Video Games and the Pornography of Death

Join us for a talk by professor Amanda Phillips on violence and the representation of death in video games such as Mortal Kombat and Sniper Elite, among others.

The event time includes the lecture, a Q and A session with the audience, and a live play and game demostration.

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

3:30-5 pm

at the Game Center

Don Myers Technology and Innovation Building, Room 113

American University, Washington DC

Amanda Phillips (they/he/she) is Associate Professor of English, Film and Media Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and American Studies at Georgetown University. Amanda is the author of Gamer Trouble: Feminist Confrontations in Digital Culture, as well as co-editor of the Queer/Trans/Digital book series with NYU Press; the Antares: Letras e Humanidades special issue on “Critical Game Studies/Estudos Críticos em Videogame”; and the Game Studies special issue on “Queerness and Video Games.”

More information

This talk explores the so-called "pornography of death" in video games. Once infamously called "M**der simulators" by anti-obscenity activist Jack Thompson, the simulation and animation technologies of video games are indeed often used to depict elaborate, explicit, and exploitative fantasies about dying and killing. From exploding heads and blood fountains to flailing bodies and x-ray vision, the mechanics of death in video games are polymorphously perverse, and understanding the ways that digital technologies stimulate our curiosity of how bodies respond to violence or how individuals behave under threat is crucial in this moment of genocide, rising fascism, racial injustice, and trans- and queerphobia.

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Presented by the Humanities Lab and the Game Center at American University.

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