy

Title: World of Warcraft and Philosophy

Editors: Luke Cuddy and John Nordlinger

[http://www.neo-philosophy.com/WoW%20CFP.html]

Abstracts are sought for a collection of philosophical essays related to World of Warcraft (WoW). While the focus of the book will be WoW, we would like to extend the possible themes covered to other MMORPG games in general such as Everquest, Ultima Online, Lineage, Runescape, etc.

This volume will be published by Open Court Publishing (the publisher of The Simpsons and Philosophy, The Matrix and Philosophy, and The Undead and Philosophy, etc.) as part of their successful Popular Culture and Philosophy series. Recently, Open Court published The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy, edited by one of the current editors. We are seeking abstracts, but anyone who has already written an unpublished paper on this topic may submit it in its entirety.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):

Questing and Friendship
Guilds and Community
Meeting game play friends in real life
Identity Creation (via avatar)
Gender/Sexist Roles
Why do classes matter?
Regional Contrasts (Chinese vs. US experiences)
Politics: Alliance vs. Horde (“us” vs. “them”)
The learning of virtual skills and abilities
Economic/monetary system
Gold Farming and Other Revenue Pursuits
Ethical issues (e.g., should honor be measured in points?)
Emergent gameplay
Emerging Dialects
Resurrection
The power of game addiction
Levels of Freedom
Is there really a difference between the real world and Azeroth?
Security and privacy
WoW and Creativity: music, fan art, virtual community
Cultural Influences and Crossover (South Park, Watch the Guild)
Contributor Guidelines:

Abstract of paper (100–750 words)
Resume/CV for each author/coauthor of the paper
Submissions must be by e-mail with MS Word attachment
Submission Deadline: Currently open until January 5th, 2009 (our initial decisions will be made around this date, with papers received afterwards being considered on an as-needed basis).

Email Submissions to:
lcuddy12@gmail.com
johnnord@microsoft.com