Difference between revisions of "Ethical game design"
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==Ethical Gameplay== | ==Ethical Gameplay== | ||
| − | On a broader level, gameplay is defined as involving a player performing strategic actions that are allowed within a rigid boundary of rules for the purpose of achieving specific goals or purposes. <ref>1. Sicart, Miguel., 2013. "Moral Dilemmas in Computer Games", The MIT Press, pg. 29-30 </ref> However, unlike conventional gameplay which there is one or a limited amount of correct courses of actions that players are encouraged to take, ethical gameplay create unique scenarios that prompt the player to reflect on the ethical implications of his actions rather than focused purely on the objective the the player tries to reach. Such scenarios are characterized by players receiving imperfect information and a network of outcomes that make the consequences of decisions difficult to predict, therefore making the final decision dependent on players’ own ethical values. | + | On a broader level, gameplay is defined as involving a player performing strategic actions that are allowed within a rigid boundary of rules for the purpose of achieving specific goals or purposes. <ref>1. Sicart, Miguel., 2013. "Moral Dilemmas in Computer Games", The MIT Press, pg. 29-30 </ref> However, unlike conventional gameplay which there is one or a limited amount of correct courses of actions that players are encouraged to take, ethical gameplay create unique scenarios that prompt the player to reflect on the ethical implications of his actions rather than focused purely on the objective the the player tries to reach. Such scenarios are characterized by players receiving imperfect information and a network of outcomes that make the consequences of decisions difficult to predict, therefore making the final decision dependent on players’ own ethical values. <ref>2. Sicart, Miguel., 2013. "Moral Dilemmas in Computer Games", The MIT Press, pg. 32-33 </ref> |
It is important to distinguish the difference between ethical gameplay and games with an ethics or moral meter built in as part of the playable character’s status. The latter are mechanisms popularized by video game series such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable_(video_game_series) Fable] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic], where the player’s character has an ethic meter that affects the narrative progression and the characters’ appearances and skills during the duration of gameplay. | It is important to distinguish the difference between ethical gameplay and games with an ethics or moral meter built in as part of the playable character’s status. The latter are mechanisms popularized by video game series such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable_(video_game_series) Fable] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic], where the player’s character has an ethic meter that affects the narrative progression and the characters’ appearances and skills during the duration of gameplay. | ||
Revision as of 16:26, 15 March 2019
Ethical Game Design is the study of designing game elements that allow players to reflect the ethical implication of their actions as they interact with the game. The rise of this field of study is influenced by video games’ growing popularity that extends through multiple demographic boundaries, and their potential educational values to the players. The academic discussions surrounding the term is evident in various writings by Miguel Sicart who currently serves as the the Associate Professor at the Center for Computer Game Research at IT University Copenhagen. These accounts provide a deeper look into the definition of ethical gameplay, the effects of ethical game design, and challenges for ethical game design moving forward.
Contents
Ethical Gameplay
On a broader level, gameplay is defined as involving a player performing strategic actions that are allowed within a rigid boundary of rules for the purpose of achieving specific goals or purposes. [1] However, unlike conventional gameplay which there is one or a limited amount of correct courses of actions that players are encouraged to take, ethical gameplay create unique scenarios that prompt the player to reflect on the ethical implications of his actions rather than focused purely on the objective the the player tries to reach. Such scenarios are characterized by players receiving imperfect information and a network of outcomes that make the consequences of decisions difficult to predict, therefore making the final decision dependent on players’ own ethical values. [2]
It is important to distinguish the difference between ethical gameplay and games with an ethics or moral meter built in as part of the playable character’s status. The latter are mechanisms popularized by video game series such as Fable and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, where the player’s character has an ethic meter that affects the narrative progression and the characters’ appearances and skills during the duration of gameplay.
Such mechanisms are not considered as ethical gameplay because the game predefines ethical and unethical options for the players instead of leaving the morality of the scenario as a question for them to consider.
In essence, ethical gameplay makes players responsible for their choices. To achieve this, players first need to have total autonomy in their decision making process. There are no explicit punishments or rewards associated with the decision that can act as mental constraints and there are no prompts from the game system itself that can be seen as directions for players to follow. In addition, players need to be then exposed to the consequences of their actions through changes in the game’s virtual world.
Effects of Ethical Game Design
Video games’ interactive nature affects players’ development as moral agents. Shannon Vallor presented the argument that virtues are not ‘natural’ or ‘inborn’, nor are they learned simply by cognitively internalizing certain norms, but are formed from repeated engagement in activities that lead to settled habits of excellence. Video games provide the environment for those activities to occur. However, depending on the nature of aforementioned activities, players may end up developing vices instead.
Banality of evil is a concept that explains how humans can commit unspeakable acts of cruelty without remorse because there is a system in place that prevents human agents from perceiving the actual consequences of their actions. Such system currently resides in most modern video games where players are distracted by the rewards and progression gained after killing an opponent that they give no second thoughts on the action of “killing” that they have committed. Through repetition of such activities, players become desensitized to violence, theft, and other unethical behaviors. Even though players commit no real crime by committing those actions in virtual environment, such mechanisms jeopardize players’ ability to evaluate the ethics of those actions.
In contrast, ethical game design takes down the veil of ignorance as players are made aware of the consequences to their actions. It stops players from viewing video games merely as environments for them to satisfy their guilty pleasures, but seeing scenarios in video games as simulations of the real world, hence inducing players to apply the same ethical values they would apply to real life scenarios to their in game decision making process. And through such repeated exercises, ethical game design allows players to start forming and refining their ethical values.
Challenges for Ethical Game Design
Despite its potential benefits, ethical game design is not a common element in today’s video game market.
First, ethical game design can only be implemented within a game world that can reflect moral choices. Designing such complicated game worlds require significant resource investment which limits such projects to well-established game studios. However, even among such studios, there may be resistance to implementing ethical game design due to the philosophy of player advocacy that focuses on satisfying player desires, which conflicts with ethical game design where players will most likely not be fully satisfied with the end result, same with the outcomes of ethical dilemmas in the real world. Therefore, implementing ethical game design at the risk of losing player base is usually too big of a tradeoff for those video game studios and their mother companies.
Another challenge that prevents ethical game design to be experienced at its full effect is the reversibility of player decisions made feasible by games’ saving mechanism. Most modern video games give players the option to save their progress at any point in the game. Therefore, the realism of the ethical dilemma and the impact of player choices are reduced when players can game the system by saving the game before an ethical game design scenario, which would allow them to revert their choices if they found the consequences upsetting.
