Blogging through my Dissertation

Playing a “Good” Game: A Philosophical Approach to Understanding the Morality of Games October 23, 2007

This article by Ren Reynolds on the IGDA (International Game Developers Association), uses Grand Theft Auto 3 as an example to demonstrate how a game can be described as good or bad. He aims from the outset to stray away from the notion gamic/graphical quality, that guides whether a game is good or not. He focuses on whether the game is ethically good or bad. This is a result of the political or pressure groups ‘charging’ a game with being corrupting, immoral, and evil.

The first parts of the article are concerned with two polar points of view, one is a consequential and the other deontological. These are theories from normative ethics, thus aim to be rational and self consistent. However once one route is chosen points within the debate can only be derived from within that theoretical sphere.

The author looked at Grand Theft Auto 3 from the consquentialist postion, and he suggests that pleasure the game provides, far outweighs its potential harm. When looking at it from a deontological position he explains that the game, could not be considered as Immoral. However this idea according to Reynolds is open to a wider societal debate about games and the freedom of speech, which could place the game and others like it in a less clear cut postion. The final area of ethics that is exemplified is related to virtue ethics, in which you decided to do something based upon the vitues/morals it encompases. From this aspect Reynolds would play GTA, but suggests that if Socrates was still around he would not play such a game. As under his paradigm of vitue he would argue that the game is immoral.

I believe that the final area of vitue ethics for me, is a good way to look at a game from a philisophical point of view. This is due to the fact that I am making a conscious decission, based on my moral understanding and reasoning, and therefore I am being active as a member of the gaming audience.

Here is the link to the original article: http://www.igda.org/articles/rreynolds_ethics.php