Talk:Banality of Simulated Evil
Contents
Variants
- Is this section supposed to be further applications of the described model? If so, few of them achieve this.
- Some of the examples given are very poorly defined, as well as out of date.
References
In-line citations would be more useful and elegant than the current style of references
Removing Variants; Adding Suggestions for Ethical Game Design
I was struck by the Variants section, as it seems to have nothing to do with the article. The rationale behind it is "in the examples there is an element of separation between the agent(s) and the receiver of the agent(s)' actions. Often that separation involves utilization of technology." I think there was a misreading of the article, as the banality of evil refers to a system that separates an agent from their feedback (i.e. a Nazi bureaucrat not knowing that his Kafkaesque job contributed to the murder of millions of human beings--an argument I don't buy--or a video game not giving the player any feedback on their moral choices--an argument I don't really buy, but it's what Sicart is going for, except he pushes this beyond the BioWare sort of morality system).
Nonetheless, I think the Variants section lists some good examples of their stated intention, and so maybe someone can copy and paste them from a history version of the page and place them in a more appropriate page, or even create a new one for them.
I also added a section of Sicart's suggestions for ethical game design, as that seems like a good way to end the body info of this page. I'm debating to add a section or a table of the games that Sicart mentions in his article, classifying them as either good examples of ethical design (EVE Online, Manhunt, Shadow of Colossus) and bad examples (Fable and KOTOR).
- Drake
comments
Nice job, I would have liked you to expand a bit more on the 2 levels of abstraction that you mention. Perhaps in your analysis refer directly back to the these 2 abstractions a bit clearer so readers can draw the connection of your analysis!
