Video Game Ethics

So before I get into the ethics of gaming, let me just get this out of the way:  there is absolutely no evidence that video games make people killers, terrorists, or any sort of threat to society.  This has been taken to the Supreme Court, which ruled, “The state has not produced substantial evidence that… violent video games cause psychological or neurological harm to minors.” So get that out of your heads, because that is not what I’m here to talk to you about.

How does she keep getting kidnapped by the same dude?

The gaming industry is all about entertainment.  It is a creative medium where people can experience and interact in any world and in any way; this is what makes gaming fun.  We can fly through the sky in a jet or swim in the deepest depths of the ocean without consequence.  Video games let us explore any location, do anything, and be anyone; why couldn’t we explore ethics by allowing players to make decisions?

People find doing bad things fun in video games because the medium allows us to experience immorality in a virtual and inconsequential way. If you kill someone in a video game, no one is going to come to your house and arrest you. The movie industry works in the exact same way.  Classic movies such as The Godfather, Ocean’s Eleven and A Clockwork Orange take us into darker fantasies where it is okay to kill, steal, and cause havoc.  These movies put you into the perspective of criminals because the dark underground is exciting and mysterious to us.  Video games take that exact same concept and let us live in the shoes of criminals such as these–all in the name of entertainment.

With the popularity of sandbox games and moral choice systems, video games have allowed us to experience games however we want.  Are you going to conquer a village or save it?

Quite frankly, I’ve been the hero too many times, saved too many worlds, and rescued far too many princesses, so now that I have the option to be the villain, I’m ready to set the whole virtual world on fire.  Taking a completely different path than you would take in the real world is new and exciting.

Ethical decisions in games further immerse the player into the world of the game.  I won’t stray too far into the successes and downfalls of moral choice systems in games such as Fable and Knights of the Old Republic because implementation is a completely different issue, but the moral dilemmas they pose are exciting.

For the sake of entertainment, it is sometimes fun to feel as though you are deliberately bad while leaving the option of doing good behind.  It builds up the emotional attachment to your in-game character because their personality is shaped to your liking.  The character you build feels like your creation; thus you care more and take more pleasure in your gaming experience.  The insertion of ethics into gaming has added a whole new level of detail and gameplay to our video games, and I am loving it.

Ultimately the philosophical argument for ethics is based on moral choices that inspire and promote happiness, so hell, if video games don’t hurt anyone, and you want to blow up a helicopter with an RPG in your game, then go for it–if that is what makes you happy.