In a few days, we will send notification letters to all of the authors. To make this time more bearable, we would like to share some news with you. We are happy to announce the fourth of our keynote speakers for the PoCP 2017 – Grzegorz J. Nalepa.

Grzegorz J. Nalepa is an engineer with degrees in computer science – artificial intelligence, and philosophy. He has been working in the area of intelligent systems and knowledge engineering for over 15 years.
He formulated the eXtended Tabular Trees rule representation method, as well as the Semantic Knowledge Engineering approach.
He authored a book “Modeling with Rules using Semantic Knowledge Engineering” (Springer 2017).
He co-edited a book “Synergies Between Knowledge Engineering and Software Engineering” (Springer 2017). He has co-authored over 150 research papers in international journals and conferences.
He coordinates GEIST – Group for Engineering of Intelligent Systems and Technologies (http://geist.re) cooperating with AGH University and Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. For almost 10 years he has been co-chairing the Knowledge and Software Engineering Workshop (KESE) at KI, the German AI conference, Spanish CAEPIA, as well ECAI. He is the President of the Polish Artificial Intelligence Society (PSSI), member of EurAI. He is also a member of IEEE, Italian Artificial Intelligence Society (AI*IA), KES, Polish Cognitive Science Society (PTK).
His recent interests include context-aware systems and affective computing.

The review process is still in progress, but we would like to share with you an exciting news! We are happy to announce the third of our keynote speakers for the PoCP 2017 – Philip Brey.

Philip Brey is full professor of philosophy of technology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and scientific director of the 4TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology. He has published extensively in the areas of ethics of technology and responsible research and innovation. He is president of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology, a former president of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, and a member of the editorial board of over ten leading journals in his field. He is coordinator of the SIENNA project, an EU Horizon 2020-funded project on the ethical and human rights aspects of emerging technologies, including robotics and artificial intelligence, human genomics, and human enhancement.  Many of his publications are in the philosophy and ethics of information technology, including publications on virtual reality, computer mediation and computer games.

Yesterday we informed you about the deadline extension for the Philosophy of Computer Games Conference 2017 (September the 4th, 11.59 PM GTM). This time, to further motivate you while you are working on your abstracts, we are happy to announce of the second of our keynote speakers – Sybille Lammes!

Sybille Lammes is professor New Media and Digital Culture at Leiden University.She has been a visiting Senior Research Fellow at The University of Manchester, and has worked as a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick, as well as the media-studies departments of Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam. Her background is in media-studies and game-studies, which she has always approached from an interdisciplinary angle, including cultural studies, science and technology studies, postcolonial studies, and critical geography. She is co-editor of /Playful Identities /(2015), /Mapping Time /(2017 fc.) /The Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Research Methods/ (2018 fc.). and /The Playful Citizen/ (2017 fc.). She is an ERC laureate and has been the PI of numerous research projects. She is a member of the Playful Mapping Collective.

Due to numerous requests, we’ve decided to extend the abstracts submission deadline for the Philosophy of Computer Games Conference 2017 until Monday, September 4th (11:59 PM GMT). We hope that this additional time would help you to finish and polish your submissions. Just as a reminder: the abstracts should have a maximum 1000 words (maximum 700 words for the main text and 300 for the bibliography) and be submitted through review.gamephilosophy.org.

We are very happy to announce the first of our keynote speakers for the Philosophy of Computer Games 2017 – Mark Silcox! Using this opportunity, we would also like to remind you that we are waiting for your abstracts and workshop submissions till the 1^st of September.

Mark Silcox was born and raised just outside of Toronto, Canada. He received his MA in Philosophy from the University of Toronto and his PhD from The Ohio State University. He is currently Professor and Chair of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Central Oklahoma.

He has worked as a freelance writer in the video game industry, and was on the design teams for the Nintendo 64 Game Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage and the MMORPG Earth & Beyond. He is a co-author (with Jon Cogburn) of Philosophy through Video Games (Routledge, 2008), and co-editor (with Jon Cogburn) of Raiding the Temple of Wisdom: Philosophy and Dungeons & Dragons (Open Court, 2012). His most recent publication in philosophy is an edited anthology of papers entitled Experience Machines: The Philosophy of Virtual Worlds (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017). He is also the author of several works of interactive fiction, a couple of storytelling games,  and the SF novel The Face on the Mountain (Incandescent Phoenix, 2015).

You can now upload your abstracts to Philosophy of Computer Games Conference  through review.gamephilosophy.org  If you have any questions or want to submit a workshop proposal, please feel free to contact us.

The abstracts should have a maximum 1000 words (maximum 700 words for the main text and 300 for the bibliography). The deadline for submissions is Midnight GMT, 01.09. 2017. All submitted abstracts will be subject to double blind peer review. Notification of accepted submissions will be sent out by 30.09 2017. Participation requires that a paper draft is submitted by 22.11, 2017 and will be made available on the conference website.

As September the 1^st is approaching with big steps, and with it, the deadline for the Philosophy of Computer Games Conference 2017, we would like to send you a quick reminder. If you want, you can also visit our facebook event page or new website. In the near future you will find there all of the important information about accommodation in Kraków, conference venue and keynotes. You can also follow us on Twitter or – in case of any questions – write to us.

We are waiting for your abstracts and workshop proposals with anticipation!

Call for Papers for PCG2017:  

Action in Computer Games

We hereby invite scholars in any field of studies who take a professional interest in the philosophy of computer games to submit papers to the 11th International Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games, to be held in Kraków, Poland, November 29-December 1, 2017. The notion of action connects central topics in the study of games to philosophical problems such as questions of will, intentionality and the autonomy of an agent. For this conference, we invite papers that explore ethical, experiential, aesthetic and ontological aspects of acting in a computer game. Problem of action in games can be approached from several perspectives and analyzed through different research questions. A few examples of such perspectives/questions are:

Structure of action
What is the ontological status of interactive works?
What is the ecological structure of a computer game?
How are actionable structures signified in a game?

Real, virtual, and fictional actions
Are there real and fictional aspects of a game act, and how we distinguish between them?
What is a virtual action?
How can meaning in games be created via passivity or idleness?

Norms and rules
How do ethical or social norms apply to the game acts?
How and to what extent are player actions prescribed or prohibited by gameplay norms?

How do players act?
What kinds of motivations serve to define typical player actions?
What characterizes the existential situation of a player?
How are play actions experienced?
What significance does the concept of agency have in the player’s experience?

In-game agency
What does it mean to act via an avatar?
What is the character of in-game embodiment?
Is the avatar truly an agent?
To what extent can the game itself be considered an agent?

The papers should present original (i.e. not published or presented elsewhere) research. Accepted papers will have a clear focus on philosophy and philosophical issues in relation to computer games. They will refer to specific examples from computer games rather than merely invoke them in general terms.

In addition to papers that are directed at the main theme we invite a smaller number of papers in an “open” category. We are especially interested in papers that aim to continue discussions from earlier conferences in this series.

The abstracts should have a maximum 1000 words (maximum 700 words for the main text and 300 for the bibliography). The deadline for submissions is Midnight GMT, 01.09. 2017. 
Please submit your abstract through review.gamephilosophy.org. All submitted abstracts will be subject to double blind peer review. Notification of accepted submissions will be sent out by 30.09 2017. Participation requires that a paper draft is submitted by 22.11, 2017 and will be made available on the conference website.

We also issue a call for workshops or panels to be held on November 28. Please submit a short proposal to the program committee chair by 01.09.2017 if you are interested in organizing an event.