Ethical Issues

Ethics within the games industry

There are a lot of ethical issues within the games industry, both with the games and within them. Games are a twisted version of real life, in them there is every imaginable scenario, but just because we can create such scenarios do not mean that they are ethically right and accepted.

A game itself is a story and within that story we are often given choices. In RPG games like mass effect, fable and bioshock we are given ethically choices that will change the character and the story.  We chose our version of what we think is right and wrong. We can play as a hero or an anti hero, an anti hero being someone who is a hero but does so in a mean, hard core kind of way. For example within mass effect we continually have decision on where to go, what to say and what to do. We decide how to respond to things, we can be good and caring or we can be mean and to the point. Our choices affect the game massively; our characters appearance changes, looking more evil or good depending on how you play, and the story can change. Each mass effect game ends with a choice. In the first one you can choose to save the council or let them die; this is an ethically choice and will affect the story and what is to come. Games like this where we can choice our own moral compass are very popular, and adding this simple human nature, of choosing what we want, increases the popularity of the game and as such how much money it produces.

Many games have a pre set story, in these we aren’t given a choices, you will be forced to play that path whether you agree with it or not. This is where games start to get controversial. Adding content to a game that is considered ethically wrong or questionable can easily ruin the games reputations. Games such as grand theft auto, where there is a high level of violence and your aim is to do bad things, have received bad reputations as parents believe they set a bad example to children and encourage and lead to violence. Games like this seem to accept and encourage things that are considered ethically wrong. For example in COD modern warfare 2 the mission “no Russia” allows people to play from the position of a terrorist, shooting down innocent civilians. You are not discouraged away from this, the game does not tell you that this is morally wrong and that it is bad that such things have happened. The game seems to approach this controversial scenario light heartedly. Making it seem like just another part of life, this set a bad example for children and so many parents will have stopped their children from playing it, which affects the amount of purchases of the game. There is an option to skip the missions but this will not change the fact that parents will disagree with the game and so sales of the game will reduce. Controversial games like this do get banned. The first game banned for controversial violence being death race in 2000, this game was banned as the aim was to run people over, a very ethically wrong thing. Even though the game was extremely simple and you could barely tell what a human was and what was a car, the game was banned as it was thought to be setting a bad example. Many violent games have been banned, games like man hunt, mortal kombat and doom or the reason regulator bodies like ESRB were set up. To monitor and give appropriate age ranges for every game.

Games may also be offensive to races or religions and so games developers must ensure there games will not cause offence, and that there point is clearly presented. We live in a society where everyone is considered equal and so games developers must ensure that they do not segregate a certain race or present them in a stereotype form. Resident evil five is a good example of what can happen. There is resident evil 5 trailer of Chris Redfield the American hero shooting African zombies. However to those who do not know the series this trailer can seem to be just about Redfield killing Africans. In this trailer it is hard to distinguish between an ordinary African and an African zombie and so the trailer presents the game as something very different to what it is. It shows it as just an American kill Africans, which is morally very wrong, it is ethically wrong to kill anyone and especially wrong to kill someone just for there race/religion. So games producers have to make sure they present there game correctly and stay away from ethically questionable scenarios. As it will put people off the game and gain it a bad reputation. 

The games industry itself can be ethically questionable. To many companies money is the most important out come of making a game, and so many companies squeeze as much money out of us as possible. This can be very simple things like giving pre order DLC. An added item or mission within the game will pressurise people into pre ordering the game, and in doing so the game maker ensures they sell a set amount on the day of release. This is questionable as to some it seems wrong that those with money to buy games fast are rewarded and those who must save, receive nothing, or may be forced to pay for the items. This seems even more questionable when the DLC is already on the desk, but you required too pay to unlock it.

Bibliography

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/03/06/games_ethics_issue/1 (accessed 4/10/2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6QjLi2bCZU(accessed 4/10/2012)

http://www.entertainmentbuddha.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-play-the-bad-guy-in-morality-based-games/ (accessed 4/10/2012)

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/2009/03/custom_1236785415398_zombies.jpg(accessed 4/10/2012)