Episode 2: A conversation about how and why game players feel empathy for NPCs

A conversation with Dr Paul Scriven, RMIT University about the relevance of Alfred Schütz’s phenomenological framework for exploring how players can have empathic social experiences with NPCs.

Dr Scriven focuses on the ways in which technology reconfigures how we relate to each other, and to the world we live in. Informed by the phenomenological tradition, in particular the philosopher Alfred Schütz, his topics of interest and expertise include mediated interaction in virtual video game worlds, the phenomenology of empathy with non-human interactive agents, and the emerging social implications of artificial intelligence. 

His favourite game is Cyberpunk 2077.