Blogging through my Dissertation

Morality Play – Creating Ethics in Video Games November 12, 2007

The author of the article describes himself as a New Media Developer, he explains the pitfalls of the moral structure within specific games. Within the article he suggests that a number of games have fallen short in a number of measures in terms of their moral development. He explains the areas in which the development of such moral structures in games are lacking.

The first area is described as ‘Consistency’, in that players are rewarded for one deed and then aren’t rewarded for the opposite. Grand Theft Auto Vice City is an example where players are rewarded for “wrongs” like stealing cars, shooting gangs etc. but are not rewarded of “rights” like sticking to the speed limit on the roads, or driving the ambulance that features in the game.

The second problem is ‘Cause and Effect’, when a player commits a certain action or crime they should suffer for it. When playing GTA Vice City you can steal a car and not receive any punishment for it.

The next issue is relates to something know as ‘NPC Actions’, this stands for non-player character. I that if you draw a gun the people around the character who are not involved in the game play should react. This reaction however, does feature in GTA 3, as when you open fire in the street the NPC’s run away screaming and shouting. This only features in a few games though, so it can still be classified as a problem.

Another problem relates to the ‘Memory’ of the NPC’s who your character interacts with. He suggests that if you have mistreated a character at some point in the game, then when you see the same character later in the game then that character should fear and not trust you. This is has only just started to permeate into video games, with the release of Bio-Shock a few months ago.

The fifth problem relates to the lack of ethical ‘Alternatives’. The author explains that some games may require you to do things without having an alternative option. He uses the example of Deus Ex: Invisible War, where the only way to succeed in the game is through lying and deceit.

Finally is the issue of moral ‘Conflict’, in that it should be introduced into games. The player should have two specific routes that they can choose to follow through the game. Each choice should have different consequences.

This set of guidelines in some respect are rather presriptive, however some of the suggestions are good, and I think that some have already been integrated into more recent games. I do also believe that there are other qualities in games that are not related to ethics like teamwork.

Here is the link to the original article: http://www.adamjthompson.com/thought/CreatingEthics.pdf