http://www.erinhoffman.com/wp/?p=484


A good post about the importance of an ethics code in game designer as well as the importance of game designers to realize the abilities of their games.

• "The architecture of a labyrinth determines not only the conditions for success, but also the nature of the choices that need to be taken in order to succeed. A labyrinth can be a moral object. Its design can have imprinted moral values that are experienced by the user of the labyrinth. The user of a (moral) labyrinth experiences not only the physical topology of the maze, but also its moral architecture. In other words, a labyrinth’s architecture, its very physicality can be embedded with moral values." -Miguel Sicart 

This quote from Miguel Sicart, really helps to simplify the idea of games being a persuasive medium through the use of a labyrinth example.

http://miguelsicart.net/papers/DIGRA_05_Ethics.pdf

Game design ethics

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2009/03/64756063/1#.T6AF_xxvD9s


An interesting article about one of the panel discussions on the last day of the game developers conference. It highlights the ideas of some of the industries biggest designers, including Will Wright and Peter Molyneux. 

Fable

• The ethics of game design has entered a new era in which the developers offer the players ethical choices of their own. In games such as Fable, where you can become a hero or a villain one choice at time, Molyneux puts the ethical choices in the hands of the player. You can slaughter an entire village, but the consequences come back to haunt you. Word will spread about your reputation and no one will trust you anymore. People will recoil in fear. Or, if you choose to be good, your good deeds can reap rewards from total strangers.

• He had to restrict the kind of activities the players could engage in because he knew that even with the M rating, the game would be played widely. Hence, he took children out of the game so that villains couldn't slaughter kids at school.

Fable is a good example of a contrast of ethics. Molyneux wanted to create a game to examine peoples ethics and the decisions they'd make in certain situations, but he obviously had to limit those options to fit the audience and consumer.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130594/ethics_of_game_design.php?print=1

John Whitmore

"Some games are supposed to be fun," says John Whitmore, director of design at 2015 Studios in Tulsa, Okla., and co-creator of the Vietnam war game Men of Valor. "Some are trying to be more artistic. If you have the pretension of trying to be more artistic, you have to think about the ethical decisions that you make. It's hard to call a game like Grand Theft Auto high art. Some fantastic movies are racy. But porn doesn't quite make it to the Academy Awards."

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130594/ethics_of_game_design.php?print=1

Peter Molyneux

• "We as an industry do have a moral responsibility," says Peter Molyneux, ex-CEO of Lionhead Studios "Anyone who does something for a mass market has a responsibility. You tread carefully on the lessons that you teach. That line that 'if a game is fun, it is okay'-that sounds trivial. If it is obvious this is an artificial world and you can't do these things in real life, then that is more acceptable. But if it parades itself as a real world, you have to be careful about that."

Peter Molyneux makes an interesting argument and one that has been fought before in movie classification. That more realistic games, set realistic scenarios have to be stricter with their morals as they obviously hold a more persuasive power due to it being so close to reality. Molyneux also say that on the other hand more fantasy style games have a more room to 'play' as their persuasive power is more diminished due to distance from reality.


I think Peter Molyneux is right it what he is saying, that game designers who design super realistic games do have to think about the statements they make about society and the morals they choose to portray in their games. The imagery in the game is so close to that of reality it could easily desensitize you to the barrier between reality and fiction. On a more personal level I feel that this quote from Peter Molyneux has opened my eyes more on how the industry works and how this could affect my future in the industry.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130594/ethics_of_game_design.php?print=1

I really liked Dean's article on the Ethics of Game Design so wanted to get his view on 'can digital games change the world' to get a different opinion for my research.