Stefano Gualeni's latest self-reflexive game is a philosophical investigation into the theory and practice of soup making. The premise is fascinating:
"The year is 2078. It has been a decade since Homo Sapiens-Sapiens perfected teleportation technology. Rather than using teleporters to overcome scarcity or to oppose various forms of oppression, this new technology is used to further promote economic exploitation. We hire aliens to manufacture goods on their planets, and then beam the products of their cheap labour back to Terra. However, due to categorical differences in language and cognition, the aliens often misunderstand what humans ask them to produce..." (Stefano Gualeni)
What did Gualeni discover? The results are available on the game's website.
Stefano Gualeni's work, both as an academic and as a designer, is focused on the use of virtual worlds to materialize thought experiments and to playfully negotiate philosophical ideas. His arguments are summarized in the 2015 book Virtual Worlds as Philosophical Tools (Palgrave MacMillan). He teaches at the Institute of Digital Games at University of Malta
LINK: Stefano Gualeni's Soup
