David Surman and Barry Atkins (University of Newport), Ruth Gibson and Bruno Martelli (Igloo), Tanya Krzywinska (Brunel University), and Ian Gouldstone

The gaming environment presents us with a multiplicity of possible other worlds, a constantly changing set of variables defined by the choices the player makes - and each one in some way a heightened version of the world in which we live.   All variables — all possible worlds — within the games have already been imagined, of course, by us. Setting aside content, what do these virtual systems say about us? And do they propose utopia or Armageddon?