I

If we compare gaming with the arts, as stated by many philosophers and artists, we would find similarities and differences: when it comes to art the author is fully responsible for his/her work, while a game (and videogame) envisages a sort of co-responsibility of both the author and the player, and yet they both imply a suspension of everyday reality rules in order to project the art user and the player in a different universe of rules. Do you think videogames can expect, at present or in the future, to achieve such a “noble” status as the arts? Justify your answer (negative or positive) specifying whether this process would imply specific transformations of the “product” videogame or if this process would be facilitated by targeted studies and initiatives like ours.

II

Some forms of art, once considered exclusively popular and commercial, have taken the big step from the simple artisanal domain to the world of high culture when a generation of intellectuals engaged in performing them: for example, French movie directors of “Nouvelle vague” have created auteur’s cinema. Do you think a similar process can happen involving videogames?

III

Some video games nowadays are more and more at the centre of attention of scientific psychology, also concerning pathologies connected with gaming addiction affecting the youngest players. Do you think we can detect a relationship between videogames and existential anxiety?

IV

The TV series has shown a world/game where killing doesn’t imply any specific responsibilities (because those killed are not humans but androids). Do you think is there any linkages between videogames and “experiments” with death like this one? Do you consider a good thing or a bad thing this link created between videogame and death?

V

According to you point of view or your direct experience, videogames can support traditional didactic tools used in schools? Would it be possible for schools to use mechanisms or introduce dynamics typical of gaming (gamification), such as scores or levels or rewards or badges in order to engage students in a different way? Please justify your answer either positive or negative.

VI

The number and types of educational agencies, meaning those contexts where individuals are educated, are nowadays increasing and changing. School, family and other traditional agencies are currently placed side by side with social communities, cultural production of big entertainment multinationals and the more traditional cinema and TV. In your opinion, what’s the role of videogames in the education of children and school-age youngsters?

VII

After the fall of the Berlin wall politics and geopolitics have undergone an exceptional transformation in terms of pace and manners of governing, of international relationships and conflicts. In the famous movie “wargames”, released before the fall of the wall, a sophisticated artificial intelligence stopped a moment before starting the end of the world with an atomic conflict because it “understood” hat such a war could not have any winner. Many videogames simulate wars, battles, conquers in historic or fantasy settings, many others are simple entertainment. Simulations where, for example, Nazi Germany can win the Second World War could be seen as propaganda (or, on the contrary, study) of that political model. The widespreading of a mass entertainment could be considered a way to control people’s discontent, like the most popular sports are. In your opinion, videogames can have a significance (positive or negative) also in the political education of citizens? In what ways?